1999 Christmas List, http://www.rasmusen.org/_amazon/xmas99.htm

• 1. The Dilbert cartoons. This is what much of industrial organization modelling in the 80's and 90's was all about.

• 2. The ABE used books website. A wonderful way to find books from used book dealers all over the country. Try it, and you won't say the Web hasn't added anything useful to your life. (GONE in 2003)

• 3. Babies, and Amelia Jane Rasmusen in particular. Delightful even at an early age.

• 4. Mad Max beyond Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson. 1985. A science fiction movie set in Australia some years after nuclear war, about an honorable man, much like Road Warrior.

• 5. Keirsey's personality test website with a Myers-Briggs type of test. See also the Intergalactic Explorer Personality website.

• 6. Moonraker strong ale, by J.W. Lee of Manchester. The best strong ale I've had.

• 7. Passion and Craft: Economists at Work. , by Michael Szenberg. 392 pages, $19.51. How to do economics by Mankiw, Landes, Krugman, Varian, Dixit, and others.

• 8. The Problematics of Moral and Legal Theory, by Richard Posner. 336 pages, $31.00. Reading this book will save you reading an entire empty literature by Rawls, Dworkin, and friends. Posner also has constructive suggestions for what might be done in constitutional theory.

• 9. LED keyring flashlights. Tiny, and bright enough that you could use one to get out of a cave in an emergency. Get the kind that switches on, rather than squeezes on, and red, which is easier on your night vision. $20.00 from L.L. Bean, cheaper elsewhere, but quality is highly variable.

• 10. The Mystic Masseur, by V.S. Naipaul. 1957. 220 pp. $10.16. Naipaul's first book, the story of a Trinidad mystic and booklover who gets into politics, and one of Naipaul's very best. Mostly humorous, with an out-of-place dark ending.

• 11. The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries by Rodney Stark. 1996. 272 pages. $ 11.20. Essays on early Christianity-- its relation to Judaism, towns, women, class, and so forth.

• 12. The Vanguard Charitable Endowment. You donate money or stock to it, taking the tax deduction at that time. Vanguard invests the money. You recommend charities to which Vanguard donates. They will either mention your name to the charity or not, as you wish. You have to trust that Vanguard will invest properly and take your advice, but it's a reputable company. I haven't put money here yet, but I am planning to. It does require a big initial gift.