HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well, we are here. You have enjoyed your New Year's Eve, or not, and have arrived at 2007. If that depresses you, remember the date is a totally artificial construct that basically means nothing other than a way to organize your papers or checks.

We watched Pretender episodes until right before midnight, then the Little Woman wanted to turn the channel and watch the ball drop. We did, although I can't figure out why. What I really can't figure out is why a million people crowd into Times Square to watch it live and in person. I thought New Yorkers were supposed to be sophisticated, but here are a million of them crowding into this square to watch a big colored ball with pretty lights slide down a pole. Don't even try to tell me it was all tourists.

Richard Dawkins wonders how we can believe in God after all these years. That one isn't hard for me, but I wonder what it is about gaudy colored lights that makes human beings go crazy. We string them all over our houses at Christmas, then at New Years we light up places and shoot fireworks. We shoot fireworks on Independence Day and after out door concerts and for almost any reason, just so we can see the pretty lights and go "ooooh".

I wonder if Richard Dawkins likes fireworks? Or stays up 'til midnight to watch the ball drop? It's not very evolved.

The good thing about New Year's Day, otherwise known as January 1, is we get to eat black eyed peas. The Little Woman soaked them in water over night. That makes them softer and also seems to remove the gas, for which I am grateful. Then, she'll cook them with onions and other stuff and it will be really good. It is a tradition for us. It is not sophisticated: in Iowa people won't eat black-eyed peas, they only feed them to pigs. Which is what the Little Woman is doing in a sense.

So, Happy New Year to you. I hope you are happy this year. May only good things come your way. May God bless you richly.