I don’t know how this past year was for you, but I hope it was a good one. For me, eh, about average I guess. At this stage of my life, it’s important to adjust expectations, of course. Any year when you don’t lose a friend, a family member, a critter, or have a stroke or a heart attack yourself is a pretty good year.

As is the case with every year, we lost a lot of good people. Robin Williams, Tom Magliozzi, Jan Hooks, Jack Bruce, Paul Revere (the other one), Don Pardo, Lauren Bacall, James Garner, Johnny Winter, Eli Wallach, Bob Hoskins…. The list goes on. But, as of this writing, I’m happy to say that Abe Vigoda is still alive.

And of course 2014 was, hopefully, the year when white people started to notice that cops are killing black kids for no reason and with no consequences. Well, except for the two NYC cops that were executed for no reason.

I don’t know why everybody can’t understand that it’s a bad thing to kill both police officers and unarmed black guys. One does not make the other OK – neither should be tolerated. And protesting the killing of civilians doesn’t make you anti-cop. It just makes you anti-killing of civilians.

So I don’t know what’s gonna happen in 2015. Either things will get better, or things will explode. If I was forced to bet, I’d put my money on the latter – August will, after all, be the 50th anniversary of the Watts riots.

I’m not sure if I’ll make it to midnight, tonight – or even if I’ll bother trying. I think I did last year, but I had to go take a nap and get back up. Either way, I’m glad I don’t have to go to work tomorrow (or Friday)

Whatever you do, have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve, and I’ll see ya next year.