Happy New Year from the most important person in your life, your loathsome real estate broker! A reader forwards a well-wishing email from "some crap NYC real estate broker" (with an impressive mastery of ellipses) that has us feeling all fuzzy:

Just a little note to thank all of you for entrusting me with your real estate purchases and sales during 2004. For your information, average Manhattan prices climbed 56 percent from a year ago! It has been an incredible year and I expect 2005 to be another good year for real estate ...

I look forward to be of further assistance during 2005. Don't hesitate to call or to refer your friends. I am here to help!

Meanwhile, I am enclosing my latest listing ... a wonderful triplex penthouse in SoHo/Greenwich Village ... 3,000 square feet of interior space and 1,200 square feet of outdoor space ... with a private 2-car garage ...

While I wish you all a very Happy New Year, let us hope for a year of global peace and quick recovery for Tsunami victims.

[redacted]
Associate Broker
Sotheby's International Realty

Smart! Invoking the memory of tsunami victims makes that $1 million efficiency seem a little more palatable.