On his Slice blog, Paul Turner writes: Do you have a favorite scene? Mine might be when Ralphie is composing his “What I want for Christmas” theme for school and is mightily impressed with the quality of his own prose. “This is great.”

Featured Blog: So the retail season has a little drama developing this week. It's the increasing concern by some parts of the business world that stores that open on Thanksgiving are turning into Scrooge, forcing employees to give up one of the entitled holidays most Americans enjoy. To continue the literary analogy, the players taking the role of Bob Cratchit are employees from Target and Walmart/Tom Sowa, Office Hours. More here.

• SportsLink: Day after South Dakota/Jim Meehan
• End Notes: RIP high school football?/Rebecca Nappi
• Spokane Valley Blog: Saturday's highlights/Nina Culver
• Home Planet: Don't get caught with cold feet/Cheryl-Anne Millsap
• A Grip on Sports: All in all, a playoff is better/Vince Grippi, SportsLink
• Treasure Hunting: Shopping: It's beginning to look .../Cheryl-Ann Millsap
• Eye on Boise: Killing of monkey at Boise zoo saddens fans/Betsy Russell
• Outdoors: Even experts hesitate to guess age, sex of snowy owls/Rich Landers

Question: Which scene from "A Christmas Story" do you like best? And/or: Am I the only one who has read the original version of the Christmas story -- the one with the role of the neighbor Bumpuses much expanded?