In this episode, Dara jumps in feet first to Christmas tales of yore. Reading from a compendium of Yuletide tales, he selects two contrasting entries that brought some balance to proceedings. The first is A Christmas Inspiration, a sweet and somewhat sentimental tale by L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) of a group of young women coming to the aid of a lonely cohabitant of their boarding house.
The second moves as far and fast as it can in the opposite direction, depicting the bloodless revenge of a persona non grata on his over-privileged and self-indulgent relatives. Bertie’s Christmas Eve by the great short story writer Saki is evocative of a time when the idle beneficiaries of the British Empire had very little to concern them other than the prospect of talking livestock.
Finally, Dara includes a story of his own that, while not specifically connected to Christmas, seems to somehow fit with the general theme of rounding out the year. One On One takes the listener on a journey in a city where three very different people are each engaged in very particular activities that are uniquely connected.