The most eagerly awaited news of the week: declines in the unemployment rates for the state, Attleboro and all the towns of Sun Chronicle country.

The least eagerly anticipated news of the week: The announcement that St. Stephen's Parish of Attleboro's Dodgeville section will close in 2011 and merge with St. Mary's of Seekonk.

The unemployment declines may not be as large as hoped. Attleboro, North Attleboro, Plainville and Seekonk's rates remain in double figures, but this week's report reflects true employment gains - not the futility reflected when the rate has dropped because former workers have given up looking for jobs and dropped out of the data base - and may be a sign that the economy is rounding the proverbial corner.

And in the St. Mary's-St. Stephen's merger there has been no sign of the acrimony that has attended many church closings elsewhere. That may be because the parish has been engaged in reaching this decision for more than two years by way of an advisory committee. But St. Stephen's will surely be missed. See today's letter to the editor from Paul Maquis.

Few cut it close You learn more from your losses than your wins. We believe that to be true. We also believe that's a message the players on the losing ends of the area's Thanksgiving day football rivalries aren't interested in hearing. At least for a while.

Drumsticks were preceded by drubbings for a lot of schoolboy athletes. Attleboro High School took one at the hands of North, 45-12. Mansfield took a slightly larger one from Foxboro, 36-0. Feehan handed one to Sandwich 20-0. Overall, the average margin of victory in six Thanksgiving classics covered by The Sun Chronicle was 23.5 points.

The closest was Franklin 20, King Philip 13, yet that might have been the bitterest of all the losses. KP had a chance of winning the Hockomock League championship, a first for the 50-year-old regional school, but saw it dashed in the fourth quarter.

We would remind the Warriors that they live in Red Sox Nation, where championship droughts do end. They are better prepared for the unwelcome surprises life is sure to send their way than they were on Wednesday. And we would suggest that they clip this and read it on another day when the taste may be less bitter.

Numbers of note

$1,200. Estimated pay cut that members of the Massachusetts House are taking voluntarily.

$500 million. Amount Sensata Technologies Inc. of Attleboro hopes to raise in an initial public offering.

112th. Anniversary recently celebrated by the Norton Grange.

92. Percentage of North Attleboro Electric Department users who gave the utility positive ratings in a recent survey.

76. Percentage of North Attleboro Electric Department users who gave the utility positive ratings in a 2007 survey. $2,600. Amount Lyndsey Medeiros of Rehoboth is trying to raise for cataract surgery for an adopted 3-year-old turkey known as Jerry.

$604,676. Amount six area police and fire departments are sharing in federal stimulus funds to pay firefighters and patrolmen.

31,000. Yards of contaminated waste to be removed from the Hatheway & Patterson wood treatment plant in Mansfield under a cleanup announced this week.

18th. Where the intersection of routes 1 and 152 ranks on a state ranking of Massachusetts' 200 most dangerous intersections.

Kudos to:

Nicole Setaro of Central Falls, R.I., (inset) a waitress at LongHorn Steakhouse in Mansfield, who saved a choking patron's life with a timely application of the Heimlich maneuver.

Allan Johnson, a Sun Chronicle paper carrier and retired reporter, for checking in on Doris Burch, 93, when he noticed a light wasn't on that usually is when he makes his delivery. He spotted her lying on a floor and made a timely 911 call.

Former North Attleboro resident Mark Newport, who has been promoted to lieutenant on the Portsmouth, N.H., police department.

Old Colony Habitat for Humanity, which was scheduled today to begin moving a house from 23 Leland Road to 7 Leland Road, Norfolk, where it will be rehabilitated as Norfolk's first free-standing affordable home.

Daniel Burbank, a NASA astronaut in training to become commander of a space station mission, for fitting a visit to Falls School, North Attleboro, students into his schedule.