HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Unfortunately, 2016 ended with more for most of us to be depressed about than all the other years in recent memory. No event was moreso than the phony election results, which gave us the oldest, dumbest, most evil, most ignorant, most dangerous fool of a United States President in history! Just when we’re supposed to be advancing in life, we’ve gone all the way back to slavery and Nazis! What a supreme shame.

This country has been in a national funk since the night of November 8th, and then things got progressively worse. The world lost so many famous people last year, especially at the end. By the middle of this week, half of my last eight columns will have been Rest In Peace tributes to the ones I knew! That’s a very sad record.

In this one year, we lost (to name only a very few,) Muhammad Ali, Prince, David Bowie, Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling, Alan Thicke, Doris Roberts, Glenn Frey, Jose Fernandez, Patty Duke, Ken Howard, Carrie Fisher, Debbie Reynolds, and, of course, Zsa Zsa Gabor.

But the saddest to me is young Anton Yelchin, whose horrific death at the hands of his defective Jeep was beyond senseless.

Even New York’s iconic Carnegie Deli closed this week-end, after eight decades of existence! What was up with these past twelve months???

But I had wanted to be bringing the room up here, because…it’s 2017!!! So, let’s hope for a wonderful year! Maybe if we concentrate on positivity en masse, we can deflect all the new horrors that are sure to be foisted on us by this insane administration, and the rest of us can create change for the good.

[Note: I’m surprising even myself that I can’t stop being upset about the election. I’ve never been particularly political, but this one was different, on so many levels. And that it was corrupted by Russia, which appears to be a power for evil once again, and also voted on by people who showed themselves for the bigots they are, just chaps my hide, and I’m finding it hard to move past it. But I promise you that I do keep trying.]

So, let’s try to move ahead on a positive note, and try to find some things to be happy for in the coming year. Like, my upcoming birthday, for instance! It’s less than two weeks away, on January 14th. Getting older is never any fun, (unless you’re a teen-ager, who cannot wait to grow-up,) but just being alive, especially after the past year’s losses, is indeed a major cause for celebration!

I usually use this space to recount my blessings, and to remind you to do the same. (Not for you to recount mine, of course, but your own.) I think I’ll just do that privately this year, and here’s why: I just read those happy moments of a friend on Facebook, and was thrilled for her that she had so many fun times last year. But then I remembered that I always read reports that say reading about other people’s happiness on social media often sends someone into a depression, and I would not want my glamorous life to do that to anyone. So, let’s just say that I have lots to be grateful for, and, just like everyone else, I also have my own private anguishes. In other words, I’m human.

I just hope that all of your years are filled with many more joys than sorrows, and I hope that we can all work together to make this one the best it can be.

And, when I blow out my birthday candles in twelve days, when I make my usual joke about wishing for world peace, this time, I will absolutely be meaning it, with all my heart!

Happy 2017!