Resolutions

Happy New Year, Stroock's Books celebrants. We were actually kinda/sorta awake for the ball drop, but not really. We've treated the last few days like regular workdays and will do the same today. 

Oh look, Happy 60th birthday, Generation-X. We're holding the country together right now. And we're the ones who elected Trump. You're welcome, America. 

Resolutions? Here's what we wrote one year ago today. Fewer cigars. Actually we had fewer cigars in 2024. Under thirty last year. The number used to be 60-70. 

Well, Mrs. Stroock's Nittany Lions certainly took care of Boise State 31-14. Penn State could have run away with the game in the first half, but made a lot of stupid mistakes. Their defense looked...big, strong and tough. The Nittany Lions will face either Notre Dame (allowing us to resume our joking at the Irish people's expense) or SEC powerhouse Georgia. Reminder, don't trust anyone in the lowdown, dirty, no-good SEC. 

Oh look, a terrorist attack in New Orleans. What's the over/under on the perp's name being Bob? Yes we're sure he got out of the car firing and shouting, 'Praise Jesus!' There can be no doubt. 

Elon Musk is now calling himself Kekius Maximus on Twitter. It's been a long time since we praised Kek. We think we still have a frog god T-shirt tucked away someplace. We used to call ourselves a Kekistani. We once wrote, 'Kek is natural. Kek is good. Not everybody Keks. But everybody should.' Kek is ironic and mostly just fun, a stupid frog god birthed by WoW gamers on accident. Just looking up this stuff is cracking us up.  Never doubt that the right is more fun than the left. And don't forget to Praise Kek.

It's now 25 years since New Years 2000. The century has not turned out the way we thought it would turn out. Powerline some weeks back quoted disgraced Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, who was actually correct when he wrote, 'What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then [when Krugman started writing for the Times] and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment.' And, 'It’s hard to convey just how good most Americans were feeling in 1999 and early 2000. Polls showed a level of satisfaction with the direction of the country that looks surreal by today’s standards. '

Indeed, as they say. There's no describing to younger folks just how light, airy and optimistic the late 90s an early 2000s were. These were unserious times. Times when the nation tore itself apart over Bill Clinton. The Millennium cometh. The authorities and the media got themselves all worked up about Y2K, and then nothing happened. Was Y2K the first big media industrial complex hoax of the 21st century? The various intel agencies were also concerned about doomsday/end of times/Islamic terror 2000. When 1999 changed to 2000 with barely a peep from Y2K or terrorist nut jobs, we concluded the End of History had arrived and terror wouldn't be a problem in the 21st century. 

In 2023 we wrote about 2003 and Me. In 2004 we wrote about 2004 and More. In 2025 we'll write about 2005 Alive.