1) The Trump campaign manager tweeted, “Sen. Cruz has become the flavor du jour of the week.” Cool. That’s the way a “populist” campaign should use French! (Mitt Romney spoke French. Boo, hiss, etc.)

I’m reminded of an old joke. Two old guys go into a diner. One says to the waiter, “What kind of soup is ‘soup du jour’?” The waiter says, “It means ‘soup of the day.’” The other old guy interjects, “I don’t know why you need a fancy French name for it. I’ve had it here, and it’s just pea soup.”

2) I heard that the David Horowitz Freedom Center had put together a list of the ten most jihad-friendly universities in America. I was going to be really ticked if the University of Michigan wasn’t on it. (I’m from Ann Arbor. Have I ever mentioned that?) It was. So all’s well, and nothing has changed.

3) For the music-minded, I’ve written my “New York Chronicle,” for December. It’s here, in the current New Criterion. And I’ve written about Diana Damrau, the soprano (here). And about Chanticleer, the a cappella group, never better than at Christmas (here).

4) Last night, a maître d’ I know said something conspiratorial to me — subversive: “Merry Christmas.” We both got the thrill of the verboten. Shame it has come to that.

Have you heard about Ole Miss? Ole Miss, I ask you! They’ve changed the name of their annual Christmas celebration to “Hotty Toddy Holiday.”

These Mississipipians like to think of themselves as rebels. They should rebel against the verbotenization of Christmas. (I wrote about this theme twelve years ago: “December’s C-Word.”)

Anyway . . .