This is the time of year when carolers carol, sidewalk Santas go "ho ho ho" and folks on the 'net link to my Mel Tormé article.
Some actually don't link. Last year, quite a few just stole it, reposting it in full on their blogs or pages, sometimes without even crediting it to me. Over the years, at least a dozen sites have reposted it in a way that made it seem like the webmaster was telling a story that has happened to him. Most have seemed like innocent errors but last year, a right-wing blogger — on an "Impeach the Kenyan Socialist in the White House" blog that now seems to be defunct — posted it in full and claimed he was its author. I wrote to the guy and got back a message that basically said that since my site was so full of Godless Commie "hate America" propaganda and I was going to spend all eternity in Hell anyway, he had no qualms about stealing from me. Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Man.
It's the most-read piece of writing I have on the Internet and it even brought me nice messages from two of Mr. Tormé's kids, one telling me they'd heard him excitedly tell his side of the story and were glad to read my account. That alone makes me happier about it than all the other hits and links.