The Ghosts of Christmas Just Past The tinsel and Santas have come and gone in the city, but still we are haunted by Christmas: the tossed-out trees that never seem to go away. TMN Contributing Photographer Geoffrey Badner brings us a gallery of coniferous Laura Palmers.

Branding No longer content with acronyms or surnames, companies now hire brand consultants to name their children. Clay Risen goes through the best and the worst of new-age monikers, including those easily pronounced as ass-enter.

8 Million Stories in a New York Minute New York has enough eccentrics to make the normals seem crazy. Heather Holland Wheaton has captured quite a few in her new collection, Eight Million Stories in a New York Minute. Excerpts from a pint-sized book.

Auld Lang Syne Experts answer what they know. The Non-Expert answers anything—though some problems are so big, so perennial, that even the Non-Expert can’t tackle them alone. Edited by intern Beth Milton, six writers offer ways to avoid being kissless on New Year’s Eve.