I WOULD LIKE to thank everyone who has to put up with me and my opera collection, including my dogs

I'd like to thank everyone who had to forgive me for stuff M-y too many to mention, and the list is growing all the time.

I'd like to thank my children for allowing me to embarrass them in public. (I think they like it, actually.)

Thanks to neighbors who hear me singing like Ricky Ricardo and donM-vt dial 911.

I'd like to thank my brain for remembering so many things, including my neighborhood recycling days and the recipe for minestrone.

I'd like to thank my eyes for getting stronger this past year. It's a strange development. I didn't have laser eye surgery and can't explain it. So it's a blessing.

I would like to thank the large holly tree outside my window. It pretty much fills the window. It is extremely beautiful all year, even through drought. And in the spring, up to two dozen cedar waxwings invade it, adding more color and life to what was already a great work of nature's art. I am lucky to have it as a neighbor.

I'm lucky to have Bob as a neighbor, too. He wasn't even home at the time and may not know this, but he let us borrow his electric leaf sucker-upper last fall. I'm hoping he might be so generous again this year. What a guy, that Bob.

I need to thank Brian Goodman, Larry Campf, Marc Steiner, Ingmar Burger and other friends who advise me on Yiddish. Thanks to the whole mishpocha.

We should all thank Hon Man for going back into action on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway, after he was sick for so long. What a mensch.

Another nod to my children - they let me teach them, then beat them at, hearts and poker, providing an immeasurable feeling of paternal superiority.

I would like to thank my daughter for getting excited, as only little kids can around here, at the forecast of snow.

I would like to thank everyone who went along and ate my sauteed broccoli rapini - "broccoli rabe" - this year. I mean, it's green, it's a vegetable, it's akin to real broccoli. They didn't have to eat it, but they did anyway, and some even said they enjoyed it.

Thanks to Louie Donnard for showing up at my house with a pot roast. And to Turkey Joe and Sherry Trabert for the homemade relish from their kitchen in Hamilton.

I'd like to thank Edelweiss Bakery on Harford Road for making the finest German chocolate cake I've ever had.

I'd like to thank the gentleman who sent me a whole box of ties, thinking they were ugly, when they were really coveted and expensive Format ties in retro designs. You know that old expression: One man's trash is another man's neckwear.

I'd like to thank a certain gentleman farmer for inviting me to fish in his Baltimore County pond, and for keeping said pond stocked with trout - and not the northern snakehead.

I feel a need to express gratitude to every person in high-stress jobs or life situations - cops, cashiers, teachers, auto mechanics, moms and dads with lots of commitments, ER nurses -who keep their cool, do their thing and don't get angry. We admire you. You make the world a better place.

Thanks to those who inspire us - the ones who give their time to charities and youth sports, churches, synagogues, schools and fraternal organizations, never asking for recognition or holding themselves up as martyrs.

Thanks to the family who took that 9-year-old boy named Donald all the way home to East Baltimore from the roller rink in Towson because it was late and raining and the kid didn't have any money and seemed lost.

Thanks to Bill Kautz for the old bamboo fly rod. See you at Parade Of Lighted Boats in the Inner Harbor on Dec. 7, Wild Bill.

I'd like to acknowledge the woman who runs One-Hour Martinizing, the dry cleaner. She gives lollipops to little kids.

Thanks to Steve Wirth for giving me empty cigar boxes from his dad's saloon, Tom & Olive's Cafe, 2942 E. Monument St. I love empty cigar boxes.

Thanks to Greg's Bagels for hanging in there. (The "new" Belvedere Square is on the way, brother.) And thanks to Sam's for maintaining the consistently high density of poppy seeds on their bagels.

I am grateful I can walk down Charles Street and feel good about the dedicated-to-downtown shops and restaurants there, especially this time of year, when they've decorated their windows for the holidays. The Woman's Industrial Exchange is still there, too, and don't forget the free lunchtime concerts at Old St. Paul's.

I should thank the engineers in some factory lab who came up with the braking system in my car because a large deer jumped out of woods on a rainy night on Greenspring Avenue, and solid brakes saved us from an unhappy occurrence - not to mention venison for Thanksgiving.