Have a reasonably happy New Year

If at all possible.

Somehow, “2025” does not resonate like “2024” did. Our hopes for the new year, therefore, are less those of a hopeful kid dog-earing the Sears Christmas toy catalog and more along the lines of Joe Biden in the White House. We just want to survive the coming new year with most of our faculties intact and a general all-purpose pardon from prosecution. (Too many of our friends have taken the exit ramp with barely enough time to signal.)

We’ve learned to avoid disappointment by tamping down expectations. We don’t make resolutions; at this stage, we only express faint hopes.

 We hope:

• Social engineeers quit trying to subdivide the human race into ever-more brittle niche identities. A good start: stop asking race in the U.S. Census.

• Schools challenge our kids instead of dumbing down expectations based on stereotypes. Teachers, give them homework; parents, give them regular chores. They’ll thank you when you’re gone. (Better late than never.)

• Schools teach civics, shop, and personal finance — yes, to the college-bound, too.

• Pregnant mothers and old folks can take public transportation any where and at any time, walk the sidewalks without being harassed, and enjoy the parks in peace. Where quality of life is diminished, crime increases.

• Students are made to deposit smartphones at the school entrance.

• Donald Trump has a successful presidency, which includes restoring faith in our institutions. (Would help if admitted he lost four years ago and that January 6 was a disgrace.)

• A-I is kept in the lab. 

• MAGA cap wearers peek at the New York Times and MSNBC once in awhile; progressives check out Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

• More kids ride bikes with fielders’ gloves on their handlebars to pick-up baseball games; no adults allowed.

• Brad Schimel is elected to the WI Supreme Court.

• Kids talk to that lonely girl in the next locker.

• The Wisconsin State Journal (our favorite Madison daily newspaper) will beef up its local commentary instead of reprinting editorials from a newspaper out of Lincoln, Nebraska.

• The Big Ten football conference returns to 10 or 12 teams, none on the west coast.

• Major League Baseball adopts revenue sharing so the Brewers don’t have to serve as the farm team for the Dodgers.

• Chamberlin Rock is returned to where the last ice age left it on the University of Wisconsin’s Madison campus and that the good name of alumnus Fredric March is restored, with apologies!

• Dave Cieslewicz is elected to the Madison Board of Education.

• Luke Fickell’s Wisconsin Badgers beat Ohio State, Alabama, Oregon, or Michigan next season. We’ll settle for just one of the four.

• Voters amend the state constitution to put Public Instruction in the governor’s appointive cabinet.

• Utilities turn to safe, cheap nuclear energy.

• Wisconsin adds enough population so that we can keep our 8 House seats; we’re in danger of losing one.

 O.K., I give!

The irascible Head Groundskeeper will make some resolutions after all (ones that we think are achievable): to cherish the Lovely Lisa for a 51st year of (mostly) wedded bliss; to rejoice in the loving human being that is Number One Son Max; to enjoy my friends (found a few!); to get along with my siblings (lucky to have four of them still living); to thank my platinum subscribers (especially the donors!); and (as Monty Python encourages) to always look on the bright side of life. (It’s got to be here, somewhere!)

Blaska’s Bottom Line: After lobster and prosecco chez nous, Stately Blaska Manor will be lights out by 8 p.m. Hyman Roth was right about health; it is the most important thing.

Your resolutions?