In Rhode Island's state capitol,
the Providence Journal acknowledged
the installation, a few days before Christmas,
of a new and better Christmas tree.
There are no reports, as with the tree it replaced,
of an untimely and needle-shedding demise
inside the State House building.

In the environs of Lake Erie, farther west,
a man got his utilities cut off at his city-street house.
While he found places to sleep for himself,
he left his two dogs in the unwarmed house.
One of them, the female, froze to death on the porch outside.
The authorities reported that
"she appeared to have been in good health
but it's hard to tell when
the dog is curled up and frozen."
After confirming the presence of the frozen dog,
the authorities went and retrieved
the male dog from inside the house;
he is recovering nicely
while an animal-cruelty case is being presented.


OF all the Christmas Radio Roulette bullets taken over the past weeks,
which one do you suppose has become my present earworm?

The InkSpots, of all people, interpreting "White Christmas."
"I - yi - yi - y i'm dreamin' of ... "