My Sunday reading habit is to work through the N&O in print and Washington Post and New York Times. Between Twitter, email newsletters and RSS feeds from the later two publications, I'll easily open about 20 browser tabs.

• "We're servants of our overload [1]" N&O ideas columnist J. Pedar Zane writes about the decline of capital 'R' Reading:

  Start with books. Recent surveys show that fewer than half of all Americans read at least one work of fiction for pleasure each year. The decline is especially pronounced among teenagers. Many factors have contributed to the trend, but the rise of the Internet is clearly a chief culprit.

  ...

  My guess is that the average American reads more words in a week than our ancestors read in a month. It's just that we're not reading books.

  Steve Jobs says the number is around 40 percent. But where is that figure coming from?

• Half of Japan's top ten bestsellers started off as cellphone novels.
• The New York Times on the NFL's "air it out" 2007 season:

  This was the year of the pass, when 3 yards and a cloud of dust gave way to the three-step drop. In one game of their undefeated season, the Patriots, who until this season featured a balanced offense, ran only twice in the first half. Seven quarterbacks threw for more than 4,000 yards this season, more than ever before, and two of them — New England's Tom Brady and Green Bay's Brett Favre — take their teams into Sunday’s conference championship games as favorites.

  Bill Walsh's legacy, perhaps? Remember when the 49ers lined up with Joe Montana [2] under center and had Jerry Rice, John Taylor, Roger Craig, Tom Rathman and Brent Jones and they could all catch passes?

• The Senate is considering legislation that would force the FDA to require special labeling for cloned food. Short of that, consumer groups want allowance for labeling food as "clone-free." Interestingly, the Washington Post article says the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture has to help get cloned food to market.

1. Disclosure
2. Though Joe Cool is dear to the hearts of every 49ers fan, I liked Steve Young better, possibly because I remember more of watching Young play than Montana.

Well, not quite nothing, but as close to nothing as I've gotten in the last year.

Basically, plowing through The System of the World with much better progress than I've managed the last three months. I may finish in the next couple of days. The exciting highlight of yesterday was finding the Target "nearby," by which I mean about 35 miles distant. Oh, and Tim Horton's.

I did go outside earlier to let my uncle's collie get some exercise, of which he wanted about five minutes of before looking expectantly at the door to the house [1]. As most of the morning's snow had stopped, I figured it'd be time for a walk, say hello to the cattle and get snow in my shoes while photographing.

Also note: if cows think what you're doing is interesting, and I don't believe their threshold is high, they will attempt to follow you.

Possible photos of farm implements and massive ice formations later.

Happy Solstice.

1. Complete with the, "Dude, I know you're not from here, but 1) it's cold, let me in and 2) put on a jacket before you catch your death [2].
2. /me wonders what, exactly, one would do if one caught their own Death? Mason jar with ether?