2019 was the final year of the decade, which means we are entering the second decade of the new millennium (and 20 years since the “dreaded” Y2K scare). It’s still hard to tell if all of us still like each other. Political differences continue to divide us and it’s depressing, infuriating and scary. I don’t do politics on this blog so, in the words of Forrest Gump, that’s all I have to say about that. 2019 was an OK year, depending on your perspective. These perspectives is what I am going to get into for my 2019 Year In Review.
Celebrity Deaths
We lost over 150 celebrities this year. I’m not going to mention all of them, only the ones that I found particularly depressing. I’m not trying to down play the deaths of the others because it sucks when we lose anyone. Before I begin I would just like to note that Kirk Douglas and Betty White are not on this list.
Celebrity Deaths: Internet
Tardar Sauce, aka Grumpy Cat (7) passed away this year. If you don’t know who Grumpy Cat was, then you are living under a rock. Her permanent scowl was a condition caused by a genetic mutation but created thousands of meme. She was an Internet sensation.
Celebrity Deaths: TV
The television death that seemed to be most notable was the death of Caroll Spinney (85) who was the original Big Bird on Sesame Street from 1969 to 2018. Best known for his comedy on The Carol Burnett Show, Tim Conway (85) passed away this year. He was so talented and so hilarious. If you haven’t seen his Elephant Story bit from the show, you are missing out! Luke Perry‘s (52) sudden death was truly heartbreaking. He’s mostly known for his role as Dylan in 90210 and, more recently, as Fred Andrews on Riverdale.
The Star Trek Deep Space 9 series lost two lovable characters his year. René Auberjonois (79) passed away this year. While he had many television and film roles, he always has been and always will be Odo to me. Unfortunately the bad news for DS9 doesn’t end there. Aron Eisenberg (50) played the lovable Ferengi Nog on Deep Space 9; in fact he was probably my favorite Ferengi. RIP gentlemen. Thank you for the awesome memories.
Celebrity Deaths: Movies
The following celebrities are primarily known for their movie roles. We lost Doris Day this year, but she lived a long and extraordinary 97 years! Also, from the golden years of film, Peter Fonda (79) passed away; he was the son of Henry Fonda, the brother of Jane Fonda and the father of Bridget Fonda. The actor with one of the coolest names in Hollywood passed away, Rip Torn. While it really sucks that he’s gone, I did not know he was 88 when he passed. I mostly remember him from the Men In Black movies.
Peter Mayhew at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration in Chicago
The last celebrity death is the one that sucks the most. In April, just a couple of weeks after his appearance at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, Peter Mayhew (74) passed away. He is a legend for his role as Chewbacca and the epitome of a gentle giant. He loved his role as Chewbacca and he will be greatly missed. However, its comforting to know that now, he is fulfilling his obligation to Han Solo, and he’s taking care of the princess. RIP Chewie.
The 2018 Reading Challenge was 12 books. Since I barely missed 15 books from 2017, I actually started the year at 15 again thinking I could easily complete it. Half way through the year I was nearly 4 books behind so I reduced it down to 12 books.
Picking the best read for 2018 is difficult. These are 9 excellent books to choose from so its hard to pick just one! I want to go with Timothy Zahn, the man, the myth the legend. However, picking Timothy Zahn won’t work because 1) I read two of his books and I can’t pick just one; and 2) it’s Timothy frakking Zahn! It also wouldn’t be fair to pick Ready Player One because I re-read that one and I’d prefer to pick something that I hadn’t read before.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”
It is now 18 years after the dreaded Y2K scare. I wonder if there is anyone still hiding in their bunkers. While the Y2K date issue was a valid bug in most software, it would never have caused the catastrophe the fear-mongers were predicting. Be that as it may, 2018 is over and another year is in the books. Most of us are still here but its hard to tell if any of us still like each other. Lots of people still have a hard time seeing past party boundaries and misguided political correctness. I’m going to cover a lot of the usual retrospective topics, I might throw in a couple of new items. So with that said, time for the 2018 Year in Review.
My 2017 Reading Challenge was, again, 15 books within a calendar year. While Goodreads says I finished all my books, I actually only completed 14. I thought I had completed all 15 books because that is what Goodreads told me. It turns out that a book I started but did not finish still counted as having read it. Granted it was a book I was reading again so perhaps that is why Goodreads counted it. So, without further ado here is …
surprising books. I returned to the Star Wars universe again with Shatterpoint and the book was really good, I loved learning more about Mace Windu and Depa Billaba. If you’re a Star Wars fan, and you do not feel jaded by the prequels, I would really recommend this book (check out my review if you’re interested).
I rather enjoyed writing a post reviewing 2016 so here we are again, doing a 2017 year in review. Everyone was ready to get 2016 over with because we just lost too many beloved celebrities. While 2017 also took more, it didn’t feel as though it was happening daily (more on this later). Again, I will cover NO political or hot topics, that’s not what I write about here.
We lost some great names in the Movie and Entertainment industry. The biggest names that probably stand out are Hugh Hefner, Jerry Lewis and Adam West. It was awful to lose the Mayor of Quahog and the old school Batman (and a better one than Ben Affleck). Some of the lesser known, but iconic celebrities we lost this year are John Heard – the father of Home Alone, 
