{"id":161,"date":"2014-12-30T15:05:31","date_gmt":"2014-12-30T20:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=161"},"modified":"2017-06-15T13:08:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T17:08:25","slug":"looking-back-at-the-year-that-was","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=161","title":{"rendered":"Looking back at the year that was"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seriously, I’m not going to do what my title says. I put it up there just to fit in with the crowd. 2014? Forget about it. If you’re actually looking for that kind of thing, then you haven’t been paying attention because news sites have been recapping 2014 since at least mid-November. If you’re looking for the ubiquitous list of celebrities who died this year just scroll down any news page for that thumbnail of Robin Williams RIP, which has been on every news site since he died in August. It’s like New Year’s Eve all year now. Even I got into the act, almost by default. The Facebook bot has created\u2014for me, for you, for each of us\u2014a personal “Year in Review” because we’re all shining stars, fireworks, y’know… kinda special. I haven’t bothered to look at mine because, well, you get out what you put into these things and I didn’t put that much into Facebook. So my Year in Review is quite short on details. These personal Year in Reviews remind of those Time<\/em> magazine-sized joke mirrors that had “Person of the Year” silkscreened\u00a0 on them. Person of the Year? That’s you! Har! Now give it to me, give it here. Now I’m Person of the Year!<\/em> (doubles over laughing). Now put it down on the floor for the dog…<\/em><\/p>\n

There is one person of the year who does deserve recognition. I will take a moment to salute this article by Robert Tracinski in The Federalist<\/em>: My Person of the Year–Ben Trovato<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Also, I want to record my favorite quote this year. It’s actually a quote of a quote, so it has doubleplus goodness. It comes from Theodore Dalrymple in Taki’s Magazine<\/em>, in a Dec. 28, 2014 column: The Allure of Omnipotent Explanations <\/a>(okay, so this might not be my favorite quote of the whole year, but it’s the only one I remember liking because I read it a few short days ago, which incidentally proves the truth of the quote).<\/p>\n

Those of us for whom the written word is of enormous importance, if not all-important, should try always to remember the words of Montherlant: Most people do not read; those who read do not understand; those who understand forget.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And finally I will make one prediction for the year ahead: Most over-used, hated word of 2015 will be “narrative.” I’m already sick of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seriously, I’m not going to do what my title says. I put it up there just to fit in with the crowd. 2014? Forget about it. If you’re actually looking for that kind of thing, then you haven’t been paying attention because news sites have been recapping 2014 since at least mid-November. If you’re looking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Q4T3-2B","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":90,"url":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=90","url_meta":{"origin":161,"position":0},"title":"Hang in there until we fire you","author":"Kevin Steel","date":"October 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Daddy, what are spapers? It says here that new spapers are dying. Are old ones dying, too? I googled it and it asks, 'Do you mean papers?'\" Heh. Just practicing writing dialogue. Gonna need a new writing career because there aren't many left in journalism these days. Today we have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media"","block_context":{"text":"Media","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":361,"url":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=361","url_meta":{"origin":161,"position":1},"title":"When is the next podcast?","author":"Kevin Steel","date":"June 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"To kick off the behinds-the-scenes peek at the Grace & Steel podcast, I\u2019ll make excuses for why we\u2019re slow in producing another episode. First of all, shortly after posting Episode 82 \u2013 Rivers of Blood, I was sent off on my bi-annual, week-long forced vacation. This probably demands a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grace & Steel Podcast"","block_context":{"text":"Grace & Steel Podcast","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/yusipka.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/yusipka-site-icon-72-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":397,"url":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=397","url_meta":{"origin":161,"position":2},"title":"Grace & Steel Ep. 84: Production Notes","author":"Kevin Steel","date":"July 6, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KMGVictoria\/status\/882853840520790017 I read this tweet from my co-host about Grace & Steel Ep. 84 and thought, \"Well? I guess I should say something about this in my production notes. But what?\" I'm not exactly sure what the technical problems were and I didn\u2019t bother to find out. I only know\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Grace & Steel Podcast"","block_context":{"text":"Grace & Steel Podcast","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?cat=10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":315,"url":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=315","url_meta":{"origin":161,"position":3},"title":"Interview with Maurice Strong – Transcript","author":"Kevin Steel","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Maurice Strong Interview March 31, 2006 4 PM PST--Topaz Room #1038, Pan Pacific Hotel, Vancouver. KS: \u2026you want me to turn it off you just tell me. I realize time is short so I won\u2019t spend a whole lot of time\u2026 We\u2019ll go straight for the Kyoto thing. My boss,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Media"","block_context":{"text":"Media","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?cat=13"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?p=294","url_meta":{"origin":161,"position":4},"title":"Itsy Bitsy Part 1","author":"Kevin Steel","date":"November 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"At this point I would like to introduce a new feature to the podcast, as yet to be titled. My working title is Ma valise mal \u00e0 l'aise --My Uncomfortable Suitcase--but I haven't had a chance to check the French. A couple of podcasts back, my co-host said to me,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Memoir"","block_context":{"text":"Memoir","link":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/?cat=11"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yusipka.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}