The Year of the * (Happy New Year)

In the years ahead references to 2020 will likely be filled with asterisks denoting that whatever is being mentioned took place against the backdrop of a global pandemic.

All those shuffled and shortened sports schedules, for example. 

And all that death. As this is written and the year winds down, COVID-19 has claimed more than 320,000 lives in the United States and more than 1.6 million worldwide.

The last twelve months (roughly) have sucked – but it’s absurd, of course, to blame a calendar. And yet ... let’s hope 2021 is an improvement. Happy New Year.

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Inconsequential as it is, I’m still writing this dreary little blog. Here are some posts from the last twelve months that I have not yet disavowed. (Give it time!)

• Neighbors in Perpetuity Paid a visit to my father’s grave, shortly before the pandemic became such a huge inconvenience.

• Jade Visions Semi-book review of a Scott LaFaro biography.

• Vincent J. Salandria A few words about an early JFK assassination critic who made a difference in my life. (This post is actually from a second blog I keep.)

• Priscilla is Heard This has rolled around in the back of my brain for years. I finally wrote it down.

• Bowel Prep As enchanting as it sounds!

• M*E*S*H Speaking of asterisks ... this, like the above post, describes a medical procedure.

• (Fewer than) Ten Albums A discourse on some recorded music that has meant a lot to me over the years.