Year End Recap for 2015

Life will try its best to drag you down into the depths some days. Don't you let it.



Also going down (temporarily) is the price of the Kindle edition of my novel Patches of Grey at Amazon. It will be discounted to a mere 99 cents beginning on December 17th. You'll have until Christmas to obtain it at a steal of a price before it returns to the still extremely reasonable cost of $2.99.

And now on to my recap of some of the most memorable happenings of 2015.  It was many things. Dull was not one of them.

Serena Williams, although supposed to be past her prime according to Father Time, continued to win and win and win and as result was named the sportsperson of the year.  This launched a bunch of think pieces about the fact that she looks very sexy on the Sports Illustrated cover, and whether this is a good or bad thing.  Why it would be a bad thing, I have no idea. It doesn’t take much to launch think pieces these days.  

An icon unlike any other. Congrats @SerenaWilliams. 2015 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year. pic.twitter.com/2NWfNEV6mo

— Gatorade (@Gatorade) December 14, 2015

Black Lives Matter. No, Blue Lives Matter. No, All Lives Matter. No, Just Black Lives Matter because too many have demonstrated that they believe to the contrary. What do I think? I believe that Love Matters.

A sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird dropped. Even more shocking than learning that Harper Lee actually wrote another book, and that she actually allowed it to be published after all these years, was finding out that Harper turned the beloved icon Atticus Finch into an a-hole in Go Set a Watchman.  


Apparently a woman’s mug may grace US currency in the relatively near future.  Maybe it will be the $20 bill.  Maybe it will be a black woman. Perhaps Harriet Tubman. Think pieces launched over whether the selection of Harriet would be a righteous act or not.  Sounds like a well-deserved honor and flawless plan to me.    


Men such as Freddie Gray died under mysterious circumstances.  Police officers far too frequently seemed to be at fault, to be doing the exact opposite of protecting and serving.  When arrests were not immediate, people protested. They marched.  Sometimes they rioted. They demanded justice.  Or was it revenge that they craved? Sometimes they got what they wanted. Other times they did not.  Racism continues. Needless gun deaths continue to happen as well.  But there are fewer Confederate flags waving in the South now, so at least there’s that.


Pete Rose is still not in baseball’s Hall of Fame, proving that the more things change the more they stay the same.


In spite of numerous obituaries, BOOKS continued to be printed and independent brick and mortar bookstores continue to sell them.  Some of these books are written by well-known perpetual Best Sellers. Others are penned by your next door neighbors who just may be extremely talented.   

That's the spirit, Waterstones. pic.twitter.com/iLEKtp2Pkz

— David Pegg (@davidtpegg) December 22, 2015

The unsettling notion that President Barack Obama could be followed by President Donald Trump stubbornly persists because polls continue to defy logic and show Trump maintaining a lead over his GOP opponents.  Hillary or Bernie will have to save us from such a cruel fate. Either one will do.  
 

Various formerly popular African American celebrities did/said something to lose cool points and be accused of not being sufficiently black.  This was to be expected. Rachel Dolezal happened. This was not to be expected AT ALL.  

We collectively lost the capacity to think fondly of The Cosby Show.

Bruce Jenner vanished and Caitlyn Jenner happened.

The Force Awakened.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS from me and mine to you and yours.

I'm the one on Santa's left knee with the awesome sweater.