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As the surplus of holiday toy catalogs arrives in the mail, parents, grandparents and others often find themselves overwhelmed by the endless variety of gifts and gizmos available for children.

A handful of 20-somethings got a staunch reminder last month of a subtler job-hunting lesson — that they need to polish their online profiles before entering the work force.

The instant knowledge provided by the Web is invaluable, as is the deeper communion provided by books. "On or about December, 1910," Virginia Woolf once wrote, "the world changed." Sometime during the early aughts of this century, it changed again.

Air America Radio host Rachel Maddow, who's become the breakout star of MSNBC this political year, is joining the lineup of Chicago's progressive talk station.