WHALE OF A TIME: The holidays also...

WHALE OF A TIME: The holidays also mean it’s time for the whales to start passing by Orange County shores as they migrate to warmer waters. Those aboard the season’s first whale-watching boat in Dana Point on Monday got a bonus: two whale sightings. . . . Garry Tarquinio of Dana Wharf Sportsfishing is confident that his crews will come up with whales to see. “We’re in constant contact with other boats from other landings, and we’ve got a plane, so we can find them.” The whale-watching season generally runs through mid-March.

FIGHTING WORK ETHIC: The Christmas season brought a special bonus to Fullerton College: 31 students given honors as part of the Puente Project, designed to reduce the number of Latinos who drop out or fail to go on to a four-year schools. Says Julius Coronado, active in Latino affairs who works with the one-on-one program: “Many Latinos do not get encouragement at home, where the work ethic is stressed over education. It’s a dynamic we must deal with.”

CHRISTMAS SPIRIT: At South Coast Repertory, it wouldn’t be Christmas without Ebenezer Scrooge. South Coast is now in its 14th consecutive year of performing “A Christmas Carol” at its Costa Mesa theater. It closes with performances at noon and 4 on Sunday. . . . To celebrate the 150th anniversary of that Christmas tale, the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel next door has decorated its lobby with colorful cutouts of the “Christmas Carol” characters--created by the play’s artist, Mary Zerbst--including Scrooge hoisting Tiny Tim, above.

AGELESS PROSE: Before there was “A Christmas Carol” the play, or the movie, or the TV version, a few may forget that 150 years ago there was the book, one of Charles Dickens’ most famous. UCI professor J. Hillis Miller, a leading authority on Victorian literature, says it will still be popular the next 150 years. He’s written an essay about it for the upcoming issue of the “Dickensian,” a quarterly publication for Dickens buffs. . . . “I reread it recently, and had a wonderful time,” Miller says. “It has such linguistic verve. And everybody loves a story of a bad guy becoming a good guy.”