I don’t know whether it was coincidence or by design, but the Newtown Police Department set up a “sobriety checkpoint” last Friday night just about a mile away from the Stony Hill Inn where The Bee was having its annual Christmas party. I don’t know of anything in these dignified gray pages of ours that would lead anyone to believe that Bee personnel would be anything but well behaved on any night of the year –– even on the night of our Christmas party. We just get together to enjoy each other, and sometimes we do the Hokey Pokey… and that’s what it’s all about.

It seems that most of Newtown was behaving itself that night. Of the 900 people stopped by the police at their checkpoint near Exit 9, only two were charged with driving under the influence, and both of them were from Waterbury.

 The article in last week’s Bee about the longstanding Newtown volunteer drivers program called FISH stated that the word was an acronym for Friends In Service Here. “Not so,” said longtime FISH treasurer and volunteer FISH driver Al Goodrich. “It’s not an acronym at all. FISH stands for the symbol that the early Christians used to draw in the sand to identify a safe haven, a place where help could be found.” This definition seems not only timely but relevant, since a loyal group of FISH volunteer drivers stands ready to help anyone in the Newtown community who needs a ride to a medical appointment, with no other family member living nearby to drive them. As Al pointed out, instead of drawing a fish in the sand or putting the FISH symbol in their front windows (as they do in England, where the volunteer driver program is said to have originated), Newtown residents need only pick up the phone and dial 798-5832.

On Tuesday, Booth Library Children’s Librarian Alana Meloni passed along what she called “one of the sweetest email definitions of love written by children, that I’ve gotten in a long time.” The message was, “Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” It was written by “Bobby, age 7.”

Elaine McClure would be the first to admit that she isn’t a David Bowie fan, nor is she a gambler, but she nonetheless she wound up going to a Bowie concert and spending a night at the Mohegan Sun last week. She and former Newtowner Kathy Sherry had invitations to meet at a friend’s house in Old Lyme for a reunion, but at the last moment the friend had to fly to England, which left Elaine and Kathy on their own. Elaine said they had a good time despite the fact that she couldn’t find the nickel slot machines.

If you think you had a lot of last minute gift wrapping this week, you should have been at the Newtown Fund’s annual Delivery Day at the Sandy Hook School last Saturday. The volunteers at the wrapping table there produced wrapped gifts for 95 families consisting of 240 individuals in plenty of time for a happy Christmas morning for everyone. It couldn’t have been done, of course, without the many volunteers, including Boy Scout Troop 370 and Girl Scout Troop 591, who gave up their last Saturday morning before Christmas to help with the mammoth task.

Well, it’s time for me to wrap this column up with ribbons. I’ll be back in the new year, however, so be sure to…

Read me again.