Phoebe Kate

As 2008 comes to a close, I’d like to thank all my readers for dropping in when they have a free moment to read my musings.  I appreciate everyone of you more than I can say. When I started this blog in July 2007, I really thought nobody would be interested except the people who know me personally.  You can imagine how stunned I was when I discovered I had readers not just all over the country but all over the world.  I don’t know who you are, but I am so grateful. 

In the words of an old Irish blessing, this is my wish for you in the coming year: “For every storm, a rainbow.  For every tear, a smile.  For every care, a promise, and a blessing in each trial.  For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share.  For every sigh, a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.”

Consider yourselves hugged and keep reading in 2009. 

–phoebe kate

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in.  A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”  –Bill Vaughan

Which are you? 

I’m neither, really.  I don’t bother to stay up at all.  It’s just another night, folks…and I do love me my ZZZZs. 

But if I were to declare myself one or the other, optimist or pessimist, I’d have to say this December 31st that I’d stay up to make sure 2008 takes its sorry ass off the calendar and out of my life.  It was an exceedingly difficult and stressful year for several reasons, none of which I could change, so I additionally felt helpless, trapped and bludgeoned by circumstances beyond my control.  There were a handful of shining spots, such as my middle child’s college graduation and the visits to my dearly beloved sisterwoman’s house, but other than that it was a pretty damn bleak twelve months.         

My feelings about 2009?  Neutral.  I’m too much of a realist to kid myself into believing certain situations are going to markedly improve or change.  I’ll simply be thankful if life holds steady and I have more bright days than dark ones.  I guess that’s the best anyone can hope for, eh?

–phoebe kate    

If ever there was a entrepreneurial blogger, it’s Rob MacEwan of www.macewan.org.   Back a couple hundred years ago, people with ambition pioneered America, carving out profitable niches for themselves in the unexplored territories of our country.  Today, in an overpopulated world that’s also rapidly becoming overdeveloped, the last real frontier lies in cyberspace and the opportunities that ever-evolving venue may offer.  A web developer with over 150 registered sites, MacEwan is on the cutting edge of the Electronic Age and has been sharing his experiences with readers for a long time now. 

I’m a regular reader and huge fan of his.  No matter what’s on his mind — whether it’s advice on monitizing a blog or how to raise opossums or musings at 3:30 A.M. or ways to triple-boot XP, Vista and Ubuntu Linux — it’s always something with the incomparable MacEwanesque twist to it.  Do give him a look-see — I guarantee you’ll be hooked and comin’ back for more.

–phoebe kate 

I don’t know what you all do for New Year’s Eve.  I go to bed early and read a good book.  I’ve seen too many December thirty-firsts to get excited about them any more.  Except for last year, when I ended up at a Latino holiday house party in Atlanta where we all ate 12 grapes at midnight and made 12 wishes for the new year.  A charming custom, though none of my wishes came true. 

Sigh.

Anyway, if you’re tired of the same old same old on the last evening of the year, here are some suggestions to liven up your festivities and give them a multicultural flair.  For instance, you can:

• Buy yellow underwear and change into it right after midnight, like they do in Bolivia.  They say it will bring you good luck.  (The same claim is made for the 12 grapes/12 wishes thing.)  Now here’s what makes this a potentially very amusing custom.  Say everybody’s at a party with their yellow underwear in a bag.  Does everybody make a mad dash for some privacy to accomplish the switchover?  Or do they just merrily throw off the old and don the new?  Whooo-hooo.   Some party that’d be…            
• Find a deep lake, take your old Christmas tree, gather some friends and put on your scuba gear.  Dive to the bottom, put up the tree down there and do an underwater dance around it with your buddies.  That’s how they whoop it up on New Year Eve’s in Siberia.  Brrrrr. 
• Spend the evening with the dead.  The good townspeople of Talca, Chile have made it a tradition since 1995.  All you need is a graveyard with some of your deceased relatives in residence.  There is a real advantage to this macabre type of party.  Even if you get roaring drunk and loud and obnoxious, your Great-Aunt Imogene Mae and Great-grandaddy Dinwoodie won’t be calling the police on you to complain.
• Or, like the Scottish, you can set barrels of tar on fire and roll them downhill.  What an exciting New Year’s Eve memory for your unsuspecting neighbors!

–phoebe kate

Eartha Kitt was both the background music and the outstanding note of my childhood years.  Along with Frank Sinatra, Julie London, Mel Torme, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Lena Horne and Henry Mancini, her songs and vivid presence were part of NYC’s cultural ambiance in the mid-20th century.  She was one of the Greats of the era, and although “Santa Baby” is the only number I actually can specifically remember her singing, her voice was unmistakable and omnipresent on the radio.  I only vaguely recall her as Catwoman on the TV show “Batman,” not due to any failing of hers but simply for the reason I’ve never been a fan of the superhero genre, either then or now.

What I do remember her best for, however, is the fracas she caused in 1968 at the White House, when she spoke out against the Vietnam War, enraging Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson and getting herself blacklisted for years in America.  That took a hell of a lot of chutzpah and I have never ceased to admire her for it.       

Rest in peace, Eartha.  You were gorgeous and gutsy, and I’ll miss you.

–phoebe kate