A Year Behind Us

I woke up this morning and found a newspaper clipping laying on my nightstand. The heading? --"Good Riddance to 2008." I tried to wake up a little more. I rubbed my eyes, grabbed the clipping, and started reading through it:

You're forgiven if you greeted the stroke of midnight with a shudder and an extra glass or three or four of champagne. Somehow New Years Eve this time seemed to be less a celebration and more an opportunity for a ritualistic casting off of the evil spirit of 2008.

It was a very bad year.

So you woke up on Jan. 1 and . . .

. . . Rod Blagojevich was still governor of Illinois, no doubt still plotting more mischief for his final days.

. . . the economy was still groaning under layoffs, foreclosures and a miserable stock market.


. . . it was still winter in Chicago, with prospects of more snow, more sleet, more ice and who knows, maybe even more tornado warnings. And potholes. Definitely more potholes.


It might be hard to find reasons to take heart on this New Year's Day. So we offer these.


Last year was the wettest year ever in Chicago, or at least since they started tracking these things the year the city burned down in 1871. So this year almost has to be drier. Doesn't it?


A prediction: Illinois will end the year with a new governor. Maybe it will end January with a new governor.


The Cubs and Sox can't inflict more pain on you this summer than they did in 2008. Which is not to say they won't break your heart. Just remember, everything's relative.


According to the Chinese calendar, 2008 was the year of the rat. That's fitting. A year named after a rodent with beady little eyes that hides in the dark and scares you half to and is capable of carrying the Black Plague.


Now we're in 2009, which is the year of the ox. We like the sound of that. An ox is strong, capable of pulling us out of a ditch. Let's get on with it.