It's a unique sense of humor shared by Connor Cox and his mom, Terri.

Cox, a freshman at Westminster College in neighboring Lawrence County, was surprised to get a package from home so soon after Christmas break.

He was certain it would be a care package, stocked with snacks and other goodies.

No such luck. Inside he found the trash his mom had told him to take out before returning to school. She confirmed that she'd pranked her son when Connor called home to ask about it, saying, “No, that's the trash you were supposed to take out.”

Lesson learned. And lesson shared. Connor shared the prank on social media and it became a minor hit.

Well played, mom. Well played.

[naviga:h3]Jeer [/naviga:h3]

Pittsburgh Democrat Josh Shapiro took over the office of Pennsylvania Attorney General determined to clean up the mess and restore confidence after the criminal conviction of his predecessor, Kathleen Kane.

Kane, the first woman and first Democrat elected to the office, was convicted in August 2016 of perjury, obstruction and other crimes. In October she was sentenced to 10 to 23 months in jail.

At a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Shapiro said the legal costs associated with the Kane case totaled $3.6 million — an amount Shapiro called “extraordinary.”

“It was really one of the first questions I asked,” Shapiro said. “What did all of that drama cost?”

Half of the total, $1.8 million, was paid to the law firm BuckleySandler for the “porngate” investigation commissioned by Kane, plus $877,000 in legal fees to defend the office from employee lawsuits that resulted from it.

“People get sued all the time, and there's legal fees associated with that,” Shapiro said. “This is an extraordinary amount and completely incomparable to anything we could find from the Corbett, Kelly years, or even before that,” he added, referring to Kane predecessors Tom Corbett and Linda L. Kelly.

The office also spent $791,000 on settlements and $191,000 on representing employees at the Kane trial.

That's $3.6 million that wasn't spent on road construction, education or crime prevention — or simply left alone in the pockets of the taxpayers.

That's also a clearly marked starting point for measuring Shapiro's efforts at restoring faith in the office.

[naviga:h3]Cheer [/naviga:h3]

Best wishes and Semper-Fi greetings to Hershel “Woody” Williams of Fairmont, West Virginia, who at age 93 is the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from the Battle of Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is a Pacific island where a vicious six-week battle turned the tide of World War II, 72 years ago this week.

Williams was just an ordinary kid, born on a dairy farm and working odd jobs. He volunteered for the Army and was rejected — too short — but the Marines accepted him.

On Feb. 23, 1945 — the same day the Marines raised the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi — Williams, armed with a 70-pound flamethrower, braved lethal machine gun fire while clearing a network of concrete pillboxes. At one point, a whisp of smoke alerted him to a vent atop one of the pillboxes. Williams stuck the nozzle of his flamethrower in the vent, killing the occupants.

As a Medal of Honor recipient, Williams says his life has been dedicated to the comrades both living and fallen who served our country. He says they share the medal he proudly wears.

May he proudly wear it for many years to come.