Salut!

A seasonal message from Salut!'s litte empire

Salut! wishes all readers a happy, peaceful Christmas and a great new year.

Greetings extend to anyone who has strayed here from Salut! Sunderland, Salut! Live or even poor, moribund Salut! North.

Enjoy the eccentric choice of a gallery of photos from the Royal Library of Denmark ...

Nigella, Saatchi and the failure of a charmless pursuit of the Grillo sisters

When the media drooled over Nigella Lawson’s performance, and her physical appearance, as a witness in the trial of her two former assistants for fraud, David Cameron inexplicably and inexcusably climbing on to the bandwagon, my thoughts were with the accused.

So I make no apology for rejoicing in the acquittal of Francesca Grilllo and her sister, Elisabetta.

Peter O'Toole RIP: priceless memories, unexpected relics of youth

Peter O'Toole's death at the age of 81 marks the end of a life that enriched many others. He was a great actor, genuine wit and fascinating individual. To those close to him he also had real warmth ...

A folk-rock singer I greatly admire, Linda Thompson, whose husband, Steve Kenis, was O'Toole's agent, offered this wonderful anecdote at Facebook:

It's cool to be Pope Francis. Ask Facebook

When the chaplain of Sunderland AFC handed Pope Francis a replica top and asked him to pray for the struggling team, the response - diplomatically couched, beseeching God to allow all players to reach their potential - was followed by a first win of the season. Sadly there's only been one more since but whatever this says about the limits of papal influence (such as failing to convert one of a shedload of chances at West Ham today), he has made a considerable impression in his first nine months or so ...

Among savvy members of Facebook’s global army of a billion-plus users, few eyebrows will have been raised at the presence of Nelson Mandela, the Philippines typhoon, Miley Cyrus and Britain’s royal baby in the social network’s top-10 topics of online chatter.

But ahead of them all was an elderly man of simple tastes but high office.