Top Posts of 2019

With the new year upon us, I've been cranking up the thinking and planning sections of my brain, as I'm sure many of you have. For me, that included some penciled in 'wish I could do better on...' things. Not resolutions per se, but intentions I hope to be mindful of this year.  

And it also included my annual look at the blog, updates to the Pages, considerations on changing the layout (none this year, or at least none now), and I also looked at last year's posts. In the course of that, I identified the five posts that appeared to spark your interest the most. Let's take a look. 

The top post was news in January from The Update Desk about the Allyn Family Foundation (AFF) and a new, mixed-use property it's developing in the city of Syracuse, which will house a food hall and market, office space for not-for-profit organizations, and residential units. A public name-the-market contest was held, and that's where our story picks up.

I vaguely remember the social media post where we could vote, and the overwhelming number of comments asking why it didn't mention Syracuse or the Salt City...

And it turns out, the AFF listened to what people wanted, and the name has been chosen: the Salt City Market. It's perfect, and it's a perfect example of ensuring the kind of community buy-in that the organization is looking for. Maarten Jacobs, one of the AFF folks, said

We want this to be a space that people feel they have ownership of the minute it opens.

The post was about a foundation, and a building, and a name - but it was more about the value of listening and responding to constituents, something that we often wish happened more - and something the majority of us can learn to do better. 

Number two was a TGIF post, also from January, dealing with the Covington Catholic High School kids and their interaction with a Native American Vietnam-era veteran, and the media reaction to it. But the post also included someone else who had a bad week: the president. Among other things, 

• five former DHS secretaries, including his own former Chief of Staff General John Kelly, admonished him to get the government reopened;

• he tried to bully his way into delivering performing his State of the Union address as originally scheduled, saying he was going to show up at the appointed time, until

• Nancy Pelosi let him have it with both sides of her gavel, telling him in no uncertain terms that she would not allow that to happen; 

And my favorite part?  

• he threatened to find an alternate location, finally caving in a tweet around midnight (presumably after talking with Sean Hannity) that he would accept Pelosi's decision

In November, the third most popular post also involved the president; this time, it was his proclamations which attracted the attention of the Irony Board. 

This year, in addition to celebrating our Native American heritage, we are celebrating several other things, including National Veterans and Military Families Month, with a proclamation noting (in part - ed)

...Together, we remain committed to fostering a national community of support for these brave heroes and their families.

This president signed this proclamation? This president, the guy who mocked a Gold Star family for speaking out against him; who assaulted the life and memory of John McCain; who deports  immigrant veterans despite the promise of citizenship for their patriotic service or the immigrant families of our veterans and soldiers; and who most recently has turned his "eternal gratitude" on Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman? 

But that wasn't all. Similar ironies were rampant related to his proclamation on our first-ever celebration of  National American History and Founders Month. It's mind-boggling, it really is. 

Coming in at number four? News in March from  The Update Desk, again, on our grand experiment here in New York with commercial casino gambling.

As has consistently been the case, the news is not good for our Vegas-style casinos in the Finger Lakes area, the Southern Tier, the Capital region, and the Catskills.  Leading the way, again, is the del Lago Resort and Casino down the Thruway a bit from Syracuse.

We're told of another downgrade in their credit rating and a likely continued 'negative' outlook.

If the two-year-old del Lago Resort and Casino in the Finger Lakes is to survive, it's going to need new cash investment or face a difficult restructuring of its debts and finances.

The issue? Lower than expected revenue growth and, oh yeah -- too many other opportunities for throwing your money away. The same issues confound the other three, which are not meeting their revenue estimates, either. del Lago was about 57% short of projections...

The financial issues for del Lago and the other casinos have only continued since then; I'm confident I'll have multiple updates on this subject again this year. 

And rounding out the top five was a Poll Watch entry from April, with information gleaned from a Fox News poll taken in March. As did many polls back then (and more current ones as well), it referenced the president's negative approval rating and the even more negative gap between strongly approving and strongly disapproving respondents. 

It also talked about a handful of key issues that have been part of the president's plan, and noted that on three of the four issues, he was under water with respondents.

Questioned on Trump's handling of four key issues - the economy, taxes, immigration, and health care, only on the economy, at +8, did he have a net positive. On taxes (-7), immigration (-13) and healthcare (-15), his approves were below his disapproves. Even worse, the numbers on his signature piece of legislation, the Christmas tax cut, are down from a year ago.

Of course, the only polls that matter are the ones that show him in a positive light, that show him to be the president he thinks he is.  That, too, will continue this year, I'm sure. 

In to 2020 we go - not knowing what will catch your eye this year, but intending to do just that. I hope you stick around.

2018 Year in Review

I wasn't going to do a 'year in review' post this year, but then, I wouldn't be able to use the meme at the end of the post, and that would be a shame.

