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Happy Twenty-Thirteen, everybody!
In my tin-eared opinion, this is somewhat less nihilistic than last year’s World Go Boom, but still not as much fun as 2009’s Blame It on the Pop.
My creaky desktop is gradually collapsing in fits & (non)starts, and the replacement is stuck in “I know I put that copy of Win7 somewhere… “ limbo, so if I disappear from the blog without warning, don’t get your hopes up too soon.
On a more positive note, my favorite mailorder tomato sites are accepting orders for 2013, already.
What’s on the agenda for New Year’s Day, and going forward into 2013?
TheMightyTrowel
just back from my first new year’s eve at Sydney harbour. The fireworks were spectacular, the crowd was friendly, the weather was perfect, our view was amazing and I am never doing it again.
Raven
As usual, even though we stayed up until 1am I’m awake. Go Dawgs, lets beat the Huskers and finish in the top 5!
Linda Featheringill
Happy New Year everyone!
One of the more charming stories associated with 12/21/2012 is that human development goes in cycles [sort of] and 2012 marked the nadir in the human spirit, in kindness and generosity. We are now on our way back up to a more enlightened experience and will continue to improve for 13,000-and-some-odd years. We’ll grow more tolerant and more peaceful.
I have no evidence that this is anything other than wishful thinking but it is a lovely thought.
Hmmm . . . wonder if we could make this into a self-fulfilling prophecy?
gene108
Watched a bit on MSNBC this morning. 2012 was the safest year in aviation history for not just the U.S., but the entire world.
I believe the report said there were no fatalities.
Good job to the folks, who make sure we take off and land safely.
Raven
@gene108: Just US?
Elizabelle
@TheMightyTrowel:
Never doing it again because been there, done that?
Or you won’t be in Oz next NYear’s Eve?
RE: airline safety: no fatalities on major airlines in US.
Clearly there were other US aviation deaths, and deaths in commercial aviation elsewhere in world.
But it was a good year; think report said no accident fatalities on US airliners in 4 years? Last major US crash was the Colgan Air Buffalo debacle.
HeartlandLiberal
Although we are 28 year transplants now Indiana, we will still be recognizing New Year’s Day in the traditional Southern way: cornbread (real Southern cornbread NO SUGAR yellow meal), ham, greens, and black eyed peas. I will also have a slice of Southern pecan pie to top it off.
The tradition is rooted in the hope for good luck and prosperity in the new year. Our families always said you are supposed to do the things you like to do the most on New Year’s Day, thus insuring you would get to do them for the rest of the year.
The roads are clear, but there are still mountains of snow along roads and in parking lots, so I don’t think we will get out and about.
I will share the one sad note. Our homeless alcoholic son will be back on the streets today after staying with us for a few weeks. He is in his mid-forties, and we refuse to let him stay here or provide any money that will enable him. The tragedy is, I fear he has destroyed his life, and I am not sure he will ever be able to stop and return to holding a job and having a decent, stable life.
Pretty sad, really. The one thing in our lives that fills us with pain and despair.
But at least we can have a New Year’s lunch together, and hope for better, if not the best.
I hope all of you are safe and in the arms of your families today.
Raven
@Elizabelle: My brother used to be in the airline litigation business but it really dried up.
Raven
@HeartlandLiberal: That is sad. The couple that has lived next door for 13 years is that age. They are both alcoholics and he lost his teaching job last month over a well publicized incident at a local bar. I’ve only talked with him a couple of times since, he knows that I have a rough background but 20 years of sobriety but he hasn’t broached the topic so I let it be. I hope this was a wake up for the both of them and I wish your son well.
NotMax
Back home from the New Year’s shindig.
Low key but pleasant gathering.
Wide awake and (sadly) stone cold sober after 7 hours of non-stop imbibing of champagne and whisky.
Allen
Ms. Laurie hits another one out of the park. Dying to get started with the garden. Very late winter here in Portland (not Maine), just got our first frost two days ago. But we call it cold here if it gets below 20. Here’s hoping or an early Spring.
J.
@TheMightyTrowel: What @Elizabelle wrote. (I turned to the spouse last night at dinner and said, “I really want to go to Sydney one of these days for New Year’s Eve.”)
Also, too, am I the only one who went to bed before midnight? (In my case, around 9:30. Shouldn’t have drunk that Champagne at lunch and again at dinner.)
Linda Featheringill
I just read WaPo’s summary of the fiscal cliff agreement.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/fiscal-cliff/biden-mcconnell-continue-cliff-talks-as-clock-winds-down/2012/12/31/66c044e2-534d-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html
I think it could be worse. A number of things were saved.
Perhaps the most significant thing is that if this agreement becomes law, then Austerity has lost another battle. Hooray!
Mustang Bobby
Good morning from South Florida where the celebration of the New Year is done with fireworks and other ordnance. I stayed in and was asleep before the clock struck midnight, but was awakened by a text from a friend wishing me a Happy New Year. It was accompanied by the grand finale down the block.
Today some friends are hosting an open house, and I’m supplying the ice. Loads of fun.
Also, my 1988 Pontiac 6000 LE Safari station wagon is now officially an antique car.
JPL
Last night I watched Enchanted again and I must say I love happy ever after stories. Today I’ll watch parades and football games while packing up the xmas ornaments until next year.
@TheMightyTrowel: When do you sleep?
Napoleon
@Linda Featheringill:
You are right, Obama could have promised Mitch M. a daily blowjob along with everything else he gave away.
This deal is one of the epic fails by a political party in US history. Obama is a flaming incompetent who just signed the Democratic party up as the gravedigger for the New Deal and Great Society by permanently robbing the government of the funds necessary to operate.
