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Since everybody who matters in this country takes some
time off during the week between Christmas and New Year's
Day, there isn't much in the way of real news. Thus we
jackals and vultures in the Biased Liberal Media have to
resort to concocting lists like The 10 Biggest Stories
of Last Year
in order to have something to print or
broadcast.
And so, 2001 will go into history as the year that the United States went to war against al Qaeda. It may also be noted as the year that our government surrendered to Microsoft.
Microsoft's punishment
involved a settlement
whereby the company will furnish computers to schools.
Since education is one of the few places where Windows
faced real competition -- from Apple, in this case -- the
settlement means that Microsoft will get a good foothold in
another market.
To move on, the changing of the year means checking
various omens and portents. 2002 is a palindromatic
numeral -- like the palindromatic and Napoleonic sentence
Able was I ere I saw Elba,
it reads the same
backward and forward.
The last palindrome year was 1991, so most of us have been around for two. To be alive for two palindrome years is rare, since the last one before that was 1881, and the next one will be 2112. For years I've been reading that there was something special about my Baby Boom generation, and maybe that's it.
The transition from Old Year to New Year is a good time
to ponder old and new. The usual emphasis is on the new,
but since we're often told to honor traditional
values,
it's time to praise Old Things That Still
Work Pretty Well.
For instance, the wood-burning stoves in our kitchen and living room are based on a paleolithic technology that hasn't changed much since Prometheus. The kitchen range is about 80 years old. The parlor stove is a mere 22.
Both still do exactly what they're supposed to do, which is a blessing on these cold nights, and they work even when the utility companies don't.
Another old thing that keeps chugging along is the Okidata Microline 92 dot-matrix printer. Mine dates from 1983, which is practically prehistoric for computer gear.
It's heavy and noisy. Compared to a laser printer, it's slow and the print quality suffers.
But the Oki uses cheap ribbons, and it never breaks, no matter how much abuse it gets. It's sort of like the wood stoves -- I'm glad I don't have to use it all the time, but I sure like having it available.
Of all the junk on my desk, the item that I've owned longest is a pencil holder, and it's actually two items. The bigger part is a rock I found in a mine dump near Cripple Creek in 1959. It's about the size of two fists, and it has a miner's drill hole through it.
Later that year, we were visiting relatives in Douglas, Wyo., and I found a shot glass in the city park. The glass fits perfectly into the drill hole -- the flare at the top is just the right size to keep it from sinking -- and the combination has worked perfectly ever since, holding pencils and pens.
As for pens, praise the new. The Pilot G-2 is cheap and responsive, with a grip that suits the aching joints of us aging Boomers. It's so pleasant to use that it's almost enjoyable to pay bills.
Another new thing worthy of praise is the affordable flat-screen computer monitor. I just got a 15-incher for about $300, and I love it, although I've had to go to some work to justify the purchase:
Excuse No. 1) It replaced a standard 17-inch monitor, which was actually only 16 inches measured diagonally. When they say a flat-screen measures 15 inches, it actually does. So by buying a flat screen, I'm rewarding honesty.
Excuse No. 2) My desk (six feet of easy-to-wash countertop sitting atop a brace of two-drawer filing cabinets) is only two feet deep, so the 17-inch monitor had to sit at an angle, which gave me neckaches. The flat screen sits dead ahead; no more sore neck, and thus reduced medical bills in the future.
Excuse No. 3) The 17-inch monitor took up about 4 square feet, all told. The 15-inch flat screen takes up less than one square foot. That's like getting 3 more square feet, and with construction here running around $100 a square foot, the new monitor pretty well pays for itself.
Excuse No. 4) It uses only a third as much electricity, thereby reducing global warming while lowering the monthly bill. This saves about a kilowatt hour every day, and so the new monitor will pay for itself in less than a decade -- assuming that it's as well built as the old Oki 92 or the kitchen range.
So, despite my undeserved reputation as Salida's
Leading Curmudgeon
(as long as Ralph Moore and Ray
Perschbacher are with us, I'm not even in the same league,
let alone a competitor), there are new things I like.
And let's hope 2002 is something we all can like. It almost has to be an improvement, doesn't it?
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