Commentary Several people of late have taken to ending their written communications to me with “Stay safe.” This is a locution that, for some reason or other that I cannot quite explain, I abominate and that infuriates me, even though I am sure that it is probably well-meaning and even in some cases heartfelt. It acts on me like the squeak of a piece of chalk or a fingernail as it scrapes on a blackboard, a sound that sends shivers down my spine (great poetry or music sends shivers in the opposite direction). However, “stay safe” is not as bad as “Happy Holidays.” I received a Christmas (or should I say a holiday?) card from the United States recently whose envelope was prominently postmarked Happy Holidays. This seems to me an example of what a Dutch friend of mine calls anticipatory, or creative, appeasement. Some authority or other imagines an …