By Ed Downs

To be sure, the title of this editorial would seem to be appropriate for views that cover the holiday season.  In today’s world of electrically powered goodies and gadgets, the need to hunt down batteries or “charge for at least 12 hours prior to use” are the bane of gift givers who intended gift recipients to gain immediate satisfaction from the latest form of technology promising to please, entertain or inform. In short, most of those objectives end up in a single word – frustration.

But no, that is not the topic of this month’s title.  Traditionally, a year end editorial summarizes all of the events of the previous 11 months to sort of “sum up” the past year.  I reviewed past editorials to refresh my memory and was a tad disappointed. It seems like this writer likes to gripe a lot.  That is where the subject title comes in.  Does the reader remember a great 1987 Steven Spielberg movie titled, “Batteries Not Included?”  In this film, actors Hume Cronyn and Jessica Handy play an elderly couple hanging on to an old diner in the slums of a decaying metropolitan area. They, their family and friends endure the wrath of gang violence and corporate greed as they try to hold on to a lost past.  The first two thirds of this film were hard for me to watch.  Fortunately, tiny aliens (who look like toys and need help with electrical power) come to the rescue.  The bad guys get their come-upping’s in a delicious way and all ends well. But still, the first part was hard to watch.  Well, that is how this editorial is going to work.  So hang on while we review a 2013 that was not good for recreational or business flying, but I promise a happy ending.