Friday Odds & Sods is In With the New

A confession of sorts: I have never really been one of New Year Resolutions.  I certainly have some goals that I can reel off if needed as well as ambitions and hopes for 2015, but nothing that carries the combination of weight and weightlessness I associate with a Resolution.  A New Year Resolution, after all, is both a definitive stand towards the next 365 and a quarter days, and also so very easily broken.  One need only look at the variety of exercise equipment that will begin filling the nation's trashcans in the coming weeks to see this is the case.  I like to keep things loose when it comes to starting the new year, letting things develop and reacting accordingly as I strive to become a better person than I was the day before.  Of course, as I mentioned, I do have some things I want to accomplish this year, in particular to become a busier and better writer and hopefully you, gentle reader, will be the beneficiary of that!

• Some reading for you as we start the New Year includes a cure for all the partying you did Wednesday night and the story of a famous New Year's Eve death.
• RIP today to Mario Cuomo, who eloquently summed up the best part of the American experience.
• Small children try to explain who Socrates was and why he's important.  
• A song to serve as a reminder, if case any was needed, about the inevitable passing of time and the need to still keep laughing nonetheless.