I’m doing that damn end-of-year quiz because I always do it. Or because Kelly does it. Or because it is useful.
Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Well, no. And probably not.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don’t believe so.
Did anyone close to you die?
Christy D’Ambrosio, Lillian Bakic, and Don Ingram, who actually died at the very end of 2024 but didn’t learn about it right away. Holly Pennock died on December 27; we sang together in the Trinity UMC choir from 1984 to 2000, and we’d keep in touch occasionally, especially (unfortunately) at Trinity funerals. Judy Mark, with whom I was on Session at my current church, died in October.
What countries did you visit?
None, though we seriously considered going to South Africa at the very end of our daughter’s semester at the University of Cape Town. Part of it was financial; her non-tuition expenses exceeded our expectations.
What would you like to have in 2026 that you lacked in 2025?
Democracy.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
No doubt: helping the Daughter get to South Africa.
What was your biggest failure?
Any number of projects remain undone.
What was the best thing you bought?
A laptop for $80. It’s a backup in case this one dies.
Yay!
Whose behavior merited celebration?
Several entities helped me through the siege, including cartoonist Robert Waldo Brunelle Jr. (Mr. Brunelle), satirist Andy Borowitz, and This Modern World cartoonist Tom Tomorrow.
Citizens, including those working through the various Indivisible groups across the country, stood up against authoritarianism; many had never been activists before.
The CBS News reporters, mostly from 60 Minutes, publicly, and occasionally on-air, were critical of Paramount’s capitulation, especially Scott Pelley, Sharyn Alfonsi, John Dickerson, Lesley Stahl, and alumnus Dan Rather. BTW, I’m going to miss Dickerson and Maurice DuBois on the CBS Evening News.
The Daily Show, not just John Stewart; the Legal Eagle (Devin Stone and especially Liz Dye); Seth Meyers; and particularly Jon Oliver.
Courageous politicians stood up against fascism. But it’s mostly folks I’ve been reading, such as Robert Reich, Terry Moran, and especially Heather Cox Richardson; y’all ought to read or watch her daily.
BOO!
Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
There are so many! Obviously, the #1 on the list is Metamucilini for too many reasons to list. He ought to be impeached (AGAIN) -“thank you for your attention to this matter.”
Terry Moran wrote this on the last weekend of December:
“Trumpism—while it is many things—is not a practical approach to constitutional governance. It is a farrago of one man’s atavistic fantasies, personal prejudices, and corrupt appetites. It’s not even a political ideology, but rather a vision of a world arranged to prove that Trump is always right and to glorify him forever. That’s why we have to put up with those grotesquely obsequious cabinet meetings; that’s why he’s slapping his name on everything he can, before he dies. That’s why he’s frantically demanding a Nobel Peace Prize, and solemnly accepting the farcical FIFA Peace Prize instead.
“And what about those practical results voters want? They are almost irrelevant to Trump, since no matter what happens, he will claim everything good in the world as his own personal triumph, or blame everything bad on someone else, anyone else. Or he’ll just lie and deny any inconvenient truths.”
Meanwhile, we will suffer from the so-called OBBB cuts while spending on a grotesque military parade, and he enriches himself and his cronies.
BOO!
But also:
Russ Vought – the OMB head was a chief designer of Project 2025, spearheading “the project’s playbook.” And the dude in charge of the budget impasse cuts.
Kristi Noem – the Homeland Security head wallows over the cruelty of the immigration policy and has helped to wreck FEMA’s response to disasters
Elon Musk – he bought the 2024 election, and then DOGEd us into an irresponsible country. What are they doing with our data?
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – his own family is ashamed of how he has Made America Sicker Again
Stephen Miller – the fingerprints of this stochastic terrorism are all over the ICE raids.
Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of Defense (or War—whatever), is the epitome of a DEI (dull, empty, ignorant) hire. He gave the worst speech of the year by a government official, and his boss was stiff competition.
Marco Rubio – He has surrendered the last shred of self-respect as Secretary of State and the three or four other titles he has. His USAID cuts are responsible for at least half a million preventable deaths.
John Roberts – if a fair history will be written, they’ll say that Roberts was the worst Chief Justice of SCOTUS, worse than Roger Taney. The general rationale for allowing FOTUS to fire people who were presumed to have administrative protection shows up in Trump v. Boyle and other places. “The stay we issued…reflected ‘our judgment that the Government faces greater risk of harm from an order allowing a removed officer to continue exercising the executive power than a wrongfully removed officer faces from being unable to perform her statutory duty.'” So he gets to dump whomever until THEY appeal.
