Year-End Review

To finish out 2013, here’s a list of some favorite posts from the past year:

Happy New Year, Everyone!

On the Lighter Side of Things

Home Run, Man

Perspective
the “most viewed post” this year

I lost Grandma

Trick or Treat?
runner-up for “most viewed post” this year

But the title’s awful…ly catchy
most “liked” post this year

On the Serious Side of Things

“Death be not proud”

“The world is not as it should be…”

“On Friday a thief”

What to say

Suggestions of the Real Thing

Some of my Favorite Quotes on the Blog

Rhythm, Harmony, and Math

Mo’ honey, mo’ problems

A sense of our own weakness

What to read

“A mistake, though an understandable one”

And (not from 2013) here’s the first post published on this blog:

Eliott’s Inkling this explains where the name “Not a Tidy World” comes from

Ideas for 2014?
Did I leave out one of your favorites form 2013?
Tell me about it in the comments!

Last minute gift idea

“This year I’m going to make all my Christmas presents. And guess what I’m getting everybody? Paper airplanes!”

– Sally, in “Charlie Brown’s Christmas Tales”

A splendid laugh

“Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh!”

– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, December 1843
(The narrator may be my favorite character in that book.)

Preface

I HAVE endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly, and no one wish to lay it.

Their faithful Friend and Servant,
C. D.

“The Hokey Pokey’s not a song…”

By the way, I haven’t seen this movie. I don’t think it’s about the Hokey Pokey.

“Then what is it? Because it sure isn’t an anatomy lesson.”

– insight gleaned from an extended-family game night

milestones

“There is nothing wrong with you at all if while cleaning the nursery in a few months, you tear up throwing away the nasal aspirators because your big girl can blow her nose all by herself. These milestones come out of nowhere.”

– Emily, from “15 Things Experienced Moms Really Want to Say to New Moms”

He gets me.

Tower Bridge, London
photo credits to Alan Matlock

“Sometimes I think, ‘Let me hock it and take you to Europe.'”

– my husband
(speaking about my engagement ring)

what to read

“Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.”

– P.J. O’Rourke

mo’ honey, mo’ problems

“Christopher Robin, I think the bees s-u-s-p-e-c-t something.”

– Winnie-the-Pooh, via A. A. Milne

And some trivia: A Latin translation of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories (Winnie Ille Pu) is the only book in Latin to have made it on the NY Times bestseller list. (Reference)

I’m rubber, you’re glue…

“McDonald’s remains focused on serving our 69 million customers around the world every day.”

– A McDonald’s spokeswoman, from “Chipotle: McDonald’s biggest regret?“

Well, then. Take that, Chipotle.

McDonald’s is too busy to care.

Apparently, McDonald’s formerly owned a large stake in Chipotle (90% at one point) but sold their shares in 2006. And since then, Chipotle stock has taken off: “Shares of the fast-casual burrito roller are up almost 80 percent this year and over 1,100 percent since its initial public offering in January 2006. Chipotle commands a price-to-earnings ratio of 53, more than twice that of its longtime parent [McDonalds]. It’s increasing earnings and sales at 20 percent and 28 percent, respectively, compared with McDonald’s at 1.5 percent and 2 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.”

But you know, McDonald’s has moved on. After all, they’ve got those 69 million customers around the world to focus on. And they’ve got their hands full arbitrarily rationing McRibs.

Is there anyone else out there who also had no idea that McDonald’s formerly owned a large stake in Chipotle?

(Jim Gaffigan fans: “That’s your McDonalds.”)

What a sigh means

“You can put a lot of words into a sigh.”