It’s so hard to believe that another year has gone by…. I want to thank you all for visiting this site, reading my blog entries, browsing through photos, and contributing on the bulletin board. It means a lot to me, and as I continue to say — the hope is that more of our friends will join us in 2008… even if just to stop by the bulletin board to give us an idea what they’re up to… we really do care, so please don’t be shy.
a very Happy New Year to my family and friends!
I wish you all the best of health, happiness, and good fortune!!
On that note, I offer you a link to the “Best of 2007″ …..in which there are way too many categories to mention here…. though as you can imagine, I couldn’t end this year without highlighting one in particular….
I mean, was there any question that the iPhone would be the best invention/gadget of the year according to TIME magazine?
Enjoy clicking through these lists… some of the choices were surprising, some (did I mention the iPhone?) were no brainers…..
a few were unbelievable — amusing but sad… I’ll let you decide how to categorize the #1 PR blunder of the year… (did this really happen??)
1. “No Reporters? No Problem.” (ABC News)
Already troubled by continued claims of inadequate disaster response and wasteful use of funds, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) truly fumbled when it held what the Washington Post described as a “phony press conference” in response to Southern California wildfires. “Questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters,” “lob[bing] one softball after another so [Vice Administrator Harvey E. Johnson, Jr., could] praise FEMA’s work,” said the Post. Homeland Security Department head Michael Chertoff was reported by CNN, CBS and others to have said that “it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things [he has] seen since [he has] been in government.” FEMA became defensive and insisted that reporters were expected — albeit with only 15 minutes notice of the conference — but did not show up, and that the questions posed by staffers were originated by reporters. FEMA deputy director of public affairs “Mike” Widomski, one of the reporter-impersonating staffers, responded to Post columnist Al Kamen’s inquiries by saying “if the worst thing that happens to me in this disaster is that we had staff in the chairs to ask questions that reporters had been asking all day, trust me, I’ll be happy.”
If you caught this entry before you went out tonight, please be careful… don’t drink and drive!! and, enjoy every moment in the company of your loved ones!
Cheers to 2008 — and an awesome year on the stock market…..