2021 Year in Review

The Chinese called it the Year of the Ox. The United Nations dubbed 2021 the International Year of Peace and Trust. It was the year that email  and the microprocessor turned 50. Tuberculosis vaccinations and insulin turned 100 years old in 2021 which also marked the 100^th anniversary of:

• epidural anesthesia

• the discovery of vitamin D

• Franklin D. Roosevelt’s paralysis at age 39 as a result of polio

• an extraordinarily powerful three-day geomagnetic storm

• the remembrance poppy

• the creation of the Communist Party of China

• the inkblot test

• the polygraph

• the term robot

• crop dusting

• cabin air pressurization for aircraft

• Agnes Macphail becoming the 1^st woman in Canada’s Parliament

• Ontario’s Prohibition^(1921-1927) of the manufacture, importation and sale of liquor.

• Mussolini’s creation of the National Fascist Party after his maniacal supporters (Blackshirts) run amok beating and murdering his political opponents in the streets of Italy.

• Hitler’s inaugural use of Brownshirts a group of fascist thugs he would sick on his political opponents.

• the partitioning of Ireland into Northern and South Ireland

• The Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Massacre where mobs of white residents attack black residents and businesses.

• the beginning of hyperinflation in Germany ^(1921-1923)

• the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising and the largest peacetime armed uprising in US history

• the Emergency Quota Act on US immigration.

• the Russian famine of 1921 ^{(roughly 5,000,000 die from 1921–22)}

• the General Mills’ Betty Crocker brand / fictional character

• The 1^st Fast Food Hamburger chain ^{(The White Castle, Wichita, Kansas)}

• Wonder Bread

• the creation of the Gucci fashion accessories brand

• Chanel No. 5 perfume

• the 1^st Miss America beauty pageant

• the sawing a woman in half illusion

• the words Abominable Snowman, fascism, junk mail, sales tax

I’d like to say we’ve come a long way now, but when you consider that 100 years after Hitler and Mussolini turned their fascist thugs loose on their political enemies, that is exactly what Donnie Despot did right from the get go in 2021 when he encouraged his “redhats” to storm the Capitol.  And don’t get me started on how far we’ve fallen in the realm of vaccinations acceptance.

Regardless, we’re not here to dwell on ancient history and those little people who cannot get over it. My voices have graciously agreed to come out of lockdown again this year in order to swap stories about our shared experiences and drink whatever it takes to unmask the truth and/or make sense of the nonsense that was the year 2021.

If you have not already done so, please doff your tinfoil tops and don your head lamps because I have a feeling this year’s rabbit hole could be pretty dark.