Notes for the New Year

Well, so much for the "big nor'easter of 2000." Boston got about an inch of snow, maybe another inch of rain on Saturday. Having psyched myself up for the event, I was horribly disppointed, but I bet all those people who went and bought snow-blowers were more upset.

Anyway, another new year is upon us. The last one certainly was eventful on both a personal and worldwide level. The truism about time moving faster as you get older appears to be in abeyance at the moment; last January was a subjective decade ago. I accomplished a lot that I wanted to do over the past twelve months—lost ten pounds, learned about programming, got a new job and survived my wedding. I have high hopes for the coming year as well.

This despite the fact that George W. Bush is president, thanks to an odd process that I'm sure we'll see a dozen books about by next Christmas. Half the people I know seem to be wandering around in a puzzled fugue, repeating that fact ("he's president!") as if trying to convince themselves of its truth. We can only hope that he doesn't do too much damage, even as the economy makes weird grinding noises that we really ought to see a mechanic about one of these days ("I can't believe he's president!").

Also despite the fact that "mad cow disease" is looking to be the the next popular disease to hit the human species. Perhaps this is behind those suddenly-everywhere commercials from the Beef Council talking up how good red meat is for you. Suuuuure, guys. Ranchers must spend half of every night praying that no one finds a case in the US. Heck, one remark from Oprah dropped their sales through the floor, I hate to think what a certified case of BSE would do. Will do, rather; the odds are in favor. I've got lots of vegetarian cookbooks.

And even despite the ad I saw last night for the new FOX show, Temptation Island. They take people in (theoretically) committed relationships, drop them on an island with a bunch of attractive singles, and let nature take its seductive course. It's small solace to think that the entire FOX board of directors is going to hell. My friends and I used to joke about how long it would be before we ended up with Running Man, but we're not kidding any more. It would probably get even better ratings than Survivor did.

On second thought, what the heck. Maybe the milllennium will mean the end of the world after all....

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