King to be Good

The only thing scarier than holiday sweaters, family gatherings, yule logs, egg nogs, and bands of carolers bearing gay happy greetings is a nice, thick, nightmare inducing Stephen King novel. But when you combine Stephen King and the holidays, the result is spine-tinglingly . . . well, awesome. File this one at the Big Warm Heart Department, because Mr. King and his novelist wife Tabitha are paying the $13,000 tab to bus 150 Maine Army National Guard soldiers from their base in Indiana to their homes in Maine for the holidays. The soldiers are completing training at Camp Atterbury in Indiana before they ship out to Afghanistan in January. The Kings, both Maine natives, are longtime residents of Bangor. And like any good supernaturalist worth his fearsome salt, King thought the sum of $13,000 was a tad unlucky, and so instead donated $12,999, with the extra dollar being pitched in by his personal assistant. EPL extends a great big kudos to the Kings and everyone everywhere doing good things for other people.