So - I did it. I took a look back at the top posts from the year, to help me understand what interests you most so that I can make veritable pastiche a more meaningful read. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean I'll pass on certain topics - instead, I think it gives me an opportunity to communicate better, and hopefully write better, too.

Several of the most-visited posts of the year fell under the Wondering on Wednesday theme; here's a sampling:

• v117, which focused on words, how they're used (and by whom) and the First Amendment;
• v119, which included comments about USA Gymnastics and Larry Nassar;
• v121, which looked at 'school shootings' and some misleading statistics;
• v125, primarily about the special election in Pennsylvania and what Dems might learn from it;
• v146, which talked about patriotism in the age of Trump and Colin Kaepernick, and threw in a great 'pearly gates' question; and
• v148, which included a NY Congressional race, Mafia references, and the president acting badly (a common theme)

The Sunday School theme also attracted your attention, including this one from the Sunday after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Parkland students were interviewed, as were Rush Limbaugh and Mark Kelly, former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords' husband. Another Sunday School post that caught your eye was this post touching on immigration.

There were a couple other popular themes, including Thank Goodness it's Friday, or TGIF.  This post from May would have been a TGIF, except we had another school shooting, which sort of shoved my original post ideas to the side. This edition talks about the government shutdown we were facing back in January, and how Republicans were trying to distances themselves from the president and some new nasty comments he had made.

And finally, we had some fun with presidential poetry, under the OrangeVerse theme. Throughout the year, these posts were pretty consistently popular, although I don't know if it's because you're fans of free verse, or if it's for some other reason.  A series of poetic posts (part 1, part 2 and part 3) arose from Trump's Mar-a-Lago interview with NY Times reporter Michael Schmidt as we entered 2018, and set the tone for what was to come.

As we close out the year, I want to thank you for reading, commenting, subscribing, and for sticking with me in the 4th quarter, where posts were a little less frequent, and (to me at least) some were not up to par.

That was a time of change (and distraction) for me, as I prepared for the next chapter in my life.

This week, I leave a great company - where I started as a temp over 29 years ago - to tackle the retirement 'honey-do list' my already retired husband has been working on for me. Assuming I can clear some things from the list, I'm looking forward to more time for writing, reading, volunteering, and visiting places both red and blue across the US.

Best wishes to you and yours for a safe, happy, and healthy New Year!

The Top Five Posts of 2017

OK, we've come to the last day of December, so you know what that means, right?

Yes, the time when everyone does that backwards glance over their shoulder, looks at the year that was, and makes plans for the coming year.

I'm not going to aggravate over it too much; there are professionals who are paid a ton of money to do that. Maybe we'll have the chance to catch up with some of them later, we'll see. 

In the meantime, here are the top five most-viewed posts of the year, with an excerpt from each. Not surprisingly, the president is connected to four of the five.

(1) January 21st: #NeverTrump Answers to #TrumpVoter Questions. I could have included dozens more questions and answers in this post, but limited it to a few of the most common ones that could be strung together in a conversation.

It's January 21, 2017 and it appears that at least a very vocal, and, it seems, a very large percentage of Trump voters are stuck in a 'sore winners' rut and don't know how to get out of it. Which means I guess it's up to people like me, a #NeverTrump, to try and help them out. 

 Wish me luck.

Yeah, we'll need more than luck, I'm afraid. But I won't give up the fight. And I will continue to fight Trump without mentioning Hillary, for this is not about who lost - it's about who won.

(2) June 3rd: Poor, Poor Pitiful Me (v1). Kathy Griffin was upset that she faced a backlash for her hideous 'joke'?  Oh, stop it.

Oh, Kathy Griffin, you poor thing you. Linda Ronstadt understands, she does.

I know you spend your time on the D-list, but does that mean you're living under a rock? Had you no idea that your highly offensive "comedic" video, you slowly raising your arm to gradually display a bloody, severed Donald Trump head, would bring consequences?  

Did you really think that Trump himself, the victim of your prank, would be appreciative? Did you now know that the Tweeter in Chief, his family, staff, friends and supporters would rain down 140-character responses upon your (still attached) head?

(3) October 3rd: OrangeVerse XVII Puerto Rico. The poetry posts did well this year -- apparently I'm not the only one who is fascinated by the president's use of language.

The president held a rally in (oops, my bad) visited hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico today, and boy was he proud of himself. So proud, he made everyone else tell him how wonderful he and his administration are. And then he was bigly very proud. Here he is in his own words.

My People, Tis of Thee

And to all of my people - 
And I have to say
General Buchanan...
there's no doubt about it
you are a general.
There's a reason
 you're a general
right?
But he's not games:
I said
give me a general
I don't have to have any -- 
I don't want
to have a general
that plays games...

