Celebrate the good times while you can, because no great feast goes on forever, unless you get invited to an endless string of potlucks. In that case, share your good fortune with Port Townsend Observation Deck’s News Around Town.

T-SHIRT SAYING OF THE WEEK: “Words are weapons.”

MINDFULNESS NEWS: “It's very easy for teens to feel that everyone else has it figured out, that everyone else's life is perfect, and I'm the only one who feels this way,” says the mother of a Port Townsend teen who committed suicide earlier this year. “When they feel safe and accept who they are, it becomes so much easier to talk about what's on their mind and all that builds resilience.” Learn more about her efforts to help teens cope with The Benji Project at

mindfulselfcompassionforteens.com.

POLICE LOG ITEM OF THE WEEK: A rash of vehicle prowls, and residential and commercial burglary attempts in Port Townsend serve as a reminder that while violent crime may be rare here, thefts are not. The police chief reminds people to keep their vehicles locked, do not leave valuables in their vehicles, be alert for suspicious persons around their property and their neighbors, and call 911 to report a crime in progress, or a crime's aftermath.

FUNKY NEWS III: Funky is as funky does, or something like that. Port Townsend “funky” was hanging out at Mom’s Café (pre-1986) or playing Joker Poker pinball at The Town Tavern (pre-1994). Funky was seeing Mrs. Starrett walk around Uptown wearing a fancy hat and white gloves (early 1970s). Funky was playing backgammon with actor Lou Gossett Jr. during breaks in the filming of “An Officer and a Gentleman” (1981). Funky was the dance floor during Halloween at The Surf (pre-2005), on which the accumulative jumping around may have contributed to the underlying wooden pier’s demise.

YOU KNOW NEWS: You know your “nail lady” was almost right when she painted a snowflake on your manicured nail and said that’s going to be the only snow you’d see. You know the bar has been raised on the Christmas light challenge when your neighbor uses the battery in his car to power his massive outside light display.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “No, I don’t want my picture taken with Santa,” says the 6-year-old boy after a ride on the Kiwanis Club Choo Choo, complete with a jolly elf ready to pose for cell phone snaps. “That’s not the real Santa. I don’t want to talk to him. I wrote the real Santa a letter.”

(Port Townsend & Jefferson County Leader editor Patrick J. Sullivan hopes the real Santa remembers where you live.)