I was looking through some family photos over the Thanksgiving holiday and was struck by the fact that in almost every photo with children in it, there would be at least one child with his or her head thrown back in laughter. It gave me pause to consider how long it had been since I had had a spontaneous belly laugh or given in to a fit of the giggles.
The holidays are a time for participating in many rituals, like lugging gigantic trees into your living room, draping oversized socks from your mantle and leaving plates of cookies out to fuel a heavy-bearded senior citizen and his reindeer through the arduous, albeit miraculous, task of worldwide gift deliveries.
It was a universal, cliché scene: a young man crossing Queen Anne Avenue North east to west at Crockett Street while staring down at his handheld device.
While assisting a group of Queen Anne and Magnolia residents of Scottish descent in planning a New Year’s Eve party, the subject of ancient Scottish traditions arose.
When state government reconvenes this month, Democrats ought to have been sitting pretty. After all, their party won majorities in both the state Senate and House and elected easily the most progressive governor our state has seen this century.
The world didn’t end yesterday — it ended a week ago. A deranged, troubled man took his mother’s legally sold gun and shot her in her bed — four times. Then he took his dead mother’s legally sold cache of weaponry, semi-automatic guns and ammunition, drove to an elementary school, put a mask over his face, entered the building and shot dead the principal, teachers, school employees and 20 first-grade children — wide-eyed, hopeful, terrified boys and girls.
According to research, voters relate better to national politics and politicians the farther they are away from home, rather than the reverse: We’re more immersed in the goings-on in Washington, D.C., than we are in the politics of our own backyards.
Want to know a secret? I adore the holidays. By the end of July, my heart does a little flutter. I know we’re halfway toward the sound of carols, the scent of vanilla exuding from just-baked cookies, the smiles of anticipation, the lights that fragment the gray overhang and the gathering companionship that cements love of friends and family.
As we head into 2013, we thought we’d partake in the common practice of looking back over the last year’s “best” and “worst” events on the local political scene. Then, so as not to leave readers too depressed, we’ll offer our predictions for what we believe will be a much better year.