The power stayed on; that was something. There are plenty of times when it didn’t.

Tomorrow is the centenary of the Treaty of Versailles, which brought formal end to World War I, sort of.

The monkey hangers voted Labour. The rest of the country mostly didn’t.

So here we are, just a few days away from the last year of the second decade of the third millennium.

So here we are, in the final week of the annual orgy of spending money we don’t have on things that aren’t needed and often aren’t wanted by the people who receive them.

You could think of this column as four days late, but I prefer to view it as 362 days early, 2020 being a leap year.

Over the years I’ve come to appreciate accents, peculiar usage of words, and regional slang.

Until a couple of weeks ago I had never heard of Worcester, Massachusetts Fire Lt. Jason Menard. There’s a good chance that you’ve never heard of him at all.

Well, that went by in a hurry.

One of the most fascinating stories of the last decade, to me, is the discovery and identification of the remains of Richard III, the last Yorkist king of England.

"Among the first settlers of Athens County were many who had served in the Revolutionary War… Scarcely a cemetery is there which does not contain one or more graves of men who helped the young nation in securing its independence."

Halloween used to be celebrated on, you know, Halloween.

OK, very funny. Now stop.

And so came the time of year when the houseplants are brought back inside.

Then there was the time Red Foley came to our house for supper.