First of all, I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday.

Once we get past Christmas, my thoughts always start turning toward conference play, and one of the great stories so far in college basketball is unfolding in Conference USA. It's not getting a lot of attention nationally yet, but SMU is 7-1 under first-year coach Matt Doherty.

I've always believed Doherty can coach, and he's proving it big-time in Dallas. Don't expect SMU to be an NCAA Tournament team this year, but the Mustangs do have a legit victory over Dayton, a nice win over Illinois State, and last Thursday they beat cross-town rival TCU. Given where they were, it's a remarkable turnaround.

On Thursday, SMU plays at Oklahoma, the team Memphis beat in the first round of the Maui Invitational. Don't be surprised if SMU pulls an upset.

By the way, SMU is currently 17th in the RPI. Though that number will probably be much different by the time they play Memphis on Feb. 3, they're clearly the league's best hope for a second NCAA team if they can keep winning. And Memphis will play SMU twice, which could be very good news for Memphis' RPI.

The reason they're playing twice, by the way, is that Doherty put in a request to the C-USA office to play Memphis twice when he got the SMU job.

I think Bruce Thompson deserves a sitting ovation.

Almost three years ago, Thompson and fellow County Commissioner Deidre Malone launched a silent protest by keeping older chairs in the commission chamber when their colleagues switched to fancy newer ones.

Thompson, who left the commission in August after only one term, recently acquired one of the old chairs at a surplus auction for $30.04. It'll be a keepsake from his years on the commission.

You might argue that small expenses like chairs or other office supplies don't amount to a whole lot in the greater scheme of the county's budget. But it sets the right example for public officials to show they are trying to be frugal with taxpayer money in ways both large and small.

That old chair may be a fitting symbol for Thompson's time in elected office. But I shudder to think what symbols might best represent some of the other elected officials who have left office within the last year or so.

As Jennings Bernard can attest, one of my pet peeves is people who leave up political campaign signs long after an election is over. Maybe this stems from my stints as a campaign worker while I was growing up in Nashville, when I was among the legions of foot soldiers assigned to mundane but necessary tasks such as envelope stuffing and sign drop off and removal.

Anyway, there's a new offender who has caught my attention, although I doubt he's a political candidate. He's "Uncle Todd," whose yard sign I first noticed along Danny Thomas Boulevard near I-40 around the weekend of the St. Jude Memphis Marathon.

The sign, which was still standing when I passed it on my way to work this morning, has "Don't Mess with Uncle Todd" printed above a photo of a cute baby, whom I presume is not Uncle Todd. The bottom line of the poster screams: "Go, Todd, Go!" which leads me to believe that Uncle Todd is a marathon runner. (Hey, they don't call journalists "trained observers" for nothing.)

Anyway, my message to whoever put up the sign is this: The marathon was held Dec. 2. If you still haven't seen Uncle Todd, maybe it's time to call an ambulance.

When I recently pulled an envelope from my mailbox with Donald Trump's return address on it, my first thought was: "Maybe he sent me one of those Christmas cards with a well-stocked money holder."

My second thought was: "Maybe he wants me to adopt Miss USA Tara Conner, the wayward beauty queen he recently took under his wing."

Neither of those scenarios turned out to be true, of course. But apparently the Donald's daughter Ivanka is coming to Memphis next month to give a seminar on wealth creation. And for reasons I neither understand nor care to fully explore, I've been given two tickets to attend this momentous event!

In light of her background, I can imagine Ivanka's speech might be rather short: "Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The best way to amass great wealth is to be born into the right family. Thank you and goodbye."

But maybe this is something a few of our public officials ought to attend. Not for their own personal enrichment, naturally. Some of them don't seem to need much help in that department. But they might come up with a few tips for how to manage the taxpayers' money more efficiently.

Thus, my question of the day is: Which public official would you most like to see attend the Trump money management seminar and why?

Just because it's the holiday season doesn't mean that the people of Memphis slow down on the partying. This week, Donahue checks out a soiree hosted by the Memphis Junior Cotillion Club, as well as a gettogether at Overton Park. Check it out.

It's easy -- and fun -- this time of year to get lost in the Hallmark version of Christmas, especially when it comes to Mary, Joseph and the baby. But when you think more about it, you realize that "born in a manger" was really a pretty tough place to be, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, must have been frightened, to say the least.

Click here to read my Christmas Eve column about looking for Mary on the streets of Memphis, and remember, again, to count the blessings in your life.

For me, this work, and my writing both in the paper and on this blog, have been more of a blessing than I ever could have realized. Thank you so much for reading and responding.

Merry Christmas!

Obviously, it was a pretty nice performance by the Tigers. They weren't sloppy, they made shots, and they defended well. When you compare it to games Memphis has played against similar teams -- Austin Peay, Manhattan, etc. -- it was a much better effort.

So what do you take from it?

What I saw today was a few guys having breakthrough-type games, especially Doneal Mack and Willie Kemp. Those two freshmen have seemed a little behind schedule, but if they're going to get better, this is a logical time to start seeing it.

Neither Joey Dorsey nor Kareem Cooper had their best games, but neither did anything harmful, either. If that's the worst-case scenario every game, Memphis will have a formidable inside presence in March.

Robert Dozier took a couple shots today that I thought weren't very good, but he's trying to get himself going. Antonio Anderson didn't score a lot, but he was very solid, which was a good sign for him after struggling badly the last couple weeks. Chris Douglas-Roberts looks so much more confident right now shooting 3-pointers. Once people have to start respecting that part of his game, he'll be even more effective going to the basket. Jeremy Hunt played a typical Jeremy Hunt game, which is to say he was very good.

And obviously, when Memphis is shooting threes well -- 12-of-27 today -- they're extremely tough. I haven't done the exact math on this, but I really believe you could look back at the first 10 games or so and take all the wide-open 3-pointers they've missed and legimitately say the Tigers should have made about half of them. They are capable, and they've shown it on a few occasions. Once they get through January, I will have a much better idea of what kind of shooting team this really is.