Here are a few of my least favorite things: raccoons, leaf blowers and the wasting of food. I’ll give you a break and only talk about two of them.

What has happened in the manual labor force that landscapers are too lazy to wield a rake or a broom? How does it save time, money or the environment to blow leaves into huge piles? Invariably we are happily working on a job site and the mowers and blowers show up. South Water street residents must be deaf. That street is endlessly noisy with lawn-care people.

My personal favorite is revving up the machines to blow a few errant pieces of grass from the walkways. Rarely, if ever, do the workers wear ear or eye protection. We run for cover. I stuff tissues in my ears. I figure I already did a lifetime’s worth of damage to my hearing at those rock concerts in the sixties and seventies.

Then there is the environment, and I’m not just talking about the fossil fuel use for something so stupid. There, I said it. Stupid. The noise pollution is detrimental to the human condition. Simple peace and quiet would serve us all.

In a post-Thanksgiving trip to the dump, I was dismayed to see the number of perfectly good turkey carcasses. None had been picked clean of meat and boiled down for stock. I thought about the millions of equally unused remains throughout the country. I bet most of those households buy canned or boxed stock or boullion cubes.

I think I’ll climb down off my high horse and speak to the food pantry people about a Friday after Thanksgiving cook-off. I bet folks would drop off their birds for a good cause. We would need a team of volunteers and some big stew pots. Food for thought.

Last week’s column in the newspaper said my female relatives spent Thanksgiving dinners fetching and sewing. I meant to say serving. My editor and I had a good laugh. He said the women were so beleaguered that they had to sew during dinner! It’s similar to everyone’s story of back in the day walking miles to school uphill both ways.

I have noticed tons of winter moths in my yard. I hate that. I think they were the culprits that ate every single apple blossom this spring. Thanks to them not one fruit formed on my several trees.

A word of caution. If anyone made a holiday decoration using bittersweet, do not compost. It will seed and spread like crazy. Bag it up for the rubbish.

This brings me to the Christmas decorations. I’m a sucker for gold spray paint. I could buy it by the case. Recently, I sprayed the spent flowers of Tardiva hydrangeas, astilbe, sedum and Japanese iris. Placed here and there in pots and boxes of greens, they make a statement. They hold their own for several weeks or all winter indoors. The white alyssum of summer still look great. I left them in pots and added greens and golds.

There is so much national, political and global news on which to comment. In keeping with a holiday theme I think I’ll take on the “war on Christmas” perpetuated by Starbucks of all things. While off-Island recently, I purchased my morning joe at the well-known establishment and to my horror and outrage was given a plain red cup. There was not a snowflake or candy cane to be found. Does Starbucks hate Jesus?

If I may quote Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak:

If Christmas is about an impoverished child’s birth to a homeless couple who must flee a tyrant to keep their baby safe, then, yes, there is a war on Christmas. If Christmas is about peace, joy, generosity, thankfulness and goodwill among people, then yes, there is a war on Christmas.

I, for one, welcome a war on faux Christmas. I’m tired of corporate Christmas, especially earlier each year — right after Halloween for Heaven’s sake!