December 25, 2005

The commander of American-run prisons in Iraq says the military will not turn over any detainees or detention centers to Iraqi jailers until American officials are satisfied that the Iraqis are meeting United States standards for the care and custody of detainees. ''Bottom line, we will not pass on facilities or detainees until they meet the standards we define and that we are using today,'' the commander, Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner of the Army, said in a telephone interview this week from Iraq.

''RIGHT now I have two suitcases open in the living room, kind of blocking the entrance,'' Simona Petrova said as she prepared for her family's year-end vacation, ''and as I decide what I'm taking, I drop things in the Miami or the London suitcase.'' Ms. Petrova, her husband and their 9-year-old daughter flew last week from New York to Miami to London, where they were spending Christmas Eve and Christmas on the first part of their trip. They plan to return to Florida tomorrow to spend a glamorous New Year's Eve at the Setai Hotel in South Beach.

History of Bugatti, maker of cars once associated with elegance, now part of Volkswagen Group; photo (M)

THE Redskins discovered the sweet liberation of an identity a month ago, when the team went retro with Joe Gibbs by uncorking a time capsule from the ''Hog'' era of brute force. The Redskins dropped the pretenses of finesse and the clever disguises of grace and simply unmasked the Tonka Truck toughness of running back Clinton Portis, turning the line of scrimmage into his personal gravel pit.

WHEN I look back on my childhood, I think Hanukkah would have meant a lot more to me if I had been Jewish. I should probably clarify that. I am Jewish in the sense that I have Jewish parents and a Jewish last name, and like to order Chinese. But even though my family is Jewish, we've never been terribly good at doing the things Jews are supposed to be good at. And at the top of the list of things Jews are supposed to be good at is celebrating holidays, possibly because we have an opportunity to do so about 200 times a year. If you can't get good and Jewish with a calendar like that, you're just not trying. That was our problem: we didn't try. When I was growing up, my family practiced Judaism less than I practiced the cello, and I practiced the cello about five minutes a week. Technically speaking we were Reform Jews, but even that designation makes us sound way too observant. My parents rarely went to temple, and none of us kids got bar mitzvahed; we essentially practiced a brand of Judaism which nowadays could probably be done over the Internet. But when a major Jewish holiday rolled around, our inadequacy in the Judaism department became truly glaring. A lot of Jewish families don't manage to keep the fast on Yom Kippur, but how many pack into the station wagon and have lunch at a Swedish smorgasbord?