Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Once again, just like turning the pages of a calendar, we’re out with the old year and in with the new. But, maybe we don’t want to celebrate the end of 2022 too loudly. I mean, 2022 was a better year than 2021. But that’s like comparing drinking arsenic to drinking hemlock.
So, lets go quietly into the New Year while remembering the year that was.
The Year That Was
My sense of the year that was is confusion. There were a lot of self-proclaimed important people saying important-sounding stuff. But, once I listened closely enough, I couldn’t make any sense of what was said. It was all gibberish. At best.
As my normal style, I like ringing in the New Year with music appropriate to the times. Recently, my younger brother Jeff got my attention with this classic bit of music. Although it was first released back in 1972, the song has never gotten old. If anything, it was prescient in describing the brave new world of American politics in the 21st century.
The Song for The Year
Prisencolinensinainciusol was composed by the Italian singer Adriano Celentano and performed by Celentano and his wife Claudia Mori, a singer/actress-turned-record producer. The non-gibberish Wikipedia describes this lovely bit of music as:
The song is intended to sound to its Italian audience as if it is sung in English spoken with an American accent, however the lyrics are deliberately unintelligible gibberish with the exception of the words “all right”. […] The intent was to demonstrate how English sounds to people who do not understand the language proficiently.
Wikipedia Entry
This is indeed a song for the year that was. So, lets quietly allow 2022 to slip away and 2023 to roll in. While enjoying a song perfectly encapsulating every self-important person of our brave new era. Except that the self-important people aren’t nearly as much fun as this song.
May your coming year bring blessings of good health, happiness, and prosperity. And minimal gibberish. And a Happy New Year to all.
