Tonight on Extension 720: Sherlock Holmes remarked in A Study in Scarlet, “You know that a conjurer gets no credit when once he has explained his trick; and if I show you too much of my method of working, you will come to the conclusion that I am a very ordinary individual after all.” However, tonight on Extension 720, we will be examining the method and the genius of the world’s most famous detective. And so the game is indeed afoot as we celebrate the publication of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories with its editor, LESLIE KLINGER and local Baker Street Irregulars TOM JOYCE and DON TERRAS.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File will return on Monday.

Tonight on Extension 720: As 2004 draws to a close, we once again welcome into the studio three of WGN Radio’s favorite on-air personalities to discuss the events of the past year as only they can. Be sure to tune in as KATHY O’MALLEY, STEVE COCHRAN, and RICK KOGAN will discuss WGN Radio’s 80th anniversary year and their own adventures and misadventures in pursuit of radio excellence.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

IRAN IS CHANGING THE NEO-CONS...into post-neo-cons says Franklin Foer in this curiously argued article in the current New Republic. But if "realism" is the critical standard, don't the hard facts suggest that Iran requires a different policy than did Iraq?

AND WHAT ABOUT THE ASIAN ANCHOR OF THE "AXIS OF EVIL?" The North Korean threat is a serious one says Selig Harrison in the new issue of Foreign Affairs. Some worst case analysis is called for and is here supplied in THE magazine of the foreign policy establishment. Are they doing some work (like a warning shot accross the bow) for their D.C. colleagues?

THE POWERFUL ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM US! Yes, Scott, they have well chosen sites of assignation, sub-set, libidinal. It's really not the File style, but we couldn't resist this Kerik-and-friends item from yesterday's New York Times.

WELL, HAVING GONE THAT FAR...in linking to the last item, we might as well round it out with the Regan revelations from yesterday's New York Post. The serious question that is all-the-more amplified now is: How did the Bush people (and who, in fact, were they) mess up so amateurishly in making a major cabinet appointment?

THE "TOLERANCE" CRISIS IN HOLLAND...is vividly conveyed in this 24 minute film about the murder of Theo van Gogh and its consequences. Click on the line that says "Danish-TV-Holland."

THE ISLAMIC CHARITIES THAT WEREN'T...have now received proper chastisement and whopping super-fines which should put them out of business--for a while, until they organize some new fronts. Dan Pipes has a right to celebrate since he has long rendered valuable service in highlighting the relation of these outfits to Hamas and yet other terrorist organizations.

DR. DALRYMPLE'S FAREWELL...to the British prison in whose hospital he has labored these many years. A most uncompromising "truth-teller" about the modern regression to social savagery, he ruminates here, in a striking article from City Journal, about The Problem of Evil.

INSULT, INTIMIDATION AND ANTI-SEMITISM AT SFSU...that's San Francisco State University whose raving, radical students and incompetent and/or evasive administration are here "drawn from life" by the San Francisco Chronicle.

DE BORCHGRAVE'S HISTORY OF THE NEAR FUTURE...as offered up for the consideration of Washington Times readers, is, to say the least, rather "transformative" whether one follows his optimistic or pessimistic scenario. Still...someone must be thinking about such things in the back rooms where they develop "contingency plans."

GOD REAPPEARS...in the thinking of an aging athiest previously classed as an exemplar of that faith. This late cognitive shift, as reported by ABC News, may please God or He may well be otherwise occupied.

NAIPAUL'S NEW NOVEL HAS BEEN GETTING MIXED REVIEWS...and here's one of them which manages to relate the new book to the large body of distinguished and truly "dark" writing that earned him the Nobel Prize.

WHAT THEY ARE NOT READING IN SRINAGAR: This recent report from New Kerala conveys a touching reverence for the canonical English authors and a lament for the decline of functional literacy in Kerala Pradesh as in the West.

GOOGLING INTO THE LIBRARIES: Here's what's in store as Google accesses Haahvahd, Stanford, Michigan and Oxford. The prospect does indeed rouse enthusiastic anticipatory expectations for "le veille homme academique" who is proprietor of this space. This report is from the Search Engine Journal.

