2021 THE YEAR IN REVIEW

 



Each year brings its own unique set of triumphs and defeats, hardships, and joys.


What can we say about 2021?
It was not quite as unspeakably abominable as 2020.
While that's not exactly splendid, 
(It’s like saying that dog feces are marginally nicer to have in your living room than Hitler.
It's not much, but it is something)

What was better about 2021?
We emerged from pandemic cocoons and started connecting with others.
(Granted, the vast majority of these connections
were attempts at identity theft or pitches for extended warranties.) 
Sony announced a new console during the pandemic...the Plaguestation 5.

We did learn things during 2021.
It is possible to have substantial parts of the workforce working remotely.
Before Covid, this was generally unthinkable. 
(Though it's best to avoid telling a joke on ZOOM...it's not remotely funny.)

Supporting local businesses and services close to home is prudent.
(We should have known this before Covid but apparently we didn't.)

Democracy cannot be taken for granted.
In the U.S .we learned that the presidential election was RIGGED in a massive conspiracy
that was far too complex and sophisticated for anyone to understand except for the "My Pillow" guy.

In January, Trump loyalists attacked the U.S. Capitol.
The riot was widely condemned, with much of the blame falling on Trump.
He received the harshest punishment allowed under the Constitution:
A permanent ban from Twitter! (The first president to suffer this fate since Martin Van Buren.)

After years of  bitter nonsense, Americans, exhausted from assaults on reason,  join together in exchanging memes of Bernie Sanders attending the inauguration wearing mittens. 


The assault on language got even worse in 2021.
From the bowels of dystopian hell,  the prefixes "meta" and "crypto" used their hook proteins to attach themselves to any word and caused a public mental health pandemic.
Hopefully anyone who uses them in 2022 will be swiftly given a sea urchin enema. 

In the world of business, 2021 saw the spectacular rise in the stock price of GameStop, a video game retail chain that has not sold an actual video game since the Macarena was introduced.
The skyrocketing stock price was the result of small investors taking advantage of a short squeeze margin-call algorithm to leverage the arbitrage and thus create a classic liquidity debenture.
While I have no earthly idea what that means ,  it seemed to be interfering with the efforts of wealthy hedge-fund people to get even wealthier, so I'm all for it.

Political hipsters & social media followers put  Dr. Seuss on the list of individuals who are deemed to be objectionable. This list includes George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Pepe LePew and Mr. Potato Head. Also people are starting to take a hard look at Pat The Bunny, and if you have to ask why
YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!   

Hopes for 2022?
I hope people finally realize that books like "1984", and films such as
"Idiocracy" or the more recent "Don't Look Up" are not instructional. 





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