December 31, 1999 & January 1, 2000: The Millennium

December 31, 1999, 25 years ago: The Millennium arrives. The people of planet Earth survived. At a terrible cost. But we hadn't destroyed ourselves. It felt like a great achievement. It was, "Hey, we made it! We actually made it! This is something really worth celebrating!"

January 1, 2000: As time zone after time zone turned over from 11:59 to 12:00, there was great joy -- literally, all over the world.

It didn't last. So far, the 21st Century has been a bust. In words that have been attributed to, among others, Yankee Legend Yogi Berra, then 74 years old, "The future ain't what it used to be."

December 31, 1999 was a Friday. It was the day that Boris Yeltsin resigned as President of Russia, handing the office over to the Prime Minister -- Vladimir Putin. It was the day that Elliot Richardson died. He remains the only person to serve the President of the United States in 4 different Cabinet posts, including Attorney General, an office he resigned rather than follow Richard Nixon's unconstitutional order in "the Saturday Night Massacre" in 1973.

It was also the day that actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones announced their engagement. They had to wait to get married until Douglas' divorce from current wife Diandra Luker was final. The ceremony was held on November 18, 2000.

And the computer problem known as "The Y2K Bug"? Not much happened. A few minor things, like scattered automatic teller machines (ATMs) at banks not quite working properly. But that was it: The computers didn't cause an apocalypse, or even an inconvenient power outage.

Why? Because changing the format from one that would have followed 12-31-99 with 01-01-00, and thus caused computers to think it was January 1, 1900, and thus confuse them into not working, into one that would recognize 01-01-2000, was a problem that human society took seriously, and properly handled. We'll never know what would have happened if we got it wrong, because we, as a people, stepped up, did what we had to do, and got it right.

And nobody stepped forward to say that the Y2K Bug was just a hoax perpetrated by liberals to take away your freedom, like gun control already had been for 20 years, and COVID-19 would be 20 years later.

Several big-city arenas hosted concerts, usually (but not exclusively) by local artists. Billy Joel played Madison Square Garden. James Taylor, who grew up in North Carolina and wrote and sang "Carolina In My Mind," played the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh.

Cher played Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. From the New York side of New Jersey rather than from New England, Bruce Springsteen played the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston. Quebec native Celine Dion played the Molson Centre (now the Bell Centre) in Montreal.

John Denver, singer of "Rocky Mountain High," the natural choice to play the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver, was already dead, so the artist in residence that night was New York native Neil Diamond. Elton John played Circus Maximus at Caesars Palace outside Las Vegas. Los Angeles-based rock band The Eagles played that city's Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena). NSYNC played the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, the arena that had hosted Elvis Presley's "Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite" concert in 1973.

And the American Airlines Arena opened in Miami. Naturally, the choice to open it was Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine. The building is now named the Kaseya Center.

Neither Paul McCartney nor Bob Dylan played a concert that night. Michael Jackson was scheduled to play Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, but had to cancel after being injured in a concert