Envelopes

If UFC 100 represents mainstream, the world has changed. Brock Lesnar, the former World Wrestling Entertainment fighter and current UFC heavyweight champion, battered Frank Mir in a second-round knockout to set aside a festering year of bitterness. Lesnar, who used at least 17 unanswered uppercut blows on the canvas to beat Mir, then blew off some steam at the booing audience who padded his wallet with a $5.1-million live gate at Mandalay Bay.

Regina Spektor "Far" Sire * * * 1/2 Of all the lines an artist can spend her life crossing, the one between "cute" and "cutesy" is one of the riskiest. Seriousness attaches itself to explicit violence or sexuality -- think of Eminem and Madonna, discussed in the halls of church and state. Going deep into the realm of childlike wonder and whimsicality has the opposite effect.

The telltale signs of an industry in crisis were unavoidable at the biggest airline trade group's yearly gathering: Attendance down by more than a third. Lavish sit-down meal service replaced by buffet tables. No golf outings on the agenda. A record number of reporters showed up for the two-day conference, many repeatedly asking executives which carrier would be next to go under or be acquired.

Even though the price of a first-class stamp will increase by 2 cents to 44 cents on Monday, there are still savings -- of time and money -- to be had online, at the U.S. Postal Service's website, www.usps.com. You can buy stamps by the sheet and postage-paid Priority Mail envelopes. There's an 8% discount on international Express shipping and a 5% discount for commercial Priority Mail. The site also will send you -- with no shipping charge -- the boxes and envelopes you get for free at the post office.

The F-22 Raptor is sex on carbon fiber wings. This is America's premier air superiority fighter, and it's a bad, bad monkey. At an F-22 demonstration at the Reno Air Show in September, I nearly passed out from testosterone poisoning. If you're at an advertising firm -- say, Keiler & Co. of Farmington, Conn., the agency of record for Lockheed Martin Corp. -- and the product you're promoting is this sky-shredding death kite, you might expect to knock off early.

Authorities investigating white powder found in envelopes at the Wall Street Journal in New York and Harvard Law School in Massachusetts said it was harmless. Police evacuated about 250 people from the Journal's Manhattan newsroom and executive offices after about a dozen envelopes were found. FBI spokesman James Margolin said five employees were decontaminated as a precaution. A newspaper spokeswoman said the postmark was Knoxville, Tenn. Each envelope contained a blank piece of paper and the powder, which was thought to be flour.

This season's greeting: Try to have a happy holiday. Glum economic tidings are reshaping the more than century-old tradition -- and big business -- of sending holiday cards. Although many Americans still have the urge to mail out an address book's worth of year-end greetings, some families are choosing cheaper cards, sending online salutations or trimming their mailing lists. Others are dispatching cards in place of presents.