Best Gift of the Season: Barbara Cooney, award-winning author of 109 children’s books, recently donated $550,000 to the town of Damariscotta, to help it build a new library. The current building for the Skidompha Public Library, which has served the area since the last century, is too small and is falling apart. Damariscotta still needs to raise a portion of a $250,000 match for this generous gift. The rest of us are too late for Christmas but just in time for a charitable New Year’s resolution.

Not to disturb the universe or anything, but a business called Accountemps recently asked chief financial officers to name their favorite leisure activity besides spending time with family or friends. Ready for a shocker? The top vote-getter was golf. Accountemps explains this result by saying the sport is, “an excellent forum for business networking with colleagues and clients without the distractions of the office.” Those distractions would include work, one supposes.

The Hold the Margarine Award this week goes to The Journal of the American Medical Association, which in its latest edition published a study concluding that high intakes of saturated fats were associated with the fewest number of strokes among participants. Next up for study: Does dietary confusion cause heartburn?

The winner in the Pass the Vegetables category was another esteemed publication for doctors, The British Medical Journal, which recently reported that men who have more orgasms live longer. Now that the snickering over the report has stopped, a question remains. Suggesting a campain to promote the benefits of a healthy sex life, Dr. George Davey-Smith, leader of the study, wrote whimsically, “Intervention programs could be considered, perhaps based on the exciting `five a day’ campaign aimed at increasing fruit and vegetable consumption — although the numerical imperative may have to be adjusted.” Up or down?

Speaking of advances in science, the latest cure for male pattern baldness, a pill called Propecia, carries a slight risk of impotence, according to The New York Times. Your choice, more hair or more life.