It's finally here: My "un-holiday" letter!

For many years, I had planned to send out a holiday greeting to try to catch up with many of those with whom I have not had the opportunity to maintain regular contact. Unfortunately, the end of the semester tends to be a rather busy time in academia, so for many years, this has not happened. This summer, I decided that it might be a more effective strategy to send out an "un-holiday" letter instead. I have posted this letter at http://www.larsperner.com/unholiday_letter.pdf .

With all the time that has gone by, the letter turned out to be a little on the long side (although I have managed to keep to fewer than one hundred footnotes), so it may take a few moments for the letter to show up. Enjoy!

AMONG THOSE OF YOU WHO MAKE IT THROUGH
THE FIRST FOUR PAGES OF THE LETTER:

• Some will conclude that reading that far has been a giant waste of time;
• Some will not be able to put the letter down until you reach the end;
• Some of you will reluctantly put the letter down out of a felt obligation to feed your children a hasty dinner, then proceeding to read out loud parts of the letter as a bedtime story;
• Some will scan for selected topics of interest;
• Some of you will read the main document but skip the footnotes, potentially losing out on some of the juiciest parts of the letter;
• Some will continue to enjoy the rest of the document in small doses;
• Some will pretend to continue to enjoy the rest of the document in small doses under a rather questionable belief that distinguished professors are supposed to be profound and insightful; and
• Some of you will convince someone else to read the letter, highlighting any useful information or providing a summary.

Page 2 briefly lists a few rewards afforded those who read the letter in its entirety.