Is there anything to smile about? Yes, there is the kindness of people who put themselves out to help others.

If you look, you can see this goodness everywhere - in loving parents who, whatever their own problems, are determined to do their best to raise secure and happy children; in children who put their lives on hold to care for elderly parents; in the thousands of volunteers who give their time and energy to make life better for other people.

I want to tell you about one really good person who brings a smile to my face whenever I think of him.

His name is Salman Stemmer and he is a mere 92 years young. He has always been one of the dedicated band of helpers who carry out the twice-yearly delivery of pre-Yomtov parcels which B'nai Brith donates to needy families.

These parcels are packed with different kinds of kosher food and they weigh what feels like a ton.

This year we tried to dissuade Salman from taking part in the delivery operation, but he insisted that he wanted to do it. In the end it seemed almost cruel to separate him from his mitzvah, so off he went. And long may he be given the strength to continue.

Good people enhance our lives, but sometimes it is hard to believe that they still outnumber bad people because day after day our newspapers are filled with stories about nasty, vicious people who are concerned only with getting what they want, even if it means employing violence against their innocent victims.

Sometimes you read about people who sadistically attack defenceless victims even when burglary is not the motive.

I am still haunted by the case of two young women who beat and tortured a teenage girl because they wrongly thought she had stolen a mobile phone.

They punched, kicked and stabbed her, hacked off her hair and burned her with a cigarette. They then invited two men to come round and help beat her up.

After they had finished with her they locked her in a cupboard for half an hour. She was so badly injured after they had punched her in the face and stamped on her head that her own mother didn't recognise her.

Her injuries kept her in hospital for four months and her hearing is now permanently damaged.

And I'll tell you something else which, in my humble opinion, is also bad - the far too lenient sentences imposed on the two women who wrecked her life.

The younger one got 40 months in a young offenders' institution and the older one got a mere four years in prison - which probably means she will be out long before then. So much for the good and the bad.

Now we come to the ugly, and I can't think of anything uglier than Damien Hirst's so-called works of art. How can pieces of dead animals pickled in formaldehyde be considered art?

Well, apparently they can because, as you have no doubt read, a recent sale at Sotheby's netted Mr Hirst a staggering £111 million.

I have never met the man and, for all I know, he may be a lovely, caring human being and I can only hope that, after he has laughed all the way to the bank, he might consider getting out his cheque book and sparing the odd million or so to help a few really desperate and deserving charities.

That way something beautiful could result from something ugly.

It's "F" for fool

IT is probably unrealistic to expect celebrities to be role-models for their fans, and they obviously don't consider that to be any kind of obligation.

After all, celebrities have traditionally misbehaved all through past centuries as well as present times. Look at the scandalous behaviour of some of the greatest poets, actors, composers, painters and writers from times gone by.

Very few of them were morally whiter than white. And yet I really do wish that some of our celebrities would make an effort to be worthy of all the fan-worship they receive. I can't help feeling irritated when, once again, George Michael makes the news for all the wrong reasons or when Amy Winehouse staggers from one drug-fuelled debacle to another.

I feel particularly annoyed with her because she is Jewish and I can't help feeling - unreasonably, I know - that she ought to behave better and not let us down.

I am still wondering why Dame Helen Mirren, much admired for her acting ability, was moved to reveal in a recent interview how much she had enjoyed smoking dope and taking cocaine at parties during her younger days. Did we really need to know? And why did Gordon Ramsay have to lash out verbally at vegetarians, offending people who prefer to eat without taking the lives of animals?

He is on record as saying: "My biggest nightmare would be if the kids came up to me and said, 'Dad, I'm a vegetarian'. Then I would sit them on the fence and electrocute them.''

I never watch Ramsay's cookery programmes because I don't wish to hear bad language. I know the F-word in his programme's title actually stands for "food," but since he can come out with stupid remarks like the one above, I think that, in his case, the F-word could also stand for "fool''.

Cheque it out, folks

IF your cheque book has taken a bashing because of the annual deluge of Rosh Hashana appeals, and if you are now running out of cheques, don't take it for granted that a new cheque book will automatically arrive any day soon - because it probably won't.

In the past, a cheque book has always arrived before the old one was finished. This time it did not and I had to phone the bank to ask for one.

They told me that they had abandoned the "trigger" system which alerted them to the need for a replacement. I have since discovered that mine is not the only bank to make this change. So be warned.

E-MAIL: ldonn@jewishtelegraph.com