The brouhaha hit just a couple of days before the students broke for Christmas vacation, and many scurried home in shock to confront their stunned parents.

Not only did the substitute tell the students there was no Santa Claus, she told them their parents shouldn't tell them lies.

Needless to say, Principal Julie Miller received a number of angry calls from parents. When Rudloff returned to her classroom the next day, she had a long discussion with the students, had them watch "The Polar Express" and had other school staff members talk to the students.

PTA President Juli Ulvestad contacted the Salt Lake City School District, which may arrange for some counseling for the students.

Parents say they are pleased with the quick actions of the teacher and school administrators and hope the substitute won't be invited back. But if she is, she would be well advised to read the editorial published in the New York Sun in 1897, "Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus," that definitively confirmed the existence of the Jolly Old Elf.

Quotas? What quotas? The response from last Wednesday's column item about the Salt Lake City restaurant owner who caught an officer giving him a ticket before his time had expired indicates such cheating is not so unusual.

Michael Romeril says he was in a store on Main Street when the owner told him he was being ticketed. He had set his timer to go off one minute before his meter expired, so he was surprised. When he confronted the officer and pointed out that the meter had not expired, the officer at first tried to intimidate Romeril with his authority, but ultimately did not give him a ticket.

Matt Martinez, a University of Utah student, was parked off campus and returned to his car with two minutes left on the meter, only to find a ticket on the windshield. He caught up with the meter reader, who was still on the street, and pointed out he had time left. The officer refused to go back to the meter to look and left without retracting the ticket. The young man had witnesses and successfully got the ticket thrown out when he took it to court.

Meanwhile, when Kevin Kirk of the Heavy Metal Shop was returning to his store with shirts he had printed with his company's name, all of the "free" holiday shopping two-hour meters on the street were occupied, except for one right in front of his shop.

The only problem was that a Salt Lake City Parking Services officer had double parked in front of that one empty stall while he issued tickets and marked the tires of other parked cars.

When Kirk signaled his intention to park in that space, the officer waved at him to drive on, giving him the "I will give you a ticket if you don't mind me" look. Kirk drove around the block three times and eventually parked more than a block away, having to make three trips back and forth to deliver the shirts to his store.

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Paul Rolly welcomes e-mail at prolly@sltrib.com.