Opinion

It was late December of 2020. COVID cabin fever was hitting me hard.

For years, I’ve watched friends and acquaintances take family trips during the holiday season to exciting locations like Disney World, Hawaii, Colorado and Cracker Barrel. Until now, my family has been content to snuggle up together at home, enjoying traditional celebrations that involve exchanging gifts, candlelight church services and severe indigestion.

Dear Neil: Please explain why wildflower seeds should be sown in the fall instead of in March. I save the seed from my frozen lantana, Turk’s cap, and salvia as habitat for wildlife.

It may seem a cruel thing to ask whether the government gives too much money away in the name of helping the poor, especially at this time of year, when reminders to help the less fortunate are omnipresent. It is nonetheless necessary to pose the question.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. Nothing else even comes close.

There was a game we played which consisted of nine different size and shaped cups, and jars kind of laid out as bowling pins. The beginning of the game you would get five pennies.

Dear Neil: What is going on with our sago palm? It’s growing in this bizarre way with at least a dozen new heads. What should I do? This is called fasciation, where cells divide in two planes instead of in all directions.

When writing advertising copy, I sometimes find myself desperately searching for a zinger of a tag line - and settling for trite admonitions such as “Make this the best hunting season ever” or “Make this the best summer vacation ever.”

There’s a school of political thought that divided government is the government that governs best. Put the White House in the hands of one party, and Congress in the hands of the other, the argument goes, and the two sides inevitably will have to come to the negotiating table to work things out.

About 10 years ago I fell ill. It was quite bad I could not get up from my bed in days. I began to talk to God and asked if it was my time to go, to take me then, but if it was not time, to show me a sign. Eventually I fell asleep and had a dream.