The Earthquake in Haiti

Originally published January 2010

The devastation Haiti is suffering from the Jan. 12 earthquake is almost too horrific to contemplate. Those who have followed the PM Sagas over the years will know that PM, as the North Pole ambassador, tries to rally the forces of the Christmas spirit all year round to help those in need. And Haiti needs our help.

The Huffington Post has posted a list of organizations that are helping. Your Chronicler, though strapped for cash right now, has managed to give up a few self-indulgent activities to donate to Save the Children, an organization she has followed and given to over the years.

Save the Children and the other aid groups are on the ground now, helping as best they can. Chronicler and the other Christmas Crew are grateful for all that they do and hope the aid that is arriving in Haiti will save lives and ease the suffering.

 

Happy New Year! (Good Riddance, 2009)

Originally published January 2010

Good riddance, 2009! It's about time you left, you with your self-aggrandizing martinets, your liars, your feckless fools, your vicious slanderers, your greedy bankers and your pandering patriotism police. Goodbye to the sadness and the loss and the constant churning up of fear — of unemployment and terrorism and ... shall we say it? ... socialism! 

Let's hope we're saying goodbye, too, to the political concept that health care is a profit-making right of insurance companies. And let's hope we're saying farewell to the media's conviction that the public is so bored that it clamors for unending coverage of empty balloons and golf-playing adulterers, of right-wing jingoism and left-wing incompetence. What the public clamors for is more popcorn! (I have this on good authority.)

Ah, 2009, you did have a few good moments. The Yankees did win the World Series and retook their rightful place at the top of the baseball food chain. And your Chronicler did go back on stage after a 20-year intermission. These were definite pluses in a year that ripped away much-loved people and valued ideals.

All in all, 2009 deserves to be thrown in the trash heap with other garbage years. 

Welcome, 2010! May you bring in new hope and fulfillment, and may our goals be the ending of war and the erasure of hatred. May we usher in peace and the love and concern for our fellow human beings and the other beautiful life forms that inhabit our planet. May good will to all replace the "What's in it for me?" mantra that we've heard so much this past year.

Good health. Love. Good friends. Joy. I send these wishes for the new New Year.

Happy Holidays 2009

First published December 2009

Now that Christmas Rappings has closed, the holidays approach with increasing speed. PM and the gang are working hard, and while there probably won't be a Saga this year (it is awfully late to start writing one),   they are definitely a part of this year's Christmas activities.

The hovel has been taken over by an 8-foot tree, which fills out most of the living room. It is a joy to look at and the Douglas fir is fragrant beyond description.

The Chronicler will be baking more pecan snowball cookies, plus some more oatmeal and cranberry cookies, all in an effort to produce more ho-ho-hoing than harrumph-harrumph-harrumphing.