Some clever ForbesWomen, like attorney Emily McBurney, have come up with clever Santa suggestions--or should that be solutions?

FORBES: Woman Gift Guide

McBurney's wish-list sounds alarmingly like my mother's life--and my sister's, aunts' and coworkers'--and, to a lesser, I-don't-have-kids-yet degree, my own.

FORBES: Woman Gift Guide

"I really want a wife, " McBurney e-mailed us, and we imagine her laughing at her computer screen as she typed.

FORBES: Woman Gift Guide

But Simon McBurney, an internationally renowned manager-director, is nonetheless gloomy about the survival chances for a permanent company in Britain.

ECONOMIST: Repertory theatre in Britain

With Charlotte Rampling and, as Charles James Fox, a sly Simon McBurney.

NEWYORKER: The Duchess