Saunders:  You can't see it. At least, Pat Orrange can't see it, can't see what difference having a woman as governor made for North Carolina.

Saunders:  Most people, if they've got a good thing going - especially an undeservedly good thing that can be taken away at any minute - are going to keep it to themselves.

Saunders:  After first hearing, it seemed like the nastiest thing one person could say about another's chronic illness, didn't it?

Saunders:  Until a few weeks ago, you probably thought that I was the baddest Santa you'd ever seen. That was before Duane Deaver offered expert testimony during trials of convicted murderers.

Saunders:  Back when he was still making good movies, Woody Allen made one called "Zelig" about a character who was on the periphery of historical events spanning several decades.

Saunders:  Real basketball junkies were probably experiencing the heebie-jeebies when professional players and owners couldn't agree on how to split billions of dollars this year.

Saunders:  Can we, at long last, put the kibosh on the kiddie King orators?

Saunders:  The air was heavy Wednesday at the funeral for Elizabeth Molloy, the 17-year-old Millbrook High School student killed in an automobile crash during the early hours of Saturday.

Saunders:  So, here's the question: How come it's possible for Trey Scott Atwater to take a bomb onto an airplane when I couldn't even take some overpriced lotion and a Slim-Fast?

Saunders:  Boy, I sure hope Aretha doesn't do to Willie what she's done to her Triangle fans four times now - leave him standing at the altar.

Saunders:  I swear, I thought the reader was talking about a former very popular stripper at Brothers III.

Saunders:  Aw, man. This time of year, nothing in the world is worse than the prospect of having to fight holiday traffic, deal with airport security and fly across the country to spend time with your family and possibly get trapped talking to those tedious, two-faced, backstabbing cousins you never liked anyway, is there?

Saunders:  Disproving once again the adage that there are no second acts in American life, disgraced preacher Jim Bakker has re-emerged.

Saunders:  In response to my well-reasoned column Tuesday on the disparate way the death penalty has been applied to killers of whites and blacks in North Carolina and the rush of Republican legislators to flush the Racial Justice Act, many readers offered this brilliant suggestion: Why don't we black thugs just stop killing each other, and that'll solve the problem.

A column Tuesday gave an incorrect title for Paul "Skip" Stam. He is the state House majority leader.

Saunders:  "Man, I'll kill you and do seven years." Hang around in the right neighborhoods, when the testosterone or cheap libations start flowing, and you're bound to hear some variation of that perversely prideful proclamation.

Saunders:  With a name like the Victorian Carolers, it's a cinch that my favorite Christmas carols, "Backdoor Santa" or "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin,' " aren't a part of their repertoire. Oh, darn.