I'm still looking for drawing of the tick that make him lovable and memorable. I've thought of a name: Tock the Tick. See? He represents time.
***
I've done all my out-of-the-house New Year's celebrating yesterday and today, and now I'll be home blogging tonight, so please hang out here. I've got a couple things I want to post, and then I'll start a New Year's Eve live-blog post. We'll talk about the old and the new and what's on TV, we may reproduce some of what passes for conversation chez Althouse, and if we are lucky, as the clock ticks, there will be more New Year's ticks.
Posts
20 comments:
Warmest wishes to all for a healthy and peaceful 2009.
My predictions for 2009, and remember, you read them first here:
NY Senate Seat - Following the debacle of considering Caroline Kennedy to fill the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, New York Governor David Paterson will hold open auditions for the role. A panel of judges will conclude that Robert DeNiro gave the most effective audition, and Paterson will appoint him to the Senate. DeNiro will begin his first Senate speech by saying "Are you looking at me?" several times.
IL Senate Seat - Following the debacle of believing that Senate Democrats would welcome an African-American into that august body, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich will withdraw the appointment of former state Attorney General Ray Burris and appoint federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald will take the Senate seat appointment because it includes a $1 million townhouse in Georgetown as a gift from the 'Friends of Blago', a Chicago charity organization that aids widows, orphans and Irish attorneys.
Oprah Winfrey Relocates - Oprah Winfrey will buy a 50,000 SF fixer-upper in DC and will also relocate Harpo Studios to our nation's capitol. Her new show, energized by the election of Barack Obama, will be staged in the East Wing of the White House, and include members of the Obama administration as daily guests. A regular feature will be the "Barry Cam", in which a small camera will be attached to President Obama so viewers can watch as he goes through his daily routine.
Kenya Chic - All things Kenyan will become hip, cool and necessary for the wealthy elite. This will include vacations to Kenya (staying near the Obama family compound), wearing of Kenyan-inspired clothing to cocktail parties and other social gatherings, excessive suntanning, and self-starvation in order to look like a Kenyan marathon runner. Speaking with a Swahili accent will replace the faux British accent in the State Department.
Changes at State Department - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will implement substantial and wide-ranging changes at the State Department. Included in those changes will be new policies that allow the Sec State to sign bills into law, be elected for a four term, send bills to Congress for action, maintain a standing military, and levy taxes. The Sec States responsibility will be expanded to include the US, which is, after all, a nation.
Tock's kids could be Femto, Pico, and Nano (the latter wanting to run for Supreme Court Justice)
Femto, Pico and Nano's Grandma was Milli, as in Thoroughly Modern... fame, but life moves faster these days.
Imagine if that tick had Lyme disease.
Would we put the Lyme in the coconut?
Following Michael_H's lead:
DeNiro for New York Senate,
Dan Ackroyd for Illinois,
Brian Wilson for California...
Possible backstory:
Unlike the baby new year who grows old as the year progresses, Tock starts the new year engorged with the blood of holiday revelers, but wanes as the year progresses, only to be renewed next December.
Ann, can we assume that you going to be doing a post revue for the year, as last year, the year before that, and the year before that? (There ought to be a category for these posts, by the way.)
Simon, I know that's been a tradition, but I'm just trying to finish the year in quotes.
I guess I should do that... maybe tomorrow.
Thanks for remembering!
Our New Year's Eve tradition is a bit unusual. We started it decades ago, when our kids were 4 and 6.
At 11:30 PM, everyone is given pencil, paper and a broom. We write down all the things that went wrong during the year, the things we didn't like, the things we don't want to have happen again.
At 11:55 PM, everyone tears up the paper on which the 'bad things' are written and scatters the pieces of paper on the floor, in a trial from the back door to the front door. It helps if the floor is vinyl, wood or tile.
At 11:59 PM, the front and back doors are opened, and everyone uses their brooms to sweep the pieces of paper out the back door, yelling "get out, old year, shoo, shoo, get out of here!"
At 12:00 midnight, everyone runs to the front door with their brooms and shoos in the new year, yelling, laughing, screaming and falling over each other.
