2018 Year in Review

The Chinese called it the Year of the Dog.  The United Nations dubbed 2018 the International Year of [absolutely nothing].  It was the year that Hot Wheels and the movie 2001 a Space Odyssey turned 50.   The Grocery Bag  turned 100 years old in 2018 which also marked the 100^th anniversary of:

• the introduction of food rationing in the U.K & Canada

• the end of World War I ^{(20 million died over 4.4 yrs)}

• the outbreak of Spanish flu pandemic ^{(50 -100 million died over 3 yrs)}

• the Romanov family execution/murder ^{(Czar Nicholas II, his wife & 5 children)}

• the right for Canadian women to vote in federal elections

• the right for British women ^{(over 30 years old)} to vote

• the Panasonic Corporation ^{(then a producer of light bulb sockets)}

• Iceland’s Independence ^{(from Denmark)}

• Ripley’s Believe It or Not! ^{(then called Champs & Chumps)}

• Lincoln Logs ^{(Toy-Cabin Construction sets)}

No you did not misread. For the first time since 1959, the UN did not dedicate the year to anything on an international front (nothing, nada). What did they know? Surely 2018 was good for something…or was it? Off the top of my head, although a lot of people and stories resurfaced again and again in the headlines of the world (this guy’s wall, that guy’s Brexit, or those other guys with their historic summits), I can`t recall a single one that actually delivered any kind of tangible results one way or the other.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Hold on to your hip, knee, and/or shoulder replacements everyone, this is bound to be another difficult journey on the rocks_ie road that is memory lane 2018.