Happy week after Thanksgiving! Hopefully by now you've worked off that turkey hangover and are getting geared up for the rest of the holiday madness -- crowded parking, cranky help, and bargain hunting … and that's just to get out the door! I admit that I'm not much of a shopper, as I suspect a lot of you other fellows aren't, but as the holiday shopping season begins, allow me to offer some pointers.

For me, and most guys, shopping is all about planning and execution, not browsing. Maybe it's a holdover from the meticulous toy-soldier battles we enacted as boys or maybe just our innate need to always know where we're going (even if the gals disagree; I promise you, we're never lost, just looking for alternate routes). Though there might be some macho cred to the whole strategically staking out a spot two days before Black Friday and roughing it in a tent, that would only be if you were billeted outside of Best Buy or Home Depot.

For me, it's all about what I call "guy shopping," an exquisite piece of expertise somehow lost on the females in my life. It's quite simple. I know exactly what my quarry is – the model, size, color, and quantity. I know precisely where the target is located in the store, down to the exact aisle and shelf, using GPS coordinates if necessary. I know the shortest route to the objective, from front door to target acquisition. I can tell you, plus or minus five depending on other operatives seeking the same high-value target, the exact number of steps it will take to secure "the package." I am a keenly tuned, intensely focused professional. I will not be distracted on the way to or from the objective by blinking lights, no matter how sweet that Modern Warfare 2 Xbox demo looks.

I know how to gauge the complexity of the checkout for each customer in line at the extraction point – I mean the cashier – for the quickest exit possible. I also know how to sigh loudly or wear a mask of contempt to catch the manager's attention so he or she will open that previously closed lane. All the while, my extraction team has been circling the parking lot --- forbidden to park unless it's at the closest possible stall – waiting for my stealthy exit. With any amount of good fortune, I'm in and out in five minutes.

The sweetest gift of all, of course, is the one you can order while still wearing your Lightning McQueen pajamas. It's Cyber Tuesday! I'm talking about online shopping, baby, and do we have some tasty stuff for you to point your browsers at, just in time for that special someone. Yes, Santa's little elves here at National DRAGSTER have been burning the midnight tool-shed oil while cranking out 48 awesome editions of ND.

First up, and available soon at Amazon and other online vendors, is the second installment of our NHRA Drag Racing Photo Greats: Wild Rides. The first edition of this crash-packed keepsake was a hot item earlier this year, especially among nostalgia nuts like us who remember these types of books from the late 1960s and early 1970s as published by Mike Doherty and others.

You can check out the little photo gallery at right here to see a half-dozen of the more than 70 great and memorable images captured by the National DRAGSTER staff in the last five decades. We have body-shredding blower explosions, wild wheelies, Funny Car fires, Pro Stock flips, tire-chucking stockers, and much, much more, including some humor. These books are the perfect gift for that drag racing fan on your list. Heck, buy both editions! I bet you could even fit one in a stocking. It should be available online within the next week or so; look for a home page announcement on this Web site.

Next up is another special publication we've been toiling on this fall, The History of the NHRA Winternationals. This amazing book is the perfect companion to take to next year's 50th Anniversary Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals and fill with autographs from the heroes pictured within.

The book is an encyclopedia of one of NHRA's most prestigious events, chock-full of stories, stats, and photos to warm your winter days and nights. In addition to an in-depth recap of all 49 previous Winternationals, we have a slew of features, including a look at the facility's rise from parking-lot quarter-mile to Full Throttle Series gem; a list of great Winternationals debuts (cars and drivers); a look at the impressive list of drivers who won their first Wally at the Winternationals; first-person My Most Memorable Winternationals vignettes with heroes such as Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Jim Dunn, Connie Kalitta, Shirley Muldowney, and others; and much more. Each feature and recap is illustrated with amazing photographs, some never before seen. Again, this should be available soon, and we'll keep you posted on NHRA.com.

(As a side note, we've also been hard at work on a special-edition 50th Winternationals Web site, which we plan to launch in the next two weeks, but very little of the copy and only a handful of photos from the book will be reproduced on the Web site, which will rely heavily on amazing historic video that our crack broadcasting team has unearthed from its archives. It's going to be pretty cool, but not as cool as the book!)

Speaking of video, if you like your pictures to be moving, we have a lot of shiny silver discs for you, beginning with our rereleases of Drag Racing 1986 and Drag Racing 1987 (just $14.99 each!), the original Wild Rides DVD (just $19.99), or the all-new NHRA Countdown to the Championship 2009 Year in Review (which you can preorder for also just $19.99). Go here to check out the entire collection.

Speaking of the Winternationals, how about this proposal? While Neighbor Ned is still shoveling the driveway next year, you take your someone special to sunny SoCal for the race. You can buy tickets here, including group tickets, for as little as $150 for all four fabulous days. A little too steep for your pockets? Well, we also have a great Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals gift package in the NHRA store that includes two reserved-seat tickets for Sunday's final eliminations and a copy of the DVD NHRA Racing: The First 50 Years to get you in the spirit. All this for only $109.99. That's a savings of more than 20 percent. Hurry, though, because this offer ends Thursday, Dec. 17. Click here to learn more.

And last, but certainly not least, and available now – no waiting, no long lines, no Xbox demo to avoid – is a freshly baked order of weekly drag racing goodness called National DRAGSTER. Now, I know, some of you have received this gift before and let the batteries expire (so to speak), and some of you voice your displeasure with NHRA policies and procedures with your membership choices, but I'm here to tell ya you don't want to miss out on the new National DRAGSTER coming in 2010.

Even if you (somehow) forget all of the goodies that come with your subscription – I'm talking the amazing audiocast, the discount coupons, the catastrophic insurance, and, next year, live timing (!!!!!) – at the heart of every NHRA membership is a publication on which we're working very hard to make sure you not only want but think you'll need.

I know there's an awful lot of free content on the Internet -- including our very own site here – and you think you'll do just fine scraping together the news from the various sites. Sure, you can, but I think I'm leading ND into a brave new direction next year that will meet all of your news needs and then some. I'm talking about insightful columns, amazing photography, award-winning writing, detailed race coverage, and much more. It's going to be much more like a magazine – without forgetting its newspaper roots – and I think it’s going to be a big hit to have that kind of material before you each and every week. And, unlike with your PC, you can read it anywhere: airplane, bathroom, classroom (ssssh, don’t tell your parents), or shop … thanks to its all-new bitchin' size.

We've already unveiled a few of the new features in these last issues of 2009 – including full-page, workshop-wall-worthy photographs from our impressive and far-reaching library (Terry Vance's Top Fuel Suzuki? Kenny Bernstein's first Budweiser King? Ka-chow!) and a popular new behind-the-scenes column of whos and whats in Bits From The Pits (The Thrash). We have a strong roster of new and continuing talent signed up as columnists to give you the low-down on what's going on and an up-top look at your world – including through this very column.

We'll have a fresh new look inside. Sure, you can call me a shill for the company mill, but those of you who know me know that I take this publication seriously -- have for more than 27 years – and I'm determined to keep National DRAGSTER vibrant and viable, even in a 24x7 Internet world. I think you owe it to yourselves to give it a look. You can get a gander at all of the cool benefits and sign up for a year's worth of drag racing goodness right here.

OK, kids, time for you to head out on the ol' information superhighway (does anyone really call it that anymore?) for your virtual shopping trip. There are only 24 shopping days to Christmas, which means that if you get done today, you can enjoy 23 days of mocking the mallheads and spend the time doing something really worthwhile, like working on your hot rod or your winter tan. The Winternationals is only 71 days away!