(4) June 4th: Sunday School 6/24/17 - this was the one where I didn't have the heart to fight my way through the Sunday talk shows, and instead provided links to arts, music and phys ed - important yet frequently cut courses when it comes to public education spending.

Maybe it's because I've been spending too much time weeding my garden, and I don't have the energy to pull the weeds out of the comments of the people who defend Trump on the news shows.

 Maybe I simply lost interest this week, after all of the absurd tweets send by #NotNowNotEver #NotMyPresident Trump. 

Or maybe, it's just covfefe. 

(5) November 24th: Meanwhile, Back in Albany (v12), in which we looked at the reality of expanding casino gambling in New York State.  Are we getting the promised benefits from the constitutional amendment? 

The sure thing the government promised us? Let's look back that that ballot initiative:

The proposed amendment to section 9 of article 1 of the Constitution would allow the Legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in New York state for the legislated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing aid to schools, and permitting local governments to lower property taxes through revenue generated. 

Fun times, right? Hopes were high back in those days. Not so much now though, According to an article from earlier this month, all three of the first licencees are underperforming. 

So there you have it -- another year in the books. All the best to you and yours in 2018.

Wondering, on Wednesday (v42)

Are you tired of year-in-review (YIR) posts and articles and emails yet, or do you still have some slim thread of tolerance for them?

I confess I haven't paid attention to half of the YIR notifications I've seen. I've been getting them for a several weeks now, it seems. I think some of them arrived shortly after the Thanksgiving tryptophan was finally out of my system.

The early arrivals leave me wondering, this Wednesday, how the authors would feel if something huge happened before the end of the year, leaving their YIR in shambles.You know, some horrible tragedy (heaven forbid) or some wonderful news like a major celebrity wedding, or the discovery of a new planet, or a famous politician's birth certificate or green card, or something like that.

Kind of like what happens when we have early voting well in advance of election day, which leaves open the possibility that a dead person could win by a landslide, or some similar bizarre occurrence. That would likely mean that a court would probably have to determine the winner. And we all know how that works out, right?

Given that my own attention span for these things is slim, I'll keep my YIR brief.

Before the end of New Year's Eve Day, I'll have had three major milestones this year:  my 25th anniversary at my day job; my wedding, and my husband's retirement.

On my 24th work anniversary, I did a post about the foolishness of the Tax-Free NY program, wondering why it was necessary for me to pay taxes as an employee of a 78 year old company, when some new kid can move in to the Empire State, hire me and I would not have to pay income taxes for ten years.  I thought it was unfair to me, and of course unfair to my company as well.

I just checked the STARTUP NY website, which is the official home of the tax free project, and realized that, for my Central New York region, the selling points for our Quality of Life include two pictures, one of fishing in the Salmon River, the other of Chittenango Falls. What's more, three other regions also feature water activities as one of their two pictures.

I'm wondering, are we trying to lure fishing-related industries here? Trying to net a big one, maybe?

The last of the three  milestones, my husband's retirement, happens officially next year, but for all practical intents and purposes, it's happening on 12/31. In the morning, we'll get ready for work and head off on the commute together, for the last time.

I'm wondering, if I'm honest, how much things will change. I've got a few more years to work, although the jury's out on exactly how many.  A lot of that depends on how much of a mess the current Congress and POTUS make of our somewhat encouraged economy, and what happens next year when the new gang is elected.  Will we be trickling down?  Will everyone be making double their current wage (if things go up in tandem with increases in the minimum wage)? Will my 401(k) keep growing, and will Social Security be gone when I get there?  So much to wonder about, with no answers anywhere in sight.

What I don't wonder about, though, is whether this is the right decision for him, and for us. After 20 years at his second career, he's done enough, and had enough, and I want him to be around when I eventually make the decision to retire. We are better when we're happy, and we're happier when we're better.

I'm sure I'll have a twinge or two of something (I'm not sure yet exactly what), come January 4th when I have to go to work and My Sweet Baboo doesn't. But then, that's something for the 2016 YIR.

A final note:  I would be remiss if I didn't talk at at least a little about this blog. Thanks to all who've hung in there with me over the past few years -- I appreciate your tolerance, your interest, and your feedback. To new readers, thanks for giving me a chance. Your feedback is also warmly welcomed.

Here are the top five posts from 2015, all of which are part of two new themes I introduced this year:

1. My Middle-Aged White Lady Perspective: Don't Apologize for the Truth
2. Wondering, on Wednesday (v30)
3. Wondering, on Wednesday (v29)
4. Wondering, on Wednesday (v28)
5. My Middle-Aged White Lady Perspective: Words Matter

I'll still be a middle-aged white lady next year, and I'm sure I'll still be wondering, when Wednesdays roll around.

Hope to see you then!