ENTERTAINING CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM ENTERPRISING BOOKSELLER MURRAY GRAY.

The irrepressible Titirangi bookseller Murray Gray, he of Gone West Books, and the Going West Festival, sent out the following e-mail message today - most entertaining and deserving of a wider audience so here it is for your enjoyment:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes
or an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, nonaddictive,
gender neutral celebration of the winter/summer solstice holiday,
practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or
secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular
persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice
religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and
medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally
accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the
calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society
have helped make our country great (not to imply that it is necessarily
greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed,
colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of
the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting the following terms:
/This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely
transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no
promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for
her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is
revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted
to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for
a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday
greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement
of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the
wisher. /

*Disclaimer:* No trees were harmed in the sending of this message;
however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.
The board has, in deference to this inconvenience, turned all of the
lights off in the toilets and waiting rooms.
Your in cultural sensitivity

Murray J Gray
Managing Director