A mere handful — promise — of new year’s resolutions. First, cue John Lennon singing, “you say you want a resolution…” 

— I resolve not to lose my cell phone more than twice a day.

— I will not start drinking, even after Jan. 20. I hope.

— I won’t block an aisle of my local grocery while counting to see if there really are 25 different flavors of Spam. 

— I will give up plans to take friends glamping at Fort Worden.

   That wasn’t too bad, was it? 

Only partly because of the uber-obnoxious Elon Musk, I’ve recently dropped X (formerly Twitter) after years, switching to the social media app Blue Sky.

My techie son urged me to do so, sourcing newspaper reporting in the process.

“The Guardian said it well when they left Twitter a few months ago: X is a toxic media platform and its owner, Elon Musk, has used its influence to shape political discourse.” I don’t in any way want to support that.

“Another big difference is that Blue Sky grants users much more control over their algorithm and filtering than Twitter does.” 

 I have no idea about what that last bit means, but it sounds good. 

— Speaking of my middle-aged son, during his family’s holiday visit here, they got their return trip up to Vancouver delayed by  the recent ferry logjam over in Coupeville. They were halfway across the water after leaving PT when the captain announced they would have to return because the Whidbey harbor entrance was blocked by logs. So they came back, quickly drove off and just made the ferry in Kingston. I wonder how all the walk-on passengers dealt with getting deposited downtown in PT with their cars on the other side. I read on social media that some were looking hard to find accommodations here for the night. Hope they found them. 

 The joys of living on a remote peninsula…

— Canine construction: We’ve often seen Tyvek HomeWrap on most buildings being constructed. But a real grabber is the brand being used on the new hospital extension: ALPO. Woof! 

— Roundball reality: The success of the Seattle Storm on the court and at the box office reminds me of something legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once told me: “If you want to enjoy basketball in its purest form, watch women’s pro basketball.”

— I had no idea what an axolotl was until one of my grandkids got a toy one of these salamanders for Christmas. I was reminded of a verse by clever poet Ogden Nash: “I have never seen an axolotl,” Nash wrote, ”but Harvard has one in a bottle.” 

 — The two funniest and cleverest TV sketch comedies of all time (at least according to this erstwhile TV critic) were both non-American: “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” and “SCTV.”

“Saturday Night Live” and “Kids in the Hall“ are behind them. Episodes of “SCTV,” hard to locate for years, are now more accessible on YouTube. Canadian series “SCTV” was often brilliant, and gave us arguably the top entertainer today, Martin Short as — who else — Ed Grimley. (And others, like Jackie Rogers Jr.)

Watching Rick Moranis playing ultra-relaxed Perry Como half asleep in bed and crooning on “SCTV” was also brilliant. (Who’s Perry Como? Ask your parents, kids.) Also in the super-talented “SCTV” ensemble were “Schitt’s Creek” costars Eugene Levy and  Catherine O’Hara.

— Comic John Fugelsang: “Trump is NOT the anti-Christ. But Christ is the anti-Trump.” 

— There has been plenty of controversy lately about causes of the recent election result, most of which I find come up short. If you really want to put most of the blame on somebody, it’s relatively simple to me: Nonagenarian Rupert Murdoch and his bastard child, Fox News. Fox has poisoned the airways with nonstop lies for years. 

— Finally, one of the things I most like about being a member of the East Jefferson Rotary Club in Port Hadlock is the club’s strong commitment to Rotary’s national Polio Plus campaign. 

Which reminds me of a running gag I have with a friend at Mountain View Pool. When this disabled polio survivor carefully inches down the stairs into the pool, I yell out “Marco!” Whereupon my buddy Jim across the pool then yells back “Polio!”

PT humorist Bill Mann urges you to try emailing Newsmann9@gmail.com.