2009 at a Glance

Let’s drink to ‘09 with a Pepsi . . . that’s fine (though hot cocoa may well be more fitting!)
The recession was hairy, the Swine Flu was scary, and Oprah announced she was quitting!

While we loved Lady Gaga, the Octomom saga struck many as shameless and wrong.
We witnessed the rift between Kanye and Swift and Phelps was caught smoking a bong.

When a pilot’s quick brain saved a passenger plane on the Hudson, the tale was a thriller.
Balloon Boy was phony as rubber baloney, but the abs on the werewolves were killer!

A governor’s flame was an Argentine dame bringing scandal to South Carolina.
There were pirate attacks, there was Goldman and Sachs
There was poisonous drywall from China.
The Prez was sworn in, and he flashed us a grin while exuding his usual charms.
Though some thought it shady, our stylish First Lady asserted her right to bare arms.

While Michelle was in Vogue, Sarah Palin went rogue and political tensions were showing.
With a gathering storm over health care reform, the Tea Party movement was growing.
The Hollywood crew gave us "Transformers 2" while "Up" was a true work of art.
There was Bruno (a jerk), plus a young Captain Kirk and an overweight mall cop named Blart.

Those ad-men on "Mad Men" were sexy-yet-sad-men with lives full of pressure and toil.
Adam Lambert came out, leaving no shred of doubt, and who didn’t love Susan Boyle?
O’Brien shown bright as the star of "Tonight"
Stephanopolus stepped in for Sawyer.
And, of course, a divorce was so quickly in force we watched "Jon and Kate Plus Her Lawyer."

When a huge SUV hit a hydrant and tree and the juiciest rumors proved true,
the endorsements went winging, for that kind of swinging just wasn’t the Tiger we knew.
And Pop lost its King. What a terrible thing for an artist with hit after hit.
There were songs and orations with loud lamentations for everyone knew "This Was It."

There were others as well, who went out, sad to tell.
We saw Cronkite and Kennedy fall. Bea Arthur is gone, Ed McMahon has passed on and Mary left Peter and Paul.
With the passing of Farrah we ended an era and Soupy and Swayze went, too.
DeLuise said goodbye as did Oxy-Clean guy and the soft spoken star of "Kung Fu."

Yet some news was brighter and made us feel lighter in spite of our sorrows and peeves.
There was Twitter for chat and a keyboarding cat and those trendy new blankets with sleeves.
Though we still can’t erase all the troubles we face from the climate to high unemployment
Let’s be of good cheer and they won’t interfere with our holiday fun and enjoyment.

We’ll turn from the news to whatever we choose be it Lifetime or ESPN.
And after a break we’ll be ready to take the big plunge into Two Thousand Ten.

A Thought on Yemen

After the recent news about the 23-year-old man who tried to blow up an airliner flying from the Netherlands to Detroit on Christmas Day, I heard his plan was actually hatched by his Al-Quida friends in Yemen. The very mention of that country located on the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia brought back a flood of memories of my semester in Dr. Sterdevant’s International Relations class at Huntington Park High School. On the first day of class, each of his students was assigned a country or two to "watch" during the semester and report on whatever was happening. I was assigned five countries - Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and Oman - because they were small and, at the time, unimportant in the world view of things. I got an "A" in the class (not sure what that grade was based on) but for the entire semester - despite the fact that I combed the newspapers (B.I. - before Internet) every night looking for anything I could report in class - I only found one small mention about something which had happened in Afghanistan. My, how times have changed!!! Who would have thought - back then - those five little, non-decript countries would today be at the center of the current war on terrorism?