CONWAY — How great was it to see this week’s series of fluffy clipper storms after last weekend’s dismal rain? That set up the tracks and trails for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, with more snow predicted for tonight.

CONWAY — As we run our top stories of the decade and of 2019 in today’s edition, I’d like to start this week’s column with an apology for my unintentional but regretful omission of two worthy late local heroes in our Passages ’19 cover story in last Saturday’s edition (Jan. 4, 2020).

CONWAY — Welcome to the 2020s!

TWO THINGS TO BRIGHTEN your outlook on the good of humanity on the local front this week, as 2019 comes to a close and we look forward to the new year.

AS THE COUNTRY faces the challenges of this impeachment week, and we all try to figure out just who’s been naughty and nice, thoughts in the valley turn to the all-important upcoming Christmas vacation week with hopes for a great week for holiday good cheer and skiing.

They were accompanied by 51 members of the MWVC, including sopranos Julie Butler, Silvia Chandler and Diane Drum; altos Chris Ayer, Kathy Burnell and Maureen Diamond; tenors Lois Burleigh, Steve Crockett and Tom Davidson; and basses Richard Altenbern, Frank Baker and Jim Diamond, to name but a few.

HAPPY POST-TURKEY DAY AND BLACK Friday greetings to you and your well-stuffed shopping bird.

CONWAY — A force of nature, for nature.

MID-NOVEMBER, AND the ski season is, unbelievably, well underway, with Bretton Woods having opened Wednesday, Wildcat on Friday and Cranmore today, with the latter opening one day ahead of last year’s record of Nov. 17. (Tubing at Cranmore will open Nov. 29, Thanksgiving Weekend.)

FRIDAY AFTERNOON’S SHORT SNOW SQUALLS fittingly enough came just a few hours before the start of the Eastern Slope Ski Club’s 49th annual Ski Sale at the North Conway Community Center, which continues today at the center from 9 a.m.-1 p.m.

AND SO NOVEMBER ARRIVES, ushering in the hunter orange bargain shopping  season as we build up to the 19th annual Bring a Friend Shopping Weekend at Settlers Green, Nov. 8-11.

THE MOUNT WASHINGTON Valley this colorful autumn looks like a White Mountain School of Art painting, so as this week’s cover story illustrates, it’s only fitting that despite recent rain and wind that knocked down  some leaves, the brilliance of this year’s foliage display is continuing, and…

IN 1492, THE OLD SAW GOES, Columbus sailed the ocean blue — or was it in 1493, Columbus sailed the deep blue sea?

HOW’S YOUR FAIR WEEK going?

THE FIRST WEEKEND OF FALL means it’s time for Maine’s Fall Blue Ribbon Classic, the “Fried-burg” Fair, packing in eight days of family entertainment, Sept. 29 through Oct. 6.