HIS HOLINESS has come and gone,
But the happy memories linger on.
Kudos to all who made it a success
(Although security created a mess).
Now, bring on the Democrats (convening here);
It's going to be a busy year.
From all of us to all of "youse,"
Happy new year from us at the Daily News,
Those whose names are at left, specifically,
And from this ancient retiree.
Greetings to Mayor Nutter, lame duck,
And Mayor-elect Jim Kenney (lots of luck).
We wish their predecessors well -
Green, Goode, John Street, ex-Guv Ed Rendell.
To the Kenney Team, we wish success
As you tackle the municipal wilderness.
Cheers, to City Council (keep deliberating),
To our School Board and teachers (keep educating)
And embattled Superintendent Bill Hite.
To Melissa Bailey (you fought the good fight),
To Congresspersons Brady, Boyle and yes, Fattah,
To Police Chief Charles Ramsey (his last hurrah),
To his successor, Rich Ross, all our other cops, too,
To His Eminence, Archbishop Charles Chaput,
To Alan Butkovitz, Andy Toy, Alba Martinez,
To Donna Cooper, Cynthia Figueroa, Mike DiBerardinis,
To the Williamses, happy holiday -
Lawmaker Tony; Sheriff Jewell; Seth, our DA -
Gov. Tom Wolf (he's under the gun).
So Happy New Year, everyone!
A happy healthy twenty-sixteen
To the Mattlemans, Herm and Marciene,
Maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin,
Sam Katz, Zookeeper Vikram Dewan,
Comcast's Brian Roberts and David L. Cohen
(He always has a lot of stuff goin'),
Sidney Kimmel, Stephen Tang, Boyz2Men,
Vanguard's John Bogle, Amy Gutmann of Penn,
Temple's Neil Theobald, Drexel's John Fry,
Sister Mary Scullion, Bill Marrazzo ('HYY),
Bart Blatstein (he owns what was our Tower),
Nick DeBenedictis, Dawn Staley, Joe Neubauer,
Otis Hackney, Phyllis Beck, Barbara Beck, SEPTA's Pat Deon,
Rosemarie Greco, Dick Sprague, Sly Stallone,
Jerry Blavat, Dodo Hamilton, Jon Saidel,
Ellen Kaplan, Mark Segal, baker Patti LaBelle,
Seventy's David Thornburgh, folkie Gene Shay,
Neil Oxman, John Gallery, Emaleigh Doley, Tina Fey,
Wall writer Golden (keep at it, Jane),
To our "big-league" teams (we feel your pain).
Thanks to our firefighters, heroes all.
Cheers to Center City's Levy (hiya, Paul),
To Bernard Hopkins (still a threat in the ring),
To Estelle Richman (still doing her thing),
To Jane Pepper, the Art Museum's Tim Rub,
To the restaurateurs who've fed us our grub -
Vetri, Garces, Stein, Schulson, Stephen Starr -
To Will Smith, Vince Fumo (wherever you are),
To playwright Bruce Graham, Pedro Ramos,
Gamble & Huff (their Philly Sound's famous),
Allyson Schwartz, David Girard-diCarlo,
Siobhan Riordan, South Street's Isaiah Zagar. O,
Joy, Feather Houstoun, Johnny Doc, Herb Magee,
Marwan Kreidie, Larry Magid, Joe Zuritsky,
C.B. Kimmins, Ray Perelman, Sonny Hill.
In
Exelcis Deo, Kal Rudman, Terry Gillen.
Deck the halls, Mo'ne Davis, Judy Wicks,
Manny Stamatakis. A happy 2-0-1-6
To Chuck Peruto, Joan Myers Brown,
Erica Atwood, Lily Yeh of Chinatown,
Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi.
What's with our Iggles, Jeffrey Lurie?
Cheers, David Boardman, David Dewan,
Lynn Marks, Carl Dranoff, Set Momjian,
David Haas, Joe Torsella, Cheri Honkala,
Bilal Qayum, Ken Trujillo, Camille Paglia.
All hail Lamar Thomas, Charlie Pizzi,
Dan Hilferty, Ron Rubin, Nilda Ruiz.
We
Wish you all a year that's great,
Come on, gang, let's celebrate!
Not mentioned here? You should have been.
Rejoice, we made it through twenty-fifteen.
Let's hear a chorus of "Auld Lang Syne";
Philadelphia, we're doing fine.
Longtime newspaperman Don Harrison's New Year poem has been a tradition since he joined the Daily News in 1982. He retired in 2001.donharrison28@gmail.com