Our kids loved it, and as they grew, the tradition fall by the wayside, or so we thought until one year when they were home from college for Thanksgiving and mentioned it. Turns out that they introduced it to their friends at college, who thought it was a hoot.
They're grown and living on their own, and still do it at New year's Eve parties.
I can still hear the laughter and screams of delight as pajama and slipper clad kids chased out the old year and swept away the bad things that may have happened and swept in the hopefulness of a new year.
My tradition is sorta like Michael's except it involves handguns, alcohol, and unemployment, being from Detroit and all...
OT, Althouse, did you catch the series finale of Boston Legal? It had the Supreme Court (with speaking parts!) in it, and Scalia (in fishing duds!) marries Shatner and Spaeder on a dock. I don't recall another incident of the Supreme Court ever appearing on a prime-time fictionalized show...is there?
Do you remember the Phantom Tollbooth? Tock, the watchdog, was named Tock because his older brother, named Tick, made the sound tock:
Of course you know the rest--my brother is called Tick because he goes tocktocktocktocktocktocktock and I am called Tock because I go tickticktickticktickticktick and both of us are forever burdened with the wrong names.
Happy New Year, all. I'm going to bed.
This year, of course, I am shooing firewood into the fireplace and Jameson into my glass. Hence the Jameson fingers and misspellings.
And listening to internet radio, since my cottage is free of television reception. Right now I'm listening to WAMU, which is a superb all Bluegrass radio station broadcasting in Virginia.
Bluegrass is the jazz of country music. It has solos, riffs, complexity and exceptional musicianship. Go on the YouTube and look up 'Ricky Skaggs and Boston Pops'. You'll find four or five brilliant pieces played by Skaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder, fronting the Boston Pops.
Ron, I didn't watch it, but my understanding was that an actor played Scalia there, just as in the earlier episide based on Kennedy v. Louisiana.
IIRC, though, Justice Blackmun played Justice Story in the movie "Amistad."
Happy new year, Everybody. I must hasten off to a party. I'd rather stay home, I really would, but I've been lassoed.
But I've put my hoofie down. Not verbally, just mentally. No Champaign-like bubbling wine for me, no siree, I'm taking a load of Newcastle just to make sure I get my preference. See? Now, that kind of planning comes with maturity.
I hope people don't sing Auld Lang Syne, that slobbering maudlin song bugs me. Plus, I don't even know what the words mean. And noise makers. And hats. Oi. If these people do that, then that does it! I'll never do it again.
Plus I had to get dressed and my clothes feel too constrictive.
Plus I cut my finger.
So I'm getting off to a poor start.
One sort of good thing is the cologne I put on is apparently irresistible. People invade my space unnaturally and remain there uncomfortably, and dogs follow me and when I sit down, cats try to walk on me. One jumped on the sofa behind me and wrapped its tail around my head like a headband. Another one twirled around my leg.
See ya next year.
Simon, thanks for the info! I had read that it was the real justices, which I had found hard to believe, but hey, weirder things, y'know? Seems they were all actors, so skunk me!
No parties for me this year, thank heavens. While I enjoy parties for the most part, I have grown to dislike New Year's Eve parties.
The slobbering drunks that usually insist on explaining the value of whole life insurance or the problems being had with a wife/husband or describing every stroke of a golf game played six months ago are wearying. Plus there's the kissing muciod strangers at midnight.
The drive home can be frightening, what with every second or third car being aimed by a drunk. I enjoy being at home in front of the fireplace in stead.
One of my neighbors lights off a big array of fireworks at midnight. It's become a ritual to put on my parka, polar boots and heavy pants, take a lawn chair out onto the snow covered patio and watch the fireworks.
If anyone was going to do it, Scalia might, I would think - he's the only one of the nine who one can imagine hosting SNL. (That seems to be assured for the next four years, too, given that Obama's victory seems to rule out Frank Easterbrook or Alex Kozinski being appointed.) In this instance, however, discretion seems to have been the better part of valor.
I was at the grocery store yesterday and they were all out of thyme... It was very strange...
Post a Comment