After recovering from putting out a spooky October issue, Fearless Rick took a few days weeks off before diving into the last of three test issues, this one, December, 2023.

Initial tasks included finding the liquor cabinet, which was easy.

Everything after that was going to be more difficult, or so it was assumed. The idlegals in charge of providing answers in the Advice section were contacted and assigned three questions. Vicky seemed to be more reluctant than usual, but acquiesced just before the deadline with her usual unfiltered answers. M___ was busy having another portion of her house rebuilt and Rick knew better than to ask her more than once. It was enough that she was actually going to prepare Thanksgiving dinner, even with Rick's assistance in the kitchen (he fancies himself some kind of Galloping Gourmet, an updated version of Graham Kerr, OMG, he's still alive! He would be 89...).

Back to the preparation of this issue: Desperate to add new features that would mimic Playboy magazine from back in its heyday, Rick got started on books, music, and films. Playboy used to have snappy reviews of current releases, but, since our publisher is loathe to crowds, woke movies, and high ticket prices, he did the next best thing, which was scouring the internet for interesting bits and pieces. Besides, there are better books, movies, and recordings from the past than most of what's being released today. There's a wealth of human knowledge that the woke brigades are trying desperately to keep out of view. IdleGuys everywhere are resisting their Orwellian censorship for history.

Already well served in the books department with the second 10 books from the 50 classic novels under 200 pages, music was next up, with millions of songs, LPs, CDs, and live performances on youtube and elsewhere.

The choice of John Coltrane's Giant Steps was an easy one for the jazz selection. Johnny Cash filled out the Country department, and how about the Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers for the rockers. Fine. A few Christmas selections were added including the phenomenal Darlene Love's final performance of "Christmas" on the David Letterman show. All of these musical selections wound up on Page 7. Based.

Films were chosen from the free feature length films offered by youtube (OK, so don't Fuck Google) with fairly limited commercial interruptions, which aren't all that obtrusive or bothersome. Geez, advertising still works. Who knew? Matt Damon in "The Rainmaker", Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove", and the John Scheinfeld (known for a slew of entertainment-related films) documentary, "Herb Alpert is..." make up the Page 8 offerings. There was some thought given to a Christmas movie, but, they're all over the place and everybody's seen "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" and "It's a Wonderful Life" a million times, so, that concept was scrapped.

Moving on, finding enough to fill up four pages wasn't very hard, though it's assumed the searcher was on this particular quest (OK, that was crass. Not sorry!). The IdleGals are the highlight of this issue. Some fine modeling.

Finding a bawdy holiday tale in the public domain turned out to be quite the chore, but, once more, it was youtube to the rescue. There's something for everybody. Raunchy John Valby tears up the 12 Days of Christmas, or, Chech and Chong's Santa Claus and His Old Lady is a delight, and there's the Pussycat Dolls and much more on Page 17.

Turns out, Rick knows how to do a few things, among them grow basil (Page 19), make deviled eggs and whip up a mean Bloody Mary (Page 20).

There's a lot more in this special holiday issue, but no sports. Smack in the middle of the NFL season, college football is going Bowl-ing and college hoops is well underway already. The NBA doesn't get interesting until April or May, so, oh, well there's hockey, rugby, horse racing and plenty more. Truth is, there just wasn't a good enough theme, but most events will hopefully show up on the Page 4 Calendar.

Part one of the expose - Ben Kohn Hates Bunnies - on the failure of Ben Kohn as CEO of Playboy's parent company, PLBY Group, is going to raise a few eyebrows and maybe a few spines.

Let us not forget, there's an interview with Tucker Carlson. A smattering of quick revisits to Playboy holiday issues from the past are scattered about the pages, courtesy of Downtown Magazine's Collectible Magazine Back Issue Price Guide.

It's raining.

I'm sequestered, putting the finishing touches on the last test issue of idleguy.com's December (Gamma) issue, which you're now reading.

I mentioned the rain because I live in Tennessee, where it has been extremely dry for the better part of the past four to six weeks. We have lots of trees in Tennessee, and when it gets too dry, the opportunity for forest fires increases dramatically.

Looking at a government map of forest fires last week, it appeared there were fire events across the state. It was almost as if the entire Volunteer State was ablaze. Of course, it wasn't. Most of the fires were 50 to 150 acres large, and, while that seems like a lot of area (it actually is), when it comes to forest fires, it's relatively small. There are more than 13 million acres of forest land in Tennessee, making it unlikely that the whole state could go up in flames.

We've had pretty good rain the past few days, which should help put out the fires already burning and keep new ones from starting up so readily.

As for this issue of idleguy.com, it's been a pleasure to bring forth a compendium of words, ideas, photos, and videos that may be of use to men and women seeking more sensible media than a lot of what's being offered these days. My roots in journalism go back to the 1980s and beyond, when I published the original Downtown Magazine, in Rochester, NY, a weekly free-circulation tabloid, and that spirit of honest reportage, entertainment, and enlightenment still thrives within me.

Over the past few years, it's been increasingly evident to anybody paying attention that the mainstream media (MSM) isn't always working in the public interest or telling the whole story. And they're certainly not unbiased, especially on network and cable TV and in newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post.

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