Columns

A smart device like a phone or TV can accept simple instructions and take all intermediary steps to provide desired outcomes with the user not having to dictate each step, because each step is already programmed into the device.

Count me among the many people who can’t stand Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”

Americans were appalled when Hamas seized 240 hostages during its October 7 attack on Israel. Among the hostages were several Americans, and the White House says there are seven Americans — one woman and seven men — still unaccounted for.

One of my favorite songs to listen to during the holiday season is the soulful rendition of “Handel’s Messiah” that was arranged by Quincy Jones and Mervyn Warren, an original member of the gospel a cappella group Take 6.

Since I am in the holiday spirit (and, having just consumed a mug of hot toddy, a glass of eggnog and a nip of cheer, the holiday spirits are in me), I have decided to follow in that great tradition of boring everyone silly by writing a Christmas letter.

I am just about fed up with the ever-growing campaign to totally remove any mention of Christ from references to the Christmas season. “Happy holidays” just doesn’t cut it, and I am seeing and hearing so much of that phrase, and just the word “holidays,” that I’m about to scream.

Admit it. Unless you received a big-ticket item for Christmas last year — such as a car — you likely have forgotten what was under your tree.

The pie contest from Thanksgiving would be completely forgotten by now were it not for the Heimlich incident. Nobody actually needed the Heimlich, but that is a minor detail.

Of the many gifts that define the Christmas season, besides the obvious, there are others as well that may not spring to mind.

On Saturday, during a campaign speech in Durham, New Hampshire, Donald Trump invoked Vladimir Putin (of all people) as proof that he’s being persecuted: