:-P Lamers

Judging by the comments on WillametteLive.com, there's a certain segment of the city population who would like nothing better than to "Keep Salem Lame," and not in the ironic hipster sense of the phrase. It's puzzling, really. It's not as if we're going to break into your houses, drag you out into the street and make you have fun - we have no defense against your million-candlepower, crime-fighting floodlights. Just know that when you hear the party outside your door, we'll gladly welcome you into the fold.

:-) Resolve to kick a$$ in the new year

It's probably not a stretch to assume that most of us are ready to kick 2009 to the curb. Still, it brought us the Cherry City Derby Girls, so we're not all complaints. If anything, the CCDG prove that it's up to us to create our own fun, and we'd like to see more of it in 2010. Resolve to do one thing this year that pushes you outside your comfort zone. That's another thing the girls taught us - there's probably going to be someone there to catch you if you fall.

:-( Willful apathy

For sake of argument, let's go with the notion the climate change isn't happening. So what? Does that mean we shouldn't be doing everything within our power to reduce our individual carbon footprints? We think not. Sometimes the right thing to do is simply the right thing to do, science be damned. Imagine what would happen if we relied on scientists to provide scientific reasoning for every little thing we do in life - like go to church, for instance.

:-) Amistice at Battle Creek

In December, city officials made official their interest in purchasing additional property from the owners of the former Battle Creek Golf Course. If approved (and it's going to be a while before everything is signed), the deal would foster the creation of a large city park - more than 55 acres - and space for a new elementary school to alleviate overcrowding. What we look forward to more is taking pictures of the residents at the new senior living facility passing out lollipops to school children on a park bench - it'll be like feeding popcorn to pigeons, but with more tooth decay.

;-) Tallying the receipts

The holidays have come and gone. The turkey is fully digested, the champagne was successfully imbibed, the only thing that's left is the bills. This year when you're going over the receipts ask yourself whether enough of it went to local merchants. If not, come up with a plan to do more in the coming months. There's a lot of local businesses in need of our support right now and even a few dollars here and can go a long way to reinvesting in the community.