Merry Christmas, WSO!

I want to take a break from reading the year-end countdowns and "predictions for next year" that have dominated news coverage as 2015 draws to a close to thank WSO for another strong, successful year on many, many fronts.

I especially want to highlight what a joy each and every one of our happy hours has been this year. We didn't get to have one this month, because duking it out for space in Manhattan against every other firm's Christmas party wasn't going to happen. So the Rainbow Room celebration will have to wait.

But for the events that did go on (once a month or so), they've all been well-attended, with truly good, smart, social people. I am thankful to each and every one of you for bravely coming by to have a drink (or 20) with Internet strangers and chat. I'm happy to say I've met some of my best friends at these events, and the many thank you messages I've gotten means a lot of you feel the same way.

Every year around this time I have a tradition to re-read Dickens' "Christmas Carol," and last night I got up to the part where he is visited by the ghost of Christmas past. In one of those past Christmases, Scrooge is transported back to the 1800s London equivalent of the office holiday party at his apprentice job. It's a joyful, movingly written scene, and I chuckle and think of happy hour when I read this:

"There were dances, and there were forfeits, and more dances, and there was cake...and there
was a great piece of cold Roast, and there was a great piece of Cold Boiled, and there were mince pies, and there was plenty of beer."

On occasion we have (usually drunken) dancing at Happy Hour, and perhaps instead of a big roast we have burgers, nachos, and late-night ramen afterwards. But really, what brings a smile to my face is all that tasty beer, the best damn drink in the world.

So if you're reading this, I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and I hope to meet many more of you monkeys at Happy Hour in 2016!