Mike, the 1-year-old grandson, is taking a music appreciation class. This makes all the sense in the world to me but the jury is still out on whether Mike appreciates it.

I see Mike as a drummer. Since he is currently sporting a cast on his leg (an apparent football injury), he wouldn't have to stand to play.

He could easily learn to read music. Last Sunday, I had him reading a book by Winston Churchill.

Okay, he was mostly using the book as a plate for his donut, but I think he was mouthing “Blood, toil, tears, and sweat” at one point. Either that, or he was saying “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” which fits right into the music appreciation theme.

The kid is into pop-up books. Unfortunately, so was his older brother; so in some cases when Mike turns a page, the pop-up has already become a lop-off.

Speaking of pop-ups, the talking TV heads continue to misunderstand the populist appeal of Newt Gingrich, who has popped up more times than a Whack-a-Mole in this presidential season.

I love conventional wisdom, which the talking set clings to, no matter how many times its members are proved wrong. They confidently predict an outcome that turns out not to be and the next day they are back with detailed explanations of just why the outcome happened (not that they were wrong). And they follow that with more confident predictions.

My own confident predictions are that either Gingrich or Mitt Romney will win tomorrow's Florida primary and that either the Pats or the Giants will win Sunday's Super Bowl, and that when they do, readers will want to make sure to get next Monday's Union Leader, with its special coverage of the game.

Speaking of Romney, a lot of hubbub was made over his tax returns last week. Romney is a very wealthy man. What didn't get much attention was that he and his wife also give a great deal of their money to charity.

They don't make a big deal of this. Or any deal at all, for that matter.

It so happens that they gave the Union Leader Santa Fund an extremely generous contribution last December. Donations over a certain amount are entitled to a photo and more, but the Romneys weren't interested, even though our own Primary was coming right up.

Say what you want about Romney as a candidate, and I have said plenty, he puts his money where it helps.

The closing of the Wiggin and Nourie law firm in Manchester reminds me of the day when one of our reporters, doing a radio broadcast, accidentally used a newsroom nickname for Atty. J. Walker Wiggin. Editors' faces were red when listeners heard the very proper lawyer referred to as “Attorney J. Walking Wigwam.”

Since I started this column with a 1-year-old, I will close it with Gladys K. who has decided to “retire” from her occasional work in our packaging center. (That's where we make sure the right newspapers, with the right flyers and inserts, get put together right.)

Gladys will be 90 tomorrow. I don't know if little Mike will appreciate music but I know a lot of people here appreciate Gladys.

Write to Joe McQuaid at publisher@unionleader.com.