PROKOFIEV'S SECOND PIANO CONCERTO...was composed when he was 22, was lost for many years and then "recomposed" when he was about ten years older. The fine performance here is by Alexander Toradze and the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Gergiev.

A short recorded edition of Extension 720 will air tonight after the 8:00 p.m. Northwestern Wildcats basketball game. For more information on Extension 720 programs, visit our monthly program guide.

Milt's File will return tomorrow.

Tonight on the show: Extension 720 takes a look back at the year in Chicago politics, as well as developments statewide, with two experts: WGN Radio's own political analyst PAUL GREEN and DICK CICCONE, former managing editor of the Chicago Tribune.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: When did “Merry Christmas” become “Happy Holidays?” Why must children in the public schools have a winter vacation instead of a Christmas break? The holiday season is increasingly a secularized time, with Santa Claus becoming the central figure in this time of materialism. Tonight, we will be exploring this trend and some of the legal and Constitutional reasons behind it with COLLEEN CONNELL, executive director of the Illinois American Civil Liberties Union, and JOHN MAUCK of Mauck & Baker Attorneys at Law, who specializes in religious law.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

IRAN'S MILITARY POWER AND DOCTRINE: What do they have in conventional and mass-destruction weapons? Under what conditions would they use what they've got? These matters are assesed in a new report by the invaluable Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Here's the Executive Summary, just released.

IT WON'T WORK BUT THEY WON'T LET GO...until the next Iranian Revolution displaces them. Meanwhile, the mullahs have dug in for the duration. This well-informed report has just been published by The Economist.

THE RE-WESTERNIZATION OF TEHRAN...seems to be moving at a pace from "moderate" to "rapid" while the mullahs are busy elsewhere (i.e. trying to keep the student democratization movement down). This on-the-scene report from Robin Wright of the Washington Post reflects some tantalizing glimmers.

THE FALL OF BERNARD KERIK...is briefly documented by Newsweek today. But now that they are digging one may well expect much more "dirt" to be shovelled up...as witness the next item from New York's newspaper of "low record."

FURTHER NOTES ON THE KERIK MELTDOWN...are provided by the New York Daily News which must have been maintaining a detailed dossier for years. Why didn't the White House bunch know about any of this?

THE INTELLECTUAL ORIGINS OF REAGANISM...were significantly "autogenic" according to this particularly interesting essay that appeared recently in The Claremont Review.

CUBA LIBRE? AFTER CASTRO? Maybe...sort of...ultimately...but nothing much will change till the passing of the patriarch says William Ratliff in the Hoover Digest. The chances are that Raul will succeed and may do a Deng-shift toward disguised capitalism.

OF AMERICAN ACADEMIC LEFTISM...almost everything has been said except whether anything should be done and, if so, what. The U.K. Economist makes a beginning here. Curiously, when these matters are discussed the focus is mainly upon the Humanities and Social "Sciences" departments. When will the reality about Law Schools and Schools of Social Work begin to be addressed?

THE AMERICAN LEFT AND ISLAMIC EXTREMITY...have found common interests and, of course, a common target--Israel! This article from the current issue of Commentary draws directly upon David Horowitz's new expose, Unholy Alliance.

THE DUBAI EDIFICE COMPLEX: The architectural phallic competition has a new entrant according to New Scientist. In a few years the tower in the United Arab Emirates will rank above the one in Kuala Lumpur. And after that...? We suggest that Luzon City may be the place to watch.

THE JEWS OF JAPAN...have been there since 1862 and managed to keep their synagogue in Kobe going under the eyes of visiting Nazi officers. The story is told in interesting detail in this article from a web-site concerned with "other Jewries."

THE LATEST DISTURBING NEWS FROM WAL-MART: But, before you fire off a letter to Arkansas or to the Wall Street Journal, stop to consider the source of this story.

AN ECLECTIC CONCERT...with some fine jazz (don't miss Kid Ory's Savoy Blues) and, for extra rewards, Chuck Berry followed by Sister Rosetta Tharpe.