Ten Most ________People
 
It’s the time of the year for Top Ten Everything lists. There are top ten news stories of the year, top ten i-phone apps, top ten movies, top ten moments in sports (Desean Jackson’s 77-yard punt return) top ten political scandals (only ten?).  You name it, there’s a top ten list for it.
 
In fact, there’s a site called Business Insider that has compiled The Top Ten "Top Ten Lists” of 2010. They include Time Magazine’s Top Ten Everything of 2010  and my favorite, Vanity Fair’s Top Ten Worst Top Ten Lists of 2010.  And then there is Barbara Walters’ traditional Ten Most Fascinating People of the Year, with only a couple of exceptions, people I find remarkably unfascinating. But that’s just my opinion. Continue reading →

Keep the X in xmas!
 
One of the calls to arms in the Christmas wars is the request to “like” It’s not xmas, it’s CHRISTmas!!! Keep Christ in Christmas!!! on our Facebook pages.  For those of you who are not among the more than 500 million citizens of the planet who have an active Facebook account, that means that all our friends (which is how we euphemistically term those among the 500 million who are allowed to see our personal pages – and it can be all 500 million if we choose) will be reminded not to let anyone cheapen the REAL meaning of Christmas with an X. Continue reading →

Fullness!
 
In our Christmas letter this year, Becky and I talk about the characters of Christmas, and in what we think is surely a very clever play on the word, we talk about the characters of Christmas – angels, wise men, shepherds, Joseph and Mary – and the character of Christmas – joy and hope and love. And then we talk about the character of our year. Continue reading →

How Come They’re Smarter in Trenton?
 
When I am out of town and someone asks me where I’m from, I usually say, “Philadelphia” or maybe, “the Philadelphia area.” I’m going to start saying “I’m from just across the river from Trenton.”  That ought to impress people. Seriously. It turns out that if you are from Trenton you’re likely to be more than twice as smart as someone from Philadelphia. 2.35 times as smart, to be exact. According to a study done by Portfolio.com, the Brainpower Index for those of us from the greater Trenton area is 1.275.  For those of you who live in the Philadelphia area, it is 0.542. If you are interested in such things, here is the methodology for the Brainpower Index. Continue reading →

In Defense of the No-Name Village

You’ve probably heard or read the stories about the politically correct eggnog all over the face of the city of Philadelphia and Mayor Nutter himself.

A couple of years ago a group of entrepreneurs got together and asked the city if they might use Dilworth Square near City Hall for a “Christmas Village” loosely modeled on the market days leading up to Christmas in Medieval Germany. Seemed like a win-win. The city got to collect permit fees for the use of square and sales tax on the trinkets sold by the vendors who rented space in the village. The citizens had one more place to buy Christmas trinkets and, well, it felt like Christmastime in the city. Continue reading →