Happy holidays from everyone at TucsonSentinel.com!

Raise a glass to those who've passed, those who've endured — & a better New Year in?2022

Ordinarily, we'd be inviting all our readers to join us in person to celebrate the holiday season, for a few drinks and lively conversation, right about now. We're holding off on that again this year, but want to pass along our heartfelt best wishes as we mark the longest night of the year — and brighter days to come.

Most years, we hold a Sentinel "holiday shindig" down at the Shanty, with a warm bar packed with a motley collection of journalists and left-wing political activists and Tea Party stalwarts, elected officials of all stripes, small business types, a few folks with gripes, normally shy bureaucrats that we reporters pester, and ordinary readers who want to learn a bit about more about what it is we do.?

In doing so, along with marking whatever it is you/we/they celebrate this time of year — especially a belated 230th birthday of the Bill of Rights (Dec. 15), or the impending 12th (!) birthday of TucsonSentinel.com (Jan. 22) — we'd be thanking you all, in person and here in this virtual space, for your kind and generous support for local watchdog reporting.?

Pitch in before the midnight deadline on New Year's Eve!

You donation to our nonprofit newsroom could be TRIPLE-MATCHED! 2-1 — or even have 6X the impact.

While we may be skipping that face-to-face conversation (and plenty of handshakes and hugs and fist-bumps and admiring of ugly sweaters), please take a moment to reflect along with us on the second tumultuous, trying year in a row we've just lived through — and how the one to come can offer us something better.

We've just seen another year with more tears and fears, anger and even rage, disappointment and mourning and tension, than any in living memory for most of us.

And yet there have been moments of hope and joy and love, of dedication to making this world better, of learning and discovery, and yes, of the relief of a burden lifted, that have inspired us to keep working to tell people just what's going on in this community.

Let's try to look ahead, even as we remind ourselves to never forget the lessons of this year. Some of you have endured great losses, this year and the one before. We weep with you, and hold you close. Some of you have overcome astounding challenges, and others continue to serve us with persistence and caring every day. We hold you up, as among the best of us.

I want to see so many of you again, and soon, but I'll be patient and wait just a little bit longer.?

In the meantime, on this solstice evening, here's to you, and yours.?We have seen the longest night already. Tomorrow will bring yet more light.

Please join us is raising a glass to the season, to those we've lost and the discoveries we've learned, and to our continuing freedoms — especially a free press. And while you're toasting,?PLEASE HELP US KEEP YOUR LOCAL NONPROFIT INDEPENDENT NEWS SITE AROUND for another year, with your TAX-DEDUCTIBLE GIFT.

And here's an important section of this annual missive: When you donate anytime during December,?YOUR GIFT to support local nonprofit news is eligible to be TRIPLE-MATCHED, with $2 for each $1 your gift,?by the special?NewsMatchprogram — including a special match from the Loud Hound Partner Fund, and the generous leaders of our local?Community Challenge Fund.

They are:?Edna Gray,?Stephen Golden & Susan Tarrence, and?David & Joy Schaller,?Bill Roe,?Marsha & David Irwin,?Lorraine Glicksman,?Bonnie Kay,?Mari Jensen,?Michael Racy, Sharon Bronson, and?David Burke,?Nina Trasoff,?Beth Borozan,?Jim & Shirley Kiser,?Matt DeRienzo,?JD Wallace,?Andrea & Derek Rickard,?Ann-Eve Dingell,?Dylan Smith & Maria Coxon-Smith, and?Joel Smith.

Which is an impressive list, but?we need to add your name to our roster of supporters, too.

If you've already donated, thanks so much for your support.?If you haven't yet, please join recent donors like Dennis & Patricia DeConcini, Rand Carlson, Randi Dorman, Jonathan Rothschild, John Bernal, Barbara Kelly, Vanessa Czopek, David Yetman, Michael Piccarreta, Jeanne Pickering, Chris Hostetter, Newt & Sunny Ashby, Bill Buckmaster, Rick Unklesbay, Shawn Pendley Fichtner, Ben McNitt, Marcia Tingley, Ted Schmidt, Joe Ferguson, Linda Seberger, Larry Hecker, R. Scott Roy, Si Schorr, Angela Hagen, Tom Volgy, Simon Rosenblatt, Joni & Gary Jones, and so many more, and give your gift today!

This is a great opportunity to help us produce more of the?strong accountability journalism you have come to expect from TucsonSentinel.com. Help out your authentically local nonprofit news site:?

Right now,?your gift to support local independent journalism can be TRIPLED with a 2-1 match from NewsMatch, Loud Hound, and our local Community Challenge!?

If you sign up to give monthly,?NewsMatch and the Community Challenge Fund mean your monthly gift can have 36x the impact?over the course of 2022 — the entire annual value of your monthly donation is eligible to be matched. Whether you give a one-time donation, or subscribe as a member of the Watchdog Club with a monthly contribution, donations of up to $1,000 per individual are eligible to be matched.

And your investment in a smarter Tucson will go even further, with those funds in part supporting our new IDEA reporter, who will also be underwritten by the Report for America program.

When you donate before the clock strikes midnight on December 31,?your contribution of $20/mo. in 2022 can mean $1400 worth of important original reporting?gets done in Southern Arizona, because of the additional backing from Report for America. Sign up to give $40/mo. and that means you're?leveraging nearly $3,000 in vital local journalism?next year.

No matter how much you contribute — in a one-time gift or every month — know that?we're very grateful for all of the support we've received.?Stay safe and healthy, and here's to a less-stressful, more fruitful New Year!

