The following is from a poem by Ogden Nash, probably about 80 years old, called, “Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf, or Why Don’t They Pay the Bonus?”
My goodness, if there’s anything in heredity and environment
How can people expect the newborn year to manifest any culture or refironment?
Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals?
And you can’t turn it into a philanthropist by welcoming it with cocktails and champagne, any more than with prayer books and hyminals….
Nevertheless, all the staff at Brandywine Books wish you as happy a new year as may reasonably be expected, under prevailing conditions.
And remember, it’s pronounced “Twenty-Ten!”
And you can’t turn it into a philanthropist by welcoming it with cocktails and champagne, any more than with prayer books and hyminals….
Ogden Nash was wrong. We don’t welcome the new year in the hope of it being better than the previous one. We welcome it because otherwise it might be significantly worst. Whatever else you can say, the people who celebrate Midnight on Dec 31st survived the previous year. It could have been worse.