As a philanthropist, I have a lot to learn even in my advanced age. I have given money to food banks, Planned Parenthood, public television stations, political campaigns, and my college. Recently, instead of sending a check to my college, I’m sending the same amount, yearly, to my nieces and nephews who are in college or taking advanced degrees. Why not give money to people I know and love who are going to college rather than have those bucks go to strangers at my alma mater?

How did bags of sand with lit ‘candles’ in them become our favorite Christmas decora-tion?  Though the yard treatment is widely used in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California, we don’t see many examples of it here on the Central Coast, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco.  Still, once we saw them aglow in Sante Fe, we were hooked.  Year after year, setting out lit-up bags, is our favorite way to decorate our landscape. History tells us the tradition of lighting