The fine print

Thus:?PLEASE ACCEPT with no obligation - implied, implicit, inferred, contrived or obliquely winked - our qualified non-denominational BEST WISHES?for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible and responsibly socially and physically distanced, properly masked and handily scrubbed,?Zoom-meeting-freeze free, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the time period generally coinciding with the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable - if any - traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all... and a fiscally successful, Maslovianly fulfilling, personally safe and universally healthy,?Gannett, Lee,?Gatehouse and Alden Global Vampire Fossil Media-free and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the?generally accepted calendar year 2022, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the Western Hemisphere (Mexico is thinking of changing its name, but they'd only be dropping "United States," which isn't something (isn't that something? — I just wanted to triple-down on the parentheticals here) that many have found all that confusing, unlike this?Morlockian thicket?of parenthetical asides) or that America ever stopped for a moment being great, not that it/we couldn't be even greater if we wanted to be and put our shoulders to the wheel while picking up each other's bootstraps, also, if your calendar only lasts another couple of days, you might want to pick up one of those promos from a tool company or something (do tool companies still put out calendars, or am I just showing my age? Come to think of it, with #MeToo and all, maybe skip that sort. Does Hotel Congress still sell those groovy calendars? Do calendars still exist or are we just caught in a?forever repeating March 2020?), or maybe just use iCal. Google Calendar kinda sucks, doesn't it?), and without regard to the gender, sexual preference or lack thereof, ability to attract or retain interest from a member and/or members of the gender you prefer, if any, race, creed, color, age, height, weight, visual acuity, batting average, choice of Pfizer, Moderna or J&J, which arm you got your shots in, poll standing with likely 2024 Iowa caucus voters, desire to be appointed to the U.S. Senate or whichever other seat becomes open between when this is typed and the day we're actually able to again host a party, possession of legal documentation beyond an obviously faked Hawaiian birth certificate (or is that Canadian? Canadien, even?), whether you've tried to make your name sound less Spanish or given yourself a Mexican nickname despite being white AF (no standing on tables at this party, please), language spoken at home, employment status, marital status, javascript library preference, adherence to a particular php coding style, physical ability, religious faith, steadfast faith in a heretofore pathetic National League baseball team, whether you always drink beer or only do so when a boring old dude who's just pretending to be Latino offers you one, experience in Linotype operation, views on the viability of?Baja Arizona?as a state, acceptance of the Torah, Gospels, Bhagavad Gita, Mishefa Res, Sharia, Shania or Shakira law or the lyrics of the?Sidewinders' "We Don't Do That Anymore" (We don't call 'em the Sand Rubies 'round here, and man, that was a great 30th anniversary show!) as the legitimate basis for civil and/or criminal legal procedures, or choice of computer platform of the wishee.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms and agree to be bound by them in perpetuity, or until?Doug Ducey?figures out which side of the fence he'll fall toward as he dizzily fantasizes about which office he wants to run for next — or at least picks up the phone when Donald Trump is calling,?Martha McSally?announces which election she wants to lose next,?Rodney Glassman?shakes somebody's hand without looking over their shoulder for somebody better to talk to (we already know which election he wants to lose next), and that Trump guy sadly emailing out some even more bizarre conspiracy fantasy about how he's just the most put-upon soul in all of history, and the Broadway widening project makes some real paving progress (really, just go with the "until the end of time," then — and note we didn't even conceive of the Broadway widening ever, ever, ever ending ... seriously, this clause has been in this thing for like a freaking decade now — long enough that there are about two businesses on that stretch that were there when they started ripping things up and still have their lights on. Anyway, the Rosemont Mine will probably get finished before that does.). This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal at any time for any reason whatsoever at the sole discretion of the wisher. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law (Snowflake, Saddlebrooke, Seligman, Colorado City, Florence, or any other place where the clocks stopped 57 years ago), and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual, reasonable application of good tidings for a period not to exceed one calendar year (sigh, back to that bit again) plus one-to-three days grace period, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, and said warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is not covered by Apple Care, whatever corporate settlement that Nunchaku-boy?Brnovich?keeps bragging about, as if he had anything really to do with it and it didn't take filling out confusing online forms to get a $7 check, HIPAA, HIPPA, HIPPO, diFilippo, ELO, REO Speedwagon or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. If it were, the GOP would be about to have it tossed out, which would be a real?War on Christmas, wouldn't it? And why do Republicans hate Apple? If you wish to file a complaint about this wish, please do so in quadruplicate and hand it in at one of those fake "legislative hearings" that Mark?Finchem's campaign puts together, and get it done before Dec. 31, using a text message or via a Facebook chat or something that's sure to get sent to congressional investigators. Don't worry, they won't tell anybody about it, or leak it to a reporter. If you want to find out who else has filed complaints, you'd better make a healthy contribution to the TucsonSentinel.com legal fund (and remember, donating is more than a "construct"). Any litigation arising from the issuance or performance of these holiday greetings must be filed and heard in the High Court of the North Pole. Sadly,?Santa?has a mixed record on sunshine laws, the tubby bastard. If any portion of this wish shall be held unenforceable in a court of law, the remaining terms of this wish shall remain in force. Come to think of it, the bits about primary voters, computer platforms and baseball teams are already null and void, so there.?

Be well, all. Stay safe and healthy, and keep your noses clean (and covered!).?

— Dylan, Maria, Gene, Paul,?Bennito,?Blake, Julie and the rest of the TucsonSentinel.com team