Christmas is coming, and all O'pinions are marked down. Buy one and get two for free. (Sorry, no returns without a receipt).

Mel's not swell

Football fever really does eliminate any pretense that people consider college to be about academics. Suddenly, people who for decades have ignored the University of West Florida now are all agleam at the thought of football among the pine trees north of Ferry Pass.

Even Barack Obama wants a playoff system, which means college football would last about two semesters a year, eliminating the notion of student-athletes.

We won't miss Mel ... Martinez, that is, who will step down in 2010 as a U.S. senator from Florida. His big feat was opposing trade with Cuba. This plays well with elderly Cuban voters in Miami, but the rest of us live in a global economy, and Fidel Castro is sooooo irrelevant.

Farewell, Francesca

Corporate bean-counters don't eliminate only the jobs of us unglamorous folks. They shoot anchorpersons, too.

Blame the recession for Francesca Maxime leaving WEAR-TV next week. She's been the 10 p.m. co-anchor since 2006, but now is job-shopping. In News Media Land, two years is a long time, but in Pensacola it means she's still considered "the new girl."

Constituents can expect great service from two state representatives, Dave Murzin of Pensacola and Greg Evers of Baker.

Both Republicans already have signed up to run in 2010 for the state Senate seat to be vacated then by Durell Peaden of Crestview. The district includes northern parts of Escambia, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties.

Sure, Evers and Murzin want to move up; neither got a $110,000 gig like House Speaker Ray Sansom got from Northwest Florida State College after he guided mega-millions to the Okaloosa County school.

Let 'em bet

Whoa! Let's hope the City Council spends more than a brief interlude reviewing the proposed contract for the Community Maritime Park.

The topic is tentatively scheduled for only one week of meetings in January after four new people join the council, but it deserves in-depth, in-public discussion before anyone signs a deal that will cost taxpayers upwards of $40 million and tie up 28 acres of waterfront for decades.

Card games at Pensacola Greyhound Track won't cure the economy, but opponents of gambling shouldn't put their religion ahead of someone else's recreation.

The item goes to the Escambia County Commission next week, and it deserves to be passed. Let people be free to make their own choice.

Being Catholic, however, I will stick to bingo.