The Dec. 24, 2009 Christmas issue of this paper featured a front page story by Tiffany Tuell which began with the words, "A small group of Mountain Area residents braved the cold Friday evening, Dec. 18, at the corner of Highway 41 and Highway 49 for a peace vigil, sending a message to end the wars in the Middle East and bring American troops home. Their message was met by a steady stream of vehicles honking in agreement."

Tiffany quoted me as saying: "I have a cousin who is a Navy SEAL lieutenant commander. I am very much in support of him and the troops, but don't want to see them throw away their lives for an insane proposition."

Max Richie was a powerhouse man.

"We lived in an Edison community. These were little communities around the powerhouse. We were the people who ran the powerhouse. We maintained it, worked together and lived together as next-door neighbors. Our kids went to school together. I lived with them for 15 -- 20 -- maybe 25 years."

Sen. Scott Brown (R-Massachusetts) thinks Barack Obama did the right thing and so do I.

Republican Sen. Brown was elected to serve the remaining term of the late Ted Kennedy two years ago in January of 2010 with major Tea Party support, shocking the nation and waking up the Massachusetts Democratic Party from self-induced, naively-assumptive apathy. Brown's amazing triumph was hailed as a conservative victory of the highest order and, more importantly, a glorious harbinger of dazzling things to come.

If time goes by any faster, we'll all be a thousand years old in about a half hour.

Here we are at another year's end with Christmas 2011 behind us and 2012 so close we can almost get there holding our breath.

Hundreds of festive folks, many having donned gay apparel, gathered again this year in Oakhurst to greet the arrival of Santa Claus in his North Pole Fire Department truck and witness the lighting of an impressive community Christmas tree next to that now internationally famous Talking Bear thanks to Facebook. There was magic in the air with the Winter Solstice set to mark the sun's sharpest turn away from us only days distant.

In such a setting, personal memories from many a Christmas past instantaneously spring forth, flooding our minds and imaginations without further summons -- surging in a powerful torrent of cherished recollections joyously unleashed by sparkling ornaments, jingling bells, and seasonal songs snugly nestled in our minds since early childhood.