As the noose of political correctness strangled what's left of our culture, 2019 nevertheless had a few last gasps of great art emanating from its twitching body.

Dave Chappelle grandly escaped the hangman's noose with his Netflix comedy special, laying the blame for p.c. culture right where it belonged: the audience. It's a bad idea, political correctness, but bad ideas don't mean a thing until they're put into action. He's the one comedian who stood athwart neutered comedy and nailed Jussie Smollett as the great French actor who was a really bad liar.

That skit alone might not save American popular culture from the p.c. censorship movement but I'm telling you, it is one of the most brilliantly pitch-perfect sketches in comedic history. Chappelle peaked with it. And so far he's still employable as far as I know. There is justice.

As for Hollywood, which has seen so many of the good storytellers depart for cable where the fields of free expression are far greener, there were still a couple who stuck around. Well, sort of, anyway.

‘Tis the season to be jolly in Columbus with all its folly. A love addict with a love tribe from the community organization “1DivineLine2Health” is paying forward their serendipity to several families with children living in poverty on the West Side.

1DivineLine2Health holiday season gifts for the community

Thanks to Muslim Family Services, Executive Director Nicol Kwait Ghazi received a pallet of Christmas trees and chose to donate five instead of the three requested. The trees have been delivered and there are some excited kids on the Hilltop. Several of the homes only had old trees that made Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree look spectacular.

Santa is coming to town with two elves in our Red Love Bug that will be converted to mobile sleigh ride with lights and antlers delivering toys, zoo tickets and coats to our Hilltop kids.

On Thursday afternoon, the Washington Post sent out a news alert headlined "John Kerry Endorses Biden in 2020 Race, Saying He Has the Character and Experience to Beat Trump, Confront the Nation's Challenges." Meanwhile, in Iowa, Joe Biden was also touting his experience. "Look," Biden said as he angrily lectured an 83-year-old farmer at a campaign stop, "the reason I'm running is because I've been around a long time and I know more than most people know, and I can get things done."

But Kerry and Biden don't want to acknowledge a historic tie that binds them: Both men were important supporters of the Iraq war, voting for the invasion on the Senate floor and continuing to back the war after it began. Over the years, political winds have shifted—and Biden, like Kerry, has methodically lied about his support for that horrendous war.

Thanksgiving is gone and no thanks were given for the House Democrats’ unfolding plan for a quick, tidy, Christmas-wrapped impeachment package. Why are they doing it like this? What are they thinking? Why not take the fight to the president on all the available grounds? What is the rationale for a rushed process based on a fraction of presidential infractions? Why deliberately give up control of the narrative when you have mountains of evidence on your side?

That’s where the Democrats appear to be taking us. At this point, no one knows how it will turn out, and I long to be wrong in my apprehensions. But there’s not much to work with here. Democratic leaders don’t even explain their thinking publicly. The state of play as this is written seems unchanged from what CNN reported November 21:

For luxury condo or apartment developers, we have heard it’s feast or famine. So it’s no surprise they want density in our coolest neighborhoods, which is bad enough. Worse is how they are building boorish and Easton-like monsters without any empathy for current residents or historical preservation.

Nothing is sacred to them. Not even German Village, the city’s most historical and aesthetic neighborhood.

Indeed, three conceptional development proposals have stalked German Village over the previous year to two years. They are faceless and unimaginative. You know the kind: a square beehive of glass and concrete.

 “We are now at a place where all of a sudden this group of developers have turned and looked South and said, ‘There’s some opportunity there. We can take advantage of the destination, the charm, the identity of German Village for our projects. And we are here to make money. This is the game we play and we are not here to make your life good,’” says Katharine Moore who served as Executive Director of the German Village Society for over a decade. “They are taking advantage of what we’ve spent years creating with care, blood, sweat and tears.”