HIT: To the five recipients of the Auburn/Cayuga Branch of the NAACP's 2008 Millennium Awards. Merritt F. Fletcher, Leslie Walker, Dr. Cathy Leogrande, Carolyn Hirst-Loucks and Steven Crosby will be honored on Jan. 15.

The quintet exemplify diversity in our community and the effort to make sure all are treated equally.

Congratulations to the five for their awards.

MISS: To the passing of Chuck Savage. Chuck was active in a lot of fields - sports, politics and the community - and he shone in all of them.

His genial manner and positiveness was welcomed by all that knew him. He made Auburn a better place to live and for that, we could never praise him enough.

It is also worth mentioning Chuck's friendship with Leo Pinckney. The two shared a love of sports, especially baseball and their hometown. Chuck was a great friend to Leo and that's something that will never be forgotten.

HIT: To the New York Giants, who won a playoff game for the first time with Eli Manning as quarterback. The team, coached by Waterloo native and Syracuse University graduate Tom Coughlin, will try to avenge its lone road loss of the season this weekend at Dallas.

The Giants have some momentum and know their NFC East opponent well. Could we see an upset of the NFC's No. 1 seed?

HIT: To the Sugarman Law Firm, which helped pay for a trip to Disney World, Sea World and Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., for 11-year-old Aaron Weed-Gagne, who is battling kidney disease.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation also participated in the efforts to send Weed-Gagne and his family to Florida. It's great to see the community help out a family which needs something positive in their lives. We hope they enjoy the trip and Aaron's health improves soon.