BOO!
Pam Bondi – she has politicized the Department of Justice
J.D. Vance – among other things, he and his tech bros are enriching themselves
Mike Johnson – the Speaker seems to have forgotten that there are coequal branches of government.
Brett Kavanaugh – the Associate Justice has codified racial profiling
Lee Zeldin – wrecking the environment as the EPA head
Brendan Carr – the Mafioso boss of the FCC got Nexstar, which wants to grow bigger, to stop carrying Jimmy Kimmel on their many stations. Eventually, ABC drops Kimmel, though they eventually bring him back
Tom Hogan – the ICE guy who apparently did NOT pocket $50,000 in cash
Karoline Leavitt – I will say she lies better than FOTUS’ previous press secretaries.
Kevin Hassert – the National Economic Council Director is a sycophant toady who FOTUS may pick as the next Fed Chair. Terry Moran: “he publicly defended forecasts and claims that outside analysts—including many conservative economists—dismissed as unrealistic/loony, including the assertion that the 2017 tax cuts would ‘pay for themselves. ‘”
Tulsi Gabbard – because she accidentally told the truth early on, the Director of National Intelligence has had to work extra hard to kiss the royal butt
Howard Lutnick – the Secretary of Commerce really tries to tell us how great the tariffs are
Well, that’s 20, but there are a lot more. And this is just the American list: I could have added Bibi, Putin, and many others.
MONEY
Where did most of your money go?
Possibly the ancillary expenses relating to the daughter going to South Africa. Also, some medical stuff.
What did you get really excited about?
Actually, my daughter’s going abroad was exciting
Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
Clearly sadder
Thinner or fatter?
I track these things. I lost a little, then gained a bit, and now I’m at about the same place as I started.
Richer or poorer?
Poorer. At some point next year, I have to start taking out my Required Minimum Distribution from my 401(k); I understand this philosophically, but I’ll need to talk to a financial adviser.
What do you wish you’d done more of?
Everything: writing, reading, traveling. But time is not fungible.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Living in my head.
How did you spend Christmas?
Choir on Christmas Eve, family at home on Christmas Day, then visiting my MIL.
Did you fall in love in 2025?
Quite possibly.
How many one-night stands?
Nah.
FAVES
What was your favorite TV program?
I watch John Oliver on YouTube. We are way behind on Only Murders in the Building; I mean, a couple of seasons. 60 Minutes, CBS Sunday Morning, JEOPARDY, football on Sunday and Monday nights.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Let’s put this way: I have utter contempt and disdain for at least one person.
What was the best book you read?
Surprisingly, 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s
What was your greatest musical discovery?
It’s not a single album. As I’ve noted before, I go through my collection and play CDs based on the performers’ birthdays. But I haven’t really attached to a particular birthday for many performers. So I’ve been going through my entire collection of CDs I own but seldom play. While there are a few duds, I liked quite a few of them a lot. One I’m listening to as I’m writing this is Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy; I forgot I even owned it.
What did you want and get?
Nothing I hadn’t done before, but those are good. Singing in choir, ZOOMing with my sisters
What did you want and not get?
A nation where fascism is not a tolerable option for many voters.
What were your favorite films of this year?
Flow, The Life Of Chuck, Sinners, Sorry, Baby, Materialists, Rental Family
Natal day
What did you do on your birthday?
I deliberately wrote about it for this very moment.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2025?
None, save for comfortable footwear.
What kept you sane?
Assuming I am, music.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Much to my surprise, Jimmy Kimmel is really a fine host of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, for which he won an Emmy.
What political issue stirred you the most?
As Kelly wrote LAST year, “America’s ongoing flirtation with sh#tcanning democracy.” I learned who Horst Wessel was.
Who did you miss?
More than once, I thought of my friend Norman Nissen (d. 2016) and Tom Hoffman (d. 2004), who might have some cogent political analysis of what the hell is going on.
Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025:
Always use the cane when walking on uneven surfaces.
If you take selfies, post your six favorite ones:
I did exactly one selfie in 2025. It’s not my thing unless I AM the spider.
I went to my favorite movie emporium, the Spectrum 8, to catch a late Thursday matinee of the film Zootopia 2. I had enjoyed the first film back in 2016.
The health report for December 2025: It could have been worse. I felt meh physically at the beginning of the month. On Tuesday, December 2, it snowed enough to close the schools in Albany and much of the surrounding area, a slow-moving storm that eventually dumped 7.2″ at the Albany Airport.
First Presbyterian Church of Albany is