Things I learned in 2010:

• Sometimes, it’s better to be in Maine during the winter — like when relatives in the South get more snow than we do.

• Logic and facts don’t work as well as scare tactics and sound bites when trying to win an election. (Actually, this is a reaffirmation of something I learned a long time ago, but stubbornly hope will change.)

• You don’t have to be a trained journalist to get a show on a 24-hour news network. All you need is the ability to cry and yell a lot.

• For many people, Maine’s law requiring vehicles to yield to pedestrians on crosswalks means you don’t have to look both ways before sauntering into oncoming traffic.

• Those same people walk as slowly as humanly possible when crossing the street.

• People love lighthouses so much, they will spend almost $200,000 to buy one, even if it’s inaccessible most of the time, is constantly being battered by waves, has no land to speak of, and cannot be altered in any way.

• Chocolate-flavored martinis have a way of sneaking up on you.

• Never take two 8-year-old girls shopping without a good supply of Tylenol.

• Never make a copy editor angry before she edittts you’re collum.

• Hamsters are most active at night, and no matter what the box says, no hamster wheel is “noise-free.”

• If public art fails miserably in both concept and execution, it costs too much to maintain, and the majority of people whose tax dollars pay for the creation of and maintenance of the art have a vehemently negative reaction to it, the Portland Public Art Committee will recommend to — move it somewhere else in the city.

• There’s a very good reason my wife couldn’t wait to get out of her hometown in eastern Tennessee. (Note: I visited her hometown for the first time in 2010.)

• There’s a very good reason I couldn’t wait to get out of my hometown in southeast Illinois. (I didn’t visit in 2010, but I like to remind myself of this anyway.)

• A day trip to the Old Port, Portland Head Light, Crescent Beach or Bar Harbor never fails to bring a smile to my face.

• No matter how bad you think you have it, someone else has it worse. Be thankful for what you have.

• Always remember that last one.

Deputy Managing Editor Rod Harmon may be contacted at 791-6450 or at:

rharmon@pressherald.com