Rove didn’t do it, Bush didn’t do it, Obama did it.
Phylllis
@HeartlandLiberal: Our meal will be the same, except the black-eyed peas will in Hoppin’ John.
My thoughts go out to you about your son. Sending a hopeful vibe your way.
arguingwithsignposts
@HeartlandLiberal: What do you have against sugar? I like my cornbread with a bit of sweetness.
Very sorry to hear about your son. Here’s hoping he can find a way out of his mental prison. Where there is life, there is hope for a better tomorrow.
Liquid
I want my hoverboard!
Raven
@Napoleon: You are such a fucking asshole.
Maude
@arguingwithsignposts:
I like sugar in cornbread. It helps the flavor.
@HeartlandLiberal:
Doing the right thing can be very painful.
I wish I had a comforting word, but I don’t.
Elizabelle
@HeartlandLiberal:
How tough for you. Hope that your son will be able to put alcoholism behind him as soon as he can.
I hope that you all had a good visit together, and that it will give him strength.
====
Now to start some Hopping John (black eyed peas dish). Never made it before.
geg6
@Raven:
Seconded. And it really bothers me that either he didn’t used to be or I never noticed until the last couple of years.
Happy New Year to all BJers, especially all the FPers and, most especially, to John Cole. This place rocks and I would not have gotten through the last six or seven years without it. Our NYE here was quiet. We had a nice bottle of champagne, a lovely dinner of lobster tails, and lots of giggles watching Anderson Cooper and Kathy Griffin. Didn’t quite make midnight, but who cares? The fiscal cliff follies seems to have turned out about as well as it could have considering the nihilists the WH was negotiating with. Firebaggers will never be happy, but since they are just as nihilistic as the Teabaggers, I really don’t give a damn.
May 2013 be good to us all.
Valdivia
Happy 2013!
I was one of those with worries about the fiscal deal but have come around to it after reading more and hearing Obama’s presser yesterday. I still worry that the debt ceiling is now going to be a bigger fight because of the shape of the deal but I am going to keep an open mind til it comes to pass.
I hope they find a way to explain to the population at large what the debt ceiling is this time around.
SiubhanDuinne
Most years I am asleep before midnight, but am always awakened by the noise of celebratory fireworks and (presumably celebratory) guns. Last night I fell asleep before midnight but it just dawned on me that there were no guns or firebangs. Very nice. I hope it’s a new annual tradition.
shortstop
Wishing recovery and good emotional health to HL’s son and Napoleon.
Thlayli
The last week or so, I have been sleeping a lot — like 10-11 hours at a stretch. Last night was one of those, 8:00 pm to 6:00 am.
So today I will be watching football and reading the Firebaggers’ whines about the deal, which they would be delivering no matter what the exact details of the deal were. See Bernard’s post below and comment #16 here. Obama must be disappointed that he didn’t get to slash Social Security like he REALLY REALLY wanted to do, eh guys?
Schlemizel
@HeartlandLiberal:
It has to be tough to watch your kid f up that badly. My oldest made a lot of stupid decisions at an early age, none involving intoxicants though just stupid life decisions, and is paying for them in a life that is a lot more difficult life. I know how hard it has been for me to watch him do that and it would be only a tiny fraction of the pain you must have to deal with.
Hopefully 2013 will be the year he pulls out of it.
Elizabelle
@shortstop:
You made me laugh re Napoleon.
Now merely a flaky French pastry to me. It’s pie Francais!
Machine-Gun Preacher (formerly Ben Franklin)
I hope this year’s better than the last…..Happy New Year.
“Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism
This-ism, that-ism, ism ism ism
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
(C’mon)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Minister, Sinister, Banisters and Canisters,
Bishops, Fishops, Rabbis, and Pop Eyes, Bye bye, Bye byes
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
(Let me tell you now)
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
Revolution, Evolution, Masturbation, Flagellation, Regulation,
Integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance
Ev’rybody’s talkin’ ’bout
John and Yoko, Timmy Leary, Rosemary,
Tommy Smothers, Bobby Dylan, Tommy Cooper,
Derek Taylor, Norman Mailer, Alan Ginsberg, Hare Krishna
Hare Hare Krishna
All we are saying is give peace a chance
All we are saying is give peace a chance”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwNg4lHFj7I
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
I don’t think any of the US of Pop mashups have managed to recapture the novelty of ’09s. Something about the hook that refuses to leave you alone.
Far as the actual year, I’ll just say that I’m glad ’12 is behind me and look forward to the not-really-a-clean slate of ’13.
gorram
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik: Agreed on the US of Pop mixes. It seems like the ’11 one in particular was designed around visual impact (intentionally redubbing music video scenes, editing in his name in certain scenes, and deciding one clip should be played backwards – it felt like a bag of cheap tricks) more than the acoustics, so I think a bit of it is Earworm having lost his way if just a touch.
He also seemed a lot better with the editing knife in ’09 where he’d just take a bit from a song that didn’t mesh well with the theme. In later years he seems to have felt like he had to include a more significant chunk from each song sampled (with a few exceptions, admittedly). ’09 has a clear message, ’11 gets at least some sort of idea across too, but what the hell is Gangnam style communicating this year? It’s just not as cohesive…
TheMightyTrowel
dead thread but answers in case someone looks. i hate crowds. only went to Sydney because my mom was visiting and she wanted to. future Australian new year’s celebrations will involve a tv and a few friends. also i am always in these threads because there is a 16 hour time difference between east coast US and me.