2022 Year in Review

The Chinese called it the Year of the Tiger. The United Nations dubbed 2022 the International Year of Glass and the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. It was the year that the Commercial Video Games industry ^[Pong] and the Egg McMuffin turned 50. Commercials ^{(a 10 minute radio spot advertising a new NY apartment complex)} turned 100 years old in 2022 which also marked the 100^th anniversary of:

• The world’s 1^st insulin treatment ^{(Toronto General Hospital in Canada)}

• The discovery of vitamin E

• the formation of USSR ^{(Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia)}

• the partition of Northern Ireland and The Irish Free State and their ensuing Irish Civil War

• Post War German Hyperinflation ^{(7000 marks = $1US vs 12 marks in 1919)}

• Benito Mussolini’s National Fascist Party seizure of Italy ^{(coup d’état)}

• France’s agreement to gift Canada the land around Vimy Ridge

• the discovery of Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamen’s Tomb

• the 1^st United States Navy aircraft carrier ^{(USS Langley)}

• the 1^st midair collision between airliners ^{(7 die over Picardie, France)}

• the completion of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC

• the Hollywood Bowl open-air music venue

• the Rose Bowl sports stadium

• today’s Wimbledon Center Court stadium

• Commercial Skywriting

• the British Broadcasting Company

• the Reader’s Digest magazine

• the Better Homes & Gardens magazine

• the Harvard Business Review magazine

• the Canadian Tire Company

• the Klondike ice cream bar,

• the Food Blender

• the world’s 1^st vampire film ^(Nosferatu)

• the 1^st swimmer to break 1 minute in 100m freestyle ^{(Johnny Weissmuller)}

• the only New Year’s Day Rose Bowl game to end a scoreless tie

• the invention of waterskiing ^{(Ralph Samuelson, USA)}

• British Columbia and New Brunswick change driving from left to right side of Roads

• The Herrin Massacre a two-day strike at the Southern Illinois Coal Co. ends bloody, and 21 people – most of them strike-breakers – are killed

• The words: air traffic controller, anesthesiologist, baloney, brand name, clear-cutting, deep-fry, down-to-earth, eye shadow, French kiss, mad money, mountain gorilla, polyester, robot, tracksuit, and xenophobe.

That’s right folks! In spite of the best efforts of antivaxxers, xenophobes, extreme right radicals, and Vladimir Putin, most of the rest of us seem have come a long way over the past 100 years.

I thought I might just forget about the [SPOILER ALERT!] permacrisis that was 2022 and enjoy a normal New Year’s Eve for a change, but the voices in my head escaped to remind me that it is important that we never forget and/or ignore even the worst years of our lives so as to learn, rinse, and never repeat them again. That said, we took a shot (lots of them actually) at dredging up last year’s most important history lessons.

As always, we’ll do our best to dismember the events through the lens of a glass half full (if not fuller). To that end, and in anticipation that our cups may, at times, runneth over while we enthusiastically attempt to achieve said goal, we asked Santa for and received this spanking new spill proof keyboard we are currently hammered on.

Grab your plungers and buckle up your hip waders folks, it’s time again to plunge down memories drain.