The first thing I notice about Patrick McNamara's video on the LinkedIn business networking site? It is low-tech. Positioning his smart phone vertically, Mr. McNamara looks directly into his phone's camera. Sometimes we see his full face. Sometimes we see his head profiled. And sometimes part of McNamara's face is out of our field of view. Each video is just under a minute in length, with McNamara offering on each five-to-six lessons on what he calls "basic dude stuff."

Call me conservative, but I love tradition. And there is no finer tradition on these pages than the month of December, when I get to make predictions for the coming year, and -- as I'm about to do now -- I hand out superlatives for the year that was. 2019 came and went all too quickly, but there are plenty of bests and worsts to talk about. And so, we look back on the previous 12 months, and we remember. I give to you, the 2019 Conifer Awards:

'Twas the day after Christmas, when all through the House, Not a legislator was stirring, not even to grouse; The impeachment articles were delayed by the speaker with care,

The Kiwanis Community Christmas Project is truly a community-supported and worthwhile project. Starting with the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, there are so many people and organizations that deserve to get big hugs for their help in making  the holidays brighter for our community's youth.

I'll start with an admission: I genuinely like Jared Golden. To be clear, I view the manner in which he was elected to Congress to be repellent and illegitimate and I think that Bruce Poliquin should be the 2nd Congressional District representative.

In the era of President Donald Trump, Russian misinformation and Twitter bots spewing volumes of toxic fake facts, it’s good policy to be skeptical of what you see and hear. The satirical newspaper The Onion -- a great source for laughs -- has trouble competing with reality.

How many times I've driven past True Cemetery in South Livermore -- I don't know. It's also called Twin Bridges Cemetery after the two lovely iron bridges enabling traffic to cross over the Androscoggin River. Those bridges were destroyed by the State of Maine in 2005, replaced by a solitary concrete bridge with no soul.

If you see Congressman Jared Golden, D-Maine around our communities in Maine’s Second Congressional District you may want to ask him which of the accomplishments of the administration he doesn’t like:

Maine’s new state budget includes $2.7 billion more in spending than the previous two-year budget. This is a 16 percent hike in spending, a growth rate of more than three times the rate of inflation. Somehow, in this explosion of spending, this budget neglects to pay for the most fundamental of things that state government is supposed to take care of -- our roads and bridges.

My last column was about the immigrant Ulster Scots. Now, I’d like to introduce you to Scottish immigrants who didn’t come voluntarily.  

Even as health insurance companies report record profits, I regularly read about the growing crisis of Surprise Medical Billing (SMB). It seems implausible that these two trends are somehow unrelated. SMB occurs when health insurers won’t pay for medical care and, instead, those costs are shunted off to patients who can scarcely afford them. So are the insurance companies pocketing more profits at the expense of patients they claim to insure? It would certainly appear so.

Poor dental health impacts both individuals and their families. Being able to provide and take care of a family becomes increasingly difficult when someone is suffering.

In general, Maine citizens need a better understanding of how government works, and more involvement in choosing and monitoring their elected officials. Limiting by law the number of terms one person can serve consecutive and/or total terms in office (aka term limits) has the opposite effect on citizens. As such, I oppose mandatory term limits for our elected officials.

One of the greatest gifts Maine could receive this holiday season is full and dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund to be included in the fiscal year 2020 federal budget.

I will begin this annual tradition of mine by acknowledging a failure of my final prediction of 2019. In last year's column, I told you that this year I would simply do a top 10 list, as the number of required predictions was getting unwieldy.

President Donald Trump has earned his impeachment. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have an obligation to give it to him.

With thanks to a generous community of individuals who attended the recent event, businesses who lined up to donate silent auction items and a core group of volunteers to put it together, we are overjoyed to have raised thousands to help Tim, Danielle and Abby in their fight against cancer.

With Thanksgiving 2019 behind us, retailers’ obligatory Christmas promotions have pushed away the last remnants of turkey, pie, gherkins and Pilgrims. From now through December 26 -- the day after Christmas -- we will see and hear Christmas promotions of all kinds -- including music promos.