Althouse: 2020!

January 1, 2020

2020!

I just wanted to write that.

The twenties! It will be so satisfying to say that, to be in a decade with a real name, like the old-time decades I knew so well — the fifties, the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties. We were verbally impoverished these last 2 decades. Now, once again, time will have the distinction of a name, a decade name.

The vague gray time is over. I feel so optimistic!

Happy New Year to all!

I hope you rang it in the way you like. I certainly did it my way by being asleep and then up at 5. We watched some episodes of "Twilight Zone" on the SyFy channel — "The Hitchhiker," "The Monsters Are Due on Main Street," "Eye of the Beholder," "The Invaders."

32 comments:

stlcdr said...: Maybe we will start getting some decent and interesting music, too. One can only hope.; 1/1/20, 6:02 AM
rhhardin said...: Shetland (TV series) is definitively running out of plot ideas in season 4. The perp's in Norway and the lady cop is having PTSD episodes, as well as just about every other neurotic citizen by the way. Teenaged girls pout and are rebellious. I'd favor just blowing the islands up. #newyeardvd; 1/1/20, 6:04 AM
Hagar said...: One thing I miss is the donk-donk from a single fishing boat out on the fjord in the half-light of a summer night.; 1/1/20, 6:15 AM
Craig Howard said...: And “Trump2020” has a nice alliterative ring to it.; 1/1/20, 6:30 AM
Polyzen said...: I wake in the new year wondering what role dreams play in the simulation; 1/1/20, 6:43 AM
rehajm said...: And “Trump2020” has a nice alliterative ring to it.

The left always says the next election is the most critical election if our lifetimes but this one is the first where that seems true for me. Do we get a flat rejection of leftie globalist ideals like British or a continuation of the deep state with Hillary or Joe or do we embrace decline with a Warren?

Warren means the Crash of ‘29 shows up at the wrong end...; 1/1/20, 6:45 AM
Anthony said...: ”I certainly did it my way by being asleep and then up at 5.”

Yeah.........same here.

My only resolution (and I hardly ever make them) is to practice my guitar at least 15 minutes a day. If I’m not appreciably better or enjoying it by June 30 I’m finally giving it up.; 1/1/20, 6:49 AM
Danny Lemieux said...: Just maybe we are on the cusp of another "roarin' 20s".; 1/1/20, 6:49 AM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: I have shared this on Althouse before, and I still post it on Facebook every year. But I just now realized I have been doing this for twenty years now!

Umpteen years ago, I happened to be at my folks for New Years. The guys were asleep on couches and Mom and I were sitting drinking and talking and talking and talking. Those of you that knew Mary will remember late evenings like that.

The subject of resolutions came up and somehow we decided we were going to do a good deed at least once every day for a year.

It seemed so much better than depriving ourselves of something, or quitting something, or losing weight or whatever. While there are days we could do a really good deed, it could also be as simple as letting someone ahead of us in traffic, helping a person find the right aisle in the grocery, being nice to a telemarketer, or even a simple smile when someone needed it.

Mom passed away later that year.

I have done a good deed every day since, for the all these years. Every single day I could.

And every time I do, I think of her.

Thanks Mom.; 1/1/20, 7:07 AM
Leslie Graves said...: I have been holding a sleeping nine-day old baby girl for an hour. She’s a twin. In a bit I’ll hand her over to my husband and start making breakfast for the rest of the household. Very happy and looking forward to 2020.

I’m really grateful to get my mind stimulated a la Althouse in 19 different ways every morning. Just love it.; 1/1/20, 7:31 AM
AllenS said...: About 2 o'clock in the morning on the "Twilight Zone" extravaganza last night, there was an episode where some man had a tape recorder and he could order up people, like a wife, and then a girl friend by keeping that part of the tape. When he wanted them gone, he would go to his safe and take out an envelope that had their name on it, and a couple of feet of tape in it, then throw the envelope into the fire, and POOF! that person was gone. At the end of that episode, Rod Serling shows up and starts to do his usual summation of what happened, when the man says WHOA! then goes to the safe and comes out with an envelope with Rod Serling written on it, throws it into the fire, and POOF! Rod is gone. Really different ending.

