Happy 2014!!! Welcome back from our little holiday break. We hope you had a healthy and joyous holiday season. To ease ourselves back into world of reality, let's start with a little look back to yesteryear...{{{{slow dissolve to yesteryear..woooooo}}}}
Uh, hummm, Yesteryear seems to be little hungover right now...sorry about that. It had a bad year, so you can't really blame it, can you? I mean, with inaugurations, White House incompetence, government shutdowns, Obamacare website "glitches", constantly moving health insurance rules and deadlines, hurricanes (oh, wait, there weren't any), global warming (oh, wait, that didn't happen either), red-lines crossed, creepy Mayors and mayoral candidates who just didn't know when to quit, and a new Pope! Yesteryear must be exhausted! [I hear that Yesteryear is going on an extended vacation to Syria to get some much needed rest and relaxation...]
Sooooo, hmmmm, what do we do now? Well, let's see, since Yesteryear is otherwise indisposed, maybe Dave Barry can help with his really astute AND hilarious take in Dave Barry's Year in Review - 2013! Now, Mr. Barry is rarely political, but even he couldn't help himself this year.
My personal choice in the category of "Best Excuse of the 2013", I'm not going out on limb here by choosing embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's confession after frequent initial denials when he caught on tape smoking crack -
"Yes, I have smoked crack...probably in one of my drunken stupors..."
But hey, it's not all bad. We only lost $15 billion in the Auto industry bailout! That's something that might make Yesteryear feel a little better...
Please feel free to add your own "greatest moments" below! Enjoy!
Uh, hummm, Yesteryear seems to be little hungover right now...sorry about that. It had a bad year, so you can't really blame it, can you? I mean, with inaugurations, White House incompetence, government shutdowns, Obamacare website "glitches", constantly moving health insurance rules and deadlines, hurricanes (oh, wait, there weren't any), global warming (oh, wait, that didn't happen either), red-lines crossed, creepy Mayors and mayoral candidates who just didn't know when to quit, and a new Pope! Yesteryear must be exhausted! [I hear that Yesteryear is going on an extended vacation to Syria to get some much needed rest and relaxation...]
Sooooo, hmmmm, what do we do now? Well, let's see, since Yesteryear is otherwise indisposed, maybe Dave Barry can help with his really astute AND hilarious take in Dave Barry's Year in Review - 2013! Now, Mr. Barry is rarely political, but even he couldn't help himself this year.
My personal choice in the category of "Best Excuse of the 2013", I'm not going out on limb here by choosing embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's confession after frequent initial denials when he caught on tape smoking crack -
"Yes, I have smoked crack...probably in one of my drunken stupors..."
But hey, it's not all bad. We only lost $15 billion in the Auto industry bailout! That's something that might make Yesteryear feel a little better...
Please feel free to add your own "greatest moments" below! Enjoy!
23 comments:
You know, 2013 really was a bad year. Let's hope that 2014 is much, much better.
Barry's column is hilarious. I like how the UN voted to unlike North Korea. LOL!
I've always had a soft spot for honest rogues...Rob Ford fits the bill...he's a maroon for sure, but he is facing his issues, in his way. So many public figures need to confess with that sort of candor...Barack Obama: Hey, I know I said I know what I'm doing, but hey, I don't..
2013 really was one for the crapper. I like how Dave makes a running gag of pivoting back to the economy "which has somehow been recovering for years now without actually getting any better."
Critch, you have to hand it to Ford. Maybe this is why he got elected in the first place. He faces issues even his own. Though I am not sure what his record of achievement was before the crack revlelations.
Andrew - I LOVE Dave Barry. I have followed him for years and always look forward to his Year In Review and Dave Barry's Gift Guide.
I like his running gag about the "shocked and outraged and of course surprised President Obama states that he knew nothing about these activities until he read about them in the newspapers"...
"he is facing his issues,"
Well, except for the fact that he denied the allegations at first. Only admitting them when proof was put forward.
But Kit, you have to admit that admitting you are a crackhead because you're an alcoholic too is pretty much facing up to it. Marion Berry still hasn't actually admitted he was a crackhead...only that he was set up by his adversaries who put him in the vicinity of crack...and of course he had to smoke it, right?
Well when the crack is right there...!
"Stay off crack kids, it's a ghetto drug." Bob Roberts
Found it!
