Welcome Back, My Friends To The Show That Never Ends!

1. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2. OOPS!

Number One is self-explanatory, other than I wish all the best for you and your friends and loved ones, but, as for Number Two, I was trying to create my Nice List and write a tribute to my fellow Steve Stephen Hillenburg who created SpongeBob Square Pants and talk about the absorbent, yellow,porous resident of a pineapple under the sea as a beloved character when I ran up against a whole article about people on both sides of the political aisle who weren't exactly fans of SB and his friends Patrick, Sandy, Larry, his boss Mr. Krabs, and his long-suffering neighbor Squidward, so I kinda got, to sanitize a Yiddish expression, "fertootzed," and the whole thing kinda fell apart. Long story short, my other nice people were Mickey Mouse, (90 years old and still the Leader of the Club!)
my Nicest Newsmaker of 2015, the late, great Stan Lee, Senator John McCain, and my Number Two and Number One respectively, Barbara Pierce Bush and her husband, the 41st President of these United States, George Herbert Walker Bush, who took his responsibilities as Commander-In-Chief seriously but never himself. Needless to say, this blog will make substantial donations to Reading Is Fundamental and the Points of Light Foundation to make sure the H.W. Bush legacy endures. (I didn't forget about Penny Marshall, Neil Simon, or the more recently departed Bob Einstein, Daryl "The Captain" Dragon, or the greatest wrestling commentator ever to step into the squared circle, Mean Gene Okerlund.)

You've all heard of How The Grinch Stole Christmas, (The live musical, the animated special, and the live-action Jim Carrey movie were all better than the CGI disaster  featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, who does a WAY better job as Dr. STEPHEN Strange and Sherlock Holmes!) but have you heard about the Planet that stole New Year's Eve? Planet Fitness, the alleged gym that calls itself the Judgement-Free Zone but only succeeds in making millenials' wallets $10 (a month) thinner,sponsored this year's rain-soaked festivities in Times Square which involved, among other bizarre publicity stunts, getting former Playboy Playmate Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg (as in husband Donnie) on one of their purple exercise bikes on national TV (Playboy vets Debbie Harry, Susan Sullivan,Kathryn Leigh Scott, B.J. Ward, and oh,yes, even Gloria Steinem, have more talent in their respective pinkies than Jenny Mac has in her entire body!), and handing out ridiculous top hats with their obnoxious logo. Oh for the days when Sony was the major sponsor of the Times Square NYE festivities!

Instead of getting soaked and falling victim to Planet F's propaganda, I spent NYE at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden seeing the Professional Fighters League, a competitor to the more established Ultimate Fighting Championships. Before you go and call PFL trash sports ala the WWE, this is a promotion that really cares equally about its talent AND audience. The PFL combatants fought for a $1,000,000 payday, and they all talked about using the purse to create a better life. You can't aim any higher than that!

One show you should check out before it goes on season hiatus is RETURN TO AMISH on TLC this Sunday at 10 PM Eastern/7 PM Pacific. In case you've been hiding out in a cave (or,well, you're Amish) this show is a continuation of the BREAKING AMISH franchise, which began in 2012 with a look at five Amish and Mennonite young adults leaving their sheltered lives to explore the Big Apple. This show has been compared to the rite of Rumspriga wherein Amish youngsters go out into the "English" (short for "Englischer") world, and decide whether they want to assimilate into OUR world or remain in theirs, but while Rumspriga is a temporary period, BREAKING AMISH traced its participants for six months. In the latest iteration, Jeremiah from the early seasons, his wife Carmela, and a few Amish matriarchs go on a road trip with adopted Mennonites Lowell, LaShell (Shelly) and Dawn. Long story short, Lowell, Shelly and Dawn have decided to ditch the ancient outfits and join the 21st Century, but their announcements haven't been exactly received enthusiastically. This week's season finale brings it all to an uncovered head with a wedding, a BIIIIG announcement concerning Lowell's (still Amish) fiance and mother of his upcoming children, and more surprises than you can shake a hoe at (I said H-O-E.), and don't be surprised if TLC follows it up with its "postgame" show "The Shunning Truth." Sometimes THOSE shows are more exciting than the regular season!

I have also been to the Metropolitan Opera AND the Professional Bull Riders tour at Madison Square Garden. And how has YOUR year been going?

Well, as my one-time buddy Keith Olbermann once said, "I've done all the damage I can do," so I'll close the door on this first blog of the New Year and wish you all the best in the coming year.

In the words of Billy Joel, "Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes, and I'm afraid we're at goodbye again," soooo...

...Buh-Bye!
Steve