"Twilight Zone" never disappoints.; 1/1/20, 7:48 AM
bwebster said...: Happy New Year! My sweet wife crashed early, while I stayed up past midnight binge-watching the first several episodes of “Better Than Us”, a Russian series with echoes of the series “Humans”, viz., a near-future where humanoid robots are common but relatively dumb - and then an experimental one-off model shows up at a corporation with both emotional empathy and the ability and willingness to injure or kill. Well done show; I may finish it today depending upon whether the bowl games look interesting at all.; 1/1/20, 8:07 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Annie C. that's a wonderful idea.You just provided me with my New Year's resolution.

Happy New Year!; 1/1/20, 8:10 AM
Sydney said...: We binge-watched The Mandalorian until we fell asleep at 11. Good show. And I don’t even like Star Wars.; 1/1/20, 8:11 AM
Anne in Rockwall, TX said...: Thanks exiled. It's amazing how quickly it becomes a habit. And it's the good kind of habit.; 1/1/20, 8:22 AM
narciso said...: I don't have Disney plus, but by all descriptions it appears so, they were smart to follow the Western template, using the post Civil War period as the model for Post Empi; 1/1/20, 8:50 AM
narciso said...: a smaller story, on a large canvas, pascal's character is much like eastwood's drifter in the spaghetti westerns, not exactly like Malcolm Reynolds in firefly,; 1/1/20, 9:07 AM
Sydney said...: Narciso- Yes, it has a very Western vibe to it. Also kind of a knightly quest type feel. Like the tales of the round table or of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.; 1/1/20, 9:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I have been holding a sleeping nine-day old baby girl for an hour. She’s a twin.."

Wow! Congratulations!; 1/1/20, 9:13 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I have done a good deed every day since, for the all these years. Every single day I could."

Great idea.

Boy Scout slogan.; 1/1/20, 9:14 AM
mezzrow said...: I ought to be a teen again. Hello, twenties!; 1/1/20, 9:27 AM
JAORE said...: Here's to the Boring Twenties.; 1/1/20, 10:12 AM
Sam L. said...: 2020... or 20-20: I can see clearly now, the rain is gone, and the fog/haze/smog/dark-of-night...; 1/1/20, 10:40 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: Happy new year to all of you, and the assurance of prayers for those who are ill or in otherwise seriously challenging circumstances.

After Mass, people seemed to be for some reason quite preoccupied with the Rose Bowl game, and then I remembered the series of comments in last night's post. I'll root for the Badgers because at least Wisconsin doesn't try to persuade me to donate money to them: am always briefly irritated to receive begging letters from the U. of O.

There is a dun-colored hummingbird that has been, this winter, making brief stops at my window. (There are seeds and suet out.) I don't recall ever seeing a hummingbird in previous winters.; 1/1/20, 11:14 AM
Yancey Ward said...: I am rarely asleep at midnight, but was last night. I was recovering from a very nasty bout with the flu. I don't know if this year's vaccine pack would have prevented it, but you should go get the shot if you haven't. You don't want this strain of the flu, believe me.; 1/1/20, 12:06 PM
rcocean said...: You didn't like the "oughts"? I liked saying "in ought-four" bush was elected. But now we can party - its the roaring twenties baby. It'll be the bees knees. Twenty-three skiddo.

This year everyone will see clearly and elect Trump.; 1/1/20, 12:30 PM
rcocean said...: Always loved jack weston in the Monsters due on Maple street. Great Hawaiian shirt.; 1/1/20, 12:37 PM
LA_Bob said...: ”I certainly did it my way by being asleep and then up at 5.”

That was my plan. It's what I've done every year for maybe the last 25 years. But, it didn't work out that way last night.

"Maybe we will start getting some decent and interesting music, too. One can only hope."

I stumbled into a YouTube video of a young black fellow listening to Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick for the first time. I found it captivating. Turns out there's a whole genre of these "first time" and "reaction" videos from people listening to music from two generations back. And liking it (which gives me hope for better music, although I will always prefer classical)!

So, I ended up exploring some of this genre for a few hours, which took me well past midnight. It was okay I didn't go to bed then, because the illegal fireworks would not have let me sleep right away. Bah humbug! But, Happy New Year anyway.

Here's the link that got me started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXx_nmksyCQ; 1/1/20, 1:05 PM
narciso said...: this was the pilot,

http://tzone.the-croc.com/tzeplist/element.html; 1/1/20, 1:13 PM
Bunkypotatohead said...: You can't really refer to "the twenties" until you're past them.; 1/1/20, 3:34 PM
Paco Wové said...: "Jethro...? ...Tull...? Legit never heard of this guy." 😄; 1/1/20, 6:45 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Which one is Pink?; 1/1/20, 10:51 PM