Tryanmax - That is really sad...true and sad. Not that I think we should be sending our children off to war, but that we no longer require our children to give service to their country for at least a limited amount of time. When one has to delay self-gratification by having to do something you do not want to do, it teaches discipline.
It started with the post-'72 generation. And this so rightfully depicts how our idea of "sacrifice" has evolved. From soldiers being conscripted into the military to smug/snarky flanneljammy-wearing prissy-pantses whose greatest sacrifice will be giving up double lattes for a weekend for a "worthy cause"...not all or most, but too many...
That Dave Barry column was hilarious. I used to read him in the Washington Post but I stopped reading the Post in the 90s (during the ridiculous over-coverage of Princess Diana's death) and subsequently somehow got the impression Dave Barry was retired or something.
Anthony - Dave Barry "retired" from writing a weekly column some time ago. But he maintains a website, blog, and writes columns when he feels like it via the Miami Herald. He has moved on to writing books and even a hit musical running on Broadway right now (Peter and the Starcatcher). He is one of my favorite humorists..
Check it out - www.davebarry.com - some of his old columns are there and they are still as funny as they were when he wrote them.
Uh, he should pay me now...
Hey - We are entering Snow-maggedon! 100 miles of snow is going to fall on NYC over night and you probably won't hear from me again until Springtime! RUN! BUY STUFF BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
Well, at least that is the way it's being presented in the news media...
Stay safe, Bev! And remember the rule on cannibalism, wait at least three days after the power goes out.
As an aside, let's hope De Blasio makes a fool of himself. :)
Seriously, NYC gets snow every winter, just like most of the US. The rest of us have developed coping mechanisms for it. Unless wildly panicking in a public display is a coping mechanism.
Andrew - di Blasio hasn't appointed anyone yet, so Bloomberg's people are still in charge where it's really important. He's more interested in shutting down the horse-carriage trade anyway.
Save us! Funny you should bring up cannibalism. We're whining that we don't have any temp workers right now 'cause they would be the first to be sacrificed...one paper cut and there'd be a feeding frenzy! Okay, we were just kidding...maybe.
Tyanmax - I always laugh because all the "Yankees" used to poo-poo us in Dallas when our ice storms would hit and the city shut down. Now, if you've ever been in North Texas ice storm, they are brutal. And in our defense, we are not equipped for that kind of weather. Heat, yes. Three inches of ice on the roads not so much.
When I moved here, I was expecting everyone to just go about their business. But what I found out was that as soon as one snowflake falls the city shuts down, the shelves at the grocery store empty out, and suddenly no one can make it to work.
Bev, Always keep a nice plump temp around... just in case. ;-)
I'm amazed how easily NYC shuts down when it starts snowing. For a city in a snow zone and where everyone walks, you would think they would be better at handling it.
It's not the government, it's the "people" and the media. Any excuse to not make it to work. What better excuse than there's snowflakes falling. In some defense of this, I do have co-workers who live in Connecticut and New Jersey who might not be able to get home if it gets too bad. If public transport shuts down, ti is a possibility.
Andrew, Bev, Anyone
There was an interesting new rule with our healthcare plan at work. It did not affect me directly but thinking about it if this is the law it is somewhat insidious.
We were told that if your spouse is offered Health Insurance at their place of work that they must take that insurance and could not be on the company plan. As such there are now three classes of plans instead of two. There is still Employee only and Employee plus family including spouse if that spouse does not work or get insurance at work but now there is Employee only plus children no spouse. This has three different monthly costs.
I did not think about it at first but that can really stink. As an example let's say the wife works at a big company like Disney with good insurance but the husband works for a say a small architectural firm that offers a less robust package,
The husband is now forced to take the cut rate version from his company and the small company is forced to cover the employees cost.
Is this really part of the law and was it done on purpose?
Indi, It's my understanding that what you describe isn't a requirement of the new law, but it is a result of it. It's a way for companies to trim back, since a) they cover a portion of the premium and this would reduce that, and b) they know that in most cases the spouse's employer is required to provide insurance also. That's just a layman's interpretation. I'm sure a more technical explanation would sound much tidier.
Well that makes sense...
My company never provided what I'd call good insurance but at this point I wonder due to the deductibles if no insurance is as good as what I have now.
Still this can really affect a lot of people taking away choice as well as making things more expensive.
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