New Year’s is a time for lists:  Best of, Worst of, Top 10’s, What’s In, What’s Out, What’s Hip, What’s Not, Resolutions, Remembrances, Things to Do.
 
It’s been a wild year.  And in the next four weeks, after carpeting and painting are completed, we’ll be moving for the second time in six months.  I confess that this has somewhat dampened my enthusiasm for energetically pledging myself to a year of self-improvement.  So, here’s a list I’m borrowing from Cold War Era CIA operatives called The Moscow Rules.  It’s not a definitive list (if anyone ever wrote this down it must have self-destructed), but it’s enough.  Here’s to 2007.
 

The Moscow Rules 

1. Assume nothing.
   
2. Never go against your gut.
   
3. Everyone is potentially under opposition control.
   
4. Don’t look back; you are never completely alone.
   
5. Go with the flow. Blend in.
   
6. Vary your pattern and stay within your cover.
   
7. Lull them into a sense of complacency.
   
8. Don’t harass the opposition.
   
9. Pick the time and place for action.
   
10. Keep your options open.