2009: Hope Springs Eternal

Welcome 2009!

I’m glad that you are here and none too early.

Everyone it seems has a message about the New Year.

I saw a sign outside a local restaurant. It is one of those oversized monstrosities that add to urban pollution. The owner tries to make up for this slight by using humor (so I assume). The messages read like this: “All U Can Eat Shrimp” or “Mondays – Porcupine Soup”. Last summer he advertised “Critter Pancakes”. This is Florida after all.

The announcement was “2009 will be a better year”. At first glance I thought it said “will 2009 be a better year?” but then I noticed it was a declarative sentence.

What caught my eye was the fact that the simple future tense was underscored [which I can't mark on this blog format]. Did the sign guy have to make an effort to find the little bits in his box to emphasize the word? Is the underscore character painted onto the sign? Who is he trying to convince? Is business that bad? Here’s a guy who is obviously confident about the next 365 days. I drove past feeling better. Thank you, sir.

So 2009 ~ I have just a few requests: good health, a recovering stock market, an improved environment, peace in the many troubled spots of the world and best wishes to the new American president. And that’s the short list.

Happy New Year ~ here we go.