Sorry for the late posting, but today was NHRA's annual holiday celebration, an always enjoyable get-together for the headquarters staff that allows us to mingle, hang out, have a little bite, and have a little fun and games. Given the economy, this year's affair – a 1960s theme -- was a little more low-key, with the venue moved from a ballroom at a local hotel to the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California.

All of the NHRA executives, from President Tom Compton on down, got into the groove with funky outfits, which for Compton included a bushy wig. It was quite the riot to watch him speaking to the assembled staff and trying to keep a straight face, especially during photos for the annual presentation of service awards marking five-, 10-, 15-, 20-, and 25-year anniversaries with the company. National DRAGSTER Photo Editor Teresa Long was one of the 25-year employees, along with Competition czar Graham Light; my senior editors, Kevin McKenna and Steve Waldron, were saluted for 20 years, and our own Jeff and Robyn Morton won the costume contest. There were Name That Tune contests, some funny skits (with Dana Mariotti, Kieth Burley, and Evan Jonat of the Marketing Department dressed as and lip-synching to The Beatles, The Jacksons, The Supremes (!), and The Isley Brothers (for a raucous version of "Shout!"). It was a great holiday send-off for what has been a tough season. Sorry, no photos. I like my job.

Speaking of Christmas (nice segue, eh?), I told you I'd let you know when our new book, Wild Rides II, was out, and it is and available for holiday purchasing on Amazon.com. Here's the link. The Amazon setup allows you to look at the first few pages for a sample of what's inside. I didn't plan it this way (I swear!), but two of the three crash 'n' burn pics it shows are mine: John Force's top-end fire in Montreal in 1991 and Nick Nikolis' crazy top-end Pro Stock crash in Gainesville in 1986. I had a lot of fun researching and writing the captions for the book, and Jeff Mellem of our Production Department did a great job laying it out. It's a pretty cool little book, and with its horizontal format, a great stocking stuffer. While you’re shopping there, you can also check out the other books we've produced in the last year, which include the first Wild Rides, our popular History of NHRA Pro Stock, and a Wally Parks biography, and soon we'll have our History of the NHRA Winternationals book online.

Speaking of history, I heard from your friend and mine, Tom "the Mongoose" McEwen, who called to exchange holiday pleasantries and to ask me to mention his new book, Mongoose, The Life and Times of Tom McEwen. He dropped me a copy in the mail (autographed!), and it's an interesting piece. Basically, it's a compilation of all of the "Mongoose Journals" columns he has run in Drag Racer magazine in the last few years.

I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet, but I have enjoyed the columns, which are written in first person for McEwen by longtime cohort Pete Ward. Although presented in chronological order, the book isn’t a McEwen bio per se, as it's told in chapters that are vignettes of his life, and each originally was published as a column in the magazine, but the sum still is greater than its parts. You can order it from Amazon, too, or, if you’re local to SoCal, you can pick it up at McEwen's favorite non-racing haunt, Prestige Hobbies, in Anaheim.

"Snake" and "Mongoose" fans also probably will be interested in Tom Madigan's new hardcover, Snake vs. Mongoose: How a Rivalry Changed Drag Racing Forever, another book that I just received in the mail and have not yet had the breathing room to sit down and peruse, but I'm looking forward to it.

Perhaps the biggest ink that either has received lately, though, is the video at right, which was presented on Jay Leno's Garage Web site. It's a great nine-plus-minute segment with Leno and "the Snake" that focuses on the Hot Wheels Barracuda. Prudhomme reminisces about the car and takes viewers on a guided tour of its features. It's a cool bench-racing session between the two icons and shows that Leno knows his way around a race car (we’ll excuse him for saying they were going to open the car's "hood").

You can check out the embedded version here at right (which includes an ad  ... sorry) or visit the real site for a larger video. Pretty cool stuff.

The wildlife duo also are featured in a 20-questions feature in issue 20 of Garage magazine, which is published quarterly by car and cycle customizer to the stars Jesse James. It's a nice eight-page feature with some really quality questions ("Who sold more Hot Wheels?") and some nice photos.

"The Snake" and wife Lynn also get the Christmas Card Holeshot Award this year as being the first to hit my mail slot this season with their jolly, jingly, and cheery greeting. Also, here's the first Christmas tree (non-racetrack division) sighting of the year, courtesy of Toni Yates.

Feeling all Christmasy yet?