Is your office having a Christmas party?

When the economy soured, may businesses cut back on things like parties. I’m hearing of several parties this Christmas, and it would interesting to find out if the head honchos are bringing back the tradition.

Here is an awesome MSNBC article about what to do and not do at a Christmas party. Acting appropriately, it seems, never goes out of style, even during the festive season.

INTERESTING HOW TWO young men were apprehended after local residents witnessed what they saw were people entering vehicles. Click here for the story.

You can have the best investigators with the best equipment, but many times people are caught simply because other people are being observant.

Or, time catches up with them.

Three juveniles were arrested last week for the early October Fifth and Ohio fire. Sure, it took nearly two months to make arrests, but if the eyes and ears of others don’t catch you, time and circumstance will.

FOR THOSE WHO were smart and stayed away from the stores today, Cyber Monday looms and there are great online bargains out there beginning Monday.

Here are some tips to be safe from the National Retail Federation when you go online to shop. Identity theft and Internet thieves proliferate during the Christmas season, so take some time to prepare before you click and shop.

The NFR says five years after the phrase “Cyber Monday” was coined, retailers have even bigger plans for the Monday after Thanksgiving. Nearly 9 of 10 retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 percent in 2007. Cyber Monday plans are more robust this year with nearly half of companies offering specific deals and many planning one-day sales and free shipping on all purchases.

Good luck finding that special gift, and practice safe shopping, whether it be braving the masses at the stores or going on your home computer.

THE ATTORNEY REGISTRATION and Disciplinary Commission sends press releases on a regular basis detailing wrongdoing by Illinois attorneys. There are about 89,000 attorneys in Illinois, with yearly fees imposed to fund the ARDC.

The latest release details the suspension of not one but two lawyers for (in part) each lawyer having sex on the hood of a car in a public area; an attorney collecting delinquent funds for a college and putting them in his own bank account; and various neglect of client matters. Fascinating reading, if you have the time.

The ARDC website is www.iardc.org, and click here for the direct link to the latest misadventures of bad lawyers.

QUINCY POLICE CHIEF Rob Copley released statistics about traffic crashes in town in conjunction with press conferences Monday and today about being safe this holiday season.

So far this year, through October, Quincy has had 1,014 traffic crashes. That’s down from 1,091 the same time frame a year ago, and down from 1,140 in 2008 and 1,222 in 2007. So far this year, Quincy has not had any traffic fatalities.

There are many factors involved with traffic crashes, from weather to when holidays fall during the week. Still, the numbers are encouraging.

Hannibal Police Chief Lyndell Davis says his agency is stepping up driving under the influence arrests. His officers made 139 driving while intoxicated arrests in 2008, bumped that number to 163 in 2009, and has made 182 so far this year.

While doing research for a DUI related story, I discovered Adams County had 15 DUI-related fatalities during the year 1980 alone. It was interesting to read a Herald-Whig clip from that year with local authorities saying more attention needed to be paid to the growing problem of drinking and driving.

Maybe we have come a long way, but one DUI fatality is too many, and you can never stop talking about the issue.

PAT CORNWELL WILL be remembered and missed in Quincy.

Pat passed away at home Saturday night at home, surrounded by family.Visitation is Friday from 4 to 8 p.m. and the funeral Saturday morning at 11, all at Duker & Haugh Funeral Home.

We talked about Pat and other things this morning on WGEM News Talk Live, click here for the link. To read my Nov. 13 column about Pat click here. The huge benefit for him Dec. 11-12 at Turner Hall in Quincy is still being planned and will be one of the biggest gatherings of the year.

Pat played drums and sang in numerous local bands. He was in The Funions for several years and we had awesome times practicing in the back room at Vegas Music. I don’t think I can drive down Broadway between 18th and 24th for a while — the store shut down after he was diagnosed with cancer two months ago, and he was in hospice care when he died.

I will remember him most for doing sound at charity events like Relay For Life at Flinn Stadium and Quanada’s big benefit at Backwaters the past two springs. Pat would lug the heavy equipment around and methodically set things up without complaint. He’d be there all day, run sound and play all night, then tear it all down.

Pat was a huge Jimmy Buffett fan. Long may you run, Pat. The breeze is at your back, now.

A “Flash Mob” featuring a 100-member choir performed last week at a food court near Niagara Falls in Canada. The looks on the faces of the unsuspecting shoppers is priceless. Beats the elevator muzak!

I FIND IT interesting that a local law enforcement officers has the following saying on his press releases …

“Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

On the one hand, it’s a blanket statement. On the other, there are specific instances where that is more than true.

Any thoughts?

IT APPEARS THE FBI has its man. And Western Illinois University is breathing a big sigh of relief.

A suspended WIU student was arrested in Chicago Tuesday and has been charged in federal court with making the threats. While the suspect is innocent until proven guilty, the moral of this story is that in this day and age of technology, you can run but you can’t hide.

Click here for the WIU coverage of Tuesday’s press conference.

How they tracked the guy down is fascinating. Click here for our Whig story and a link to the FBI affidavit.

I know of one particular sophomore at WIU who is glad the person was arrested. So is her father.

My biggest fear was that WIU students themselves would track this person down — there was a lot of pent up anger and frustration going around campus as one phony threat after the other was delivered.

BELIEVE IT OR not, Thanksgiving is only 10 days away.

That means Black Friday, also known as National Shopping Cattle Call Day, is a mere 11 days from wreaking its annual havoc.

Stores are already preparing bargains and preparing to open doors early Nov. 26. Count me as one of dozens and dozens who will stay away and be better off for it.

In 1999, I had to do a story about Black Friday and I am still getting therapy. I went to the old Wal Mart on Broadway and I have never seen anything like it. The crowd didn’t really move as much as it sort of oozed around the store.

I ran into a guy from Missouri who was sitting at the end of an aisle waiting for his wife. He was asked how in the world he could possibly find her in the sea of humanity.

“It’s just like going hunting. Sooner or later, they all come down the trail,” he said.

I’m avoiding the trail altogether, thank you very much.