Christmas Eve

This is the first time in two years that I have written for this page. In case you are like me and a little forgetful, I'll remind you that I worked for 43 years as a reporter, associate editor, and twice-weekly columnist for The Inquirer before retiring in 2005. This year, my life changed dramatically, and not only because I have reached an age at which I can no longer deny my senior status. In March, I underwent the first of five spinal-cord surgeries that ultimately left me paralyzed from the waist down.

Sitting near the Christmas tree in his Kensington home, Big Billy Howell cupped his hand over his cell phone and yelled the news - "We got 36 more dollars!" - to his once-broken buddies. Howell was surrounded by Joe the Mouth; the Island, a colossus of a man in Cowboys blue; dark-haired Dave F; Johnny the Real Deal; and the wiry Uncle Skunkel. The half-dozen men are all "Kenzos," bonded through blue-collar ties and years of sitting together in a church basement at alcohol- and drug-recovery meetings.

MR. NEGRIN, I want to thank you for making Philadelphia a disgrace on every national news media outlet this morning, and also for reaffirming our city's image as the sixth-largest joke in the nation. It's people like you who actually foster discrimination against the majority by the tyranny of the minority. In this age of political correctness, elected and bureaucratic appointed officials show their gutless appeasement of a segment of society. You foster a society of complainers when you grovel to the haters of freedom.

I WAS tempted to begin by using the phrase "It takes a village. " Better, I decided, would be "Village idiots. " Every year at this time there are PC battles across the nation over how and where to recognize the holidays. This year, the most ridiculous of them all was at City Hall. How else to explain the city's decision to replace "Christmas" with "Holiday" on the sign marking the entrance to what is obviously a Christmas village, and then to remove the sign altogether - before the mayor finally changed his mind?

Shawn Andrews, a sensitive, communicative soul, heard it all. Those taunts rained from the stands at Lincoln Financial Field last night as Andrews and the Giants visited the Eagles. "I heard so much stuff, man," said Andrews, sadly. Andrews spent six seasons with the Eagles, the last two, 2008 and 2009, recovering from two back surgeries. His recovery was complicated by bouts with depression. He has indicated that his depression led him to alcohol overuse and the contemplation of suicide.

The Rev. Joseph McFadden, who graduated from St. Joseph's University thinking he might someday coach college basketball, on Wednesday will be installed as the 10th bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg. After graduating from St. Joseph's, McFadden taught at West Catholic High in Philadelphia, where he coached basketball. He was ordained a priest in 1981, after attending St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood. Eventually, he served for 29 years in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

A family is offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads police to a South Philadelphia teenager who disappeared Christmas Eve. Jason Vu's 4-year-old sister was the last to see him. He put her in her room about 8 a.m. Dec. 24, said "Bye," and shut the door. Vu, 14, left his house at 23d and Wolf Streets that morning without his cell phone, wallet, or prescription glasses, said his aunt, Michelle Nguyen. He has not been heard from since. Nguyen yesterday said her nephew was quiet and reserved, and had never run away from home.

It was just after midnight yesterday, the presents wrapped, Sandra Hardwick's two grandsons at her home to spend Christmas, when a fire broke out in the back bedroom where the 48-year-old woman slept. Hardwick's son, Eric Campbell; his two sons, Sean, 7, and Amir, 2; and his girlfriend, who was not identified, were assisted out of the house by firefighters and were not injured. But Hardwick, trapped in the back, suffered fatal burns across most of her body, police said. She was pronounced dead at Kennedy University Hospital- Cherry Hill a short time after police received a frantic call at 12:22 a.m. that the house was on fire and a person was trapped.

Brittany Murphy laid to rest Brittany Murphy's family members say words can't express the devastation they felt when they laid the 32-year-old actress to rest at a private funeral on Christmas Eve. The service stretched into the evening as a Christian minister and a rabbi presided, and guests sang "Amazing Grace" at the grave site at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills, where Liberace, Bette Davis, Lucille Ball, Gene Autry, and...

Once upon a time, in the good old days, Americans celebrated Christmas in their public schools. They sang hymns, hung stockings, and decorated trees. And nobody complained. Then along came the big, bad American Civil Liberties Union and other left-leaning fellow-travelers, who bludgeoned education officials into restricting or even removing the holiday from our schools. And the rest, as they say, is history. There's just one problem with this bleak winter's tale: It's not true.