Best Things of 2021
Introduction
I write these up for my Christmas cards, but I will start my draft list now.
The Dozen Best
- 1.Break-action Air Rifles. My Crossman .22 single-shot kills rabbits, is legal to use inside city limits, and isn't as noisy as a "real" rifle.
- 2. Goofspiel. A simple but profound card game invented by game theorist Merrill Flood at Princeton in the 1950s. You bid for cards simultaneously, one at a time, using one suit as prizes and the others for your currency. https://www.rasmusen.org/rasmapedia/index.php?title=The_Goofspiel_Card_Game.
- 3. Spoons. A hilarious pay-attention card-passing game good for a large group, similar to Pit. https://www.wikihow.com/Play-Spoons-(Card-Game)
- 4. Death in Paradise (2011-present) and Psych (2006-2014), (skipping season 1), comedy detective mystery TV shows. Highly intricate plotting, great characters, great acting, wholesome (though lots of bare flesh in the West Indies).
- 5. The Land of Smiles, an operetta by Franz Lehar. Video from 1961, and 1930, with the original Fritz Tauber but a bad Mi, and The Land of Smiles score, in German and lyrics in English (Jerry H. translation).
- 6 .The World Crisis,(1923-1931) Winston Churchill's five-volume history of World War I. Much better than his famous history of World War II. The witticism when it came out: " "Winston has written an enormous book about himself, and called it The World Crisis."
- 7. Teaching 7th grade math. Much more satisfying than business students, maybe even better than PhD students. My webpage is at https://www.rasmusen.org/rasmapedia/index.php?title=Cedars_Math.
- 8. The Romanovs: The Final Chapter (2012) by Robert Massie. Not about 1905-1918, but 1918-1995--- the bones and the pretenders. Gripping suspense, politics, and science.
- 10. NatCon II, The National Conservatism Conference in Orlando. Amazing from an intellectual viewpoint, friendly, well-organized, good food, nice people, easy to meet celebrities, Helen liked it too.
- 11. Hen of the Woods, Boletes, Honey Mushrooms, and Lion's Mane fungus. All good eating, and the first time for us this Fall with its amazing mushrooming. What a triumph to find the Lion's Mane, which tastes like scallops!
- 12. Retirement. If you can afford it, you can be just as busy and more productive and happy.
Also-Rans
Maraschino liqueur. CourtListener.com, n archive of court data including opinions, oral arguments, judges, and federal filings. Internet Archive library for free book borrowing. Rex Stout, The Rubber Band, detective novel with Nero Wolfe. Hett, historian of Nazi Germany. MathPix program to convert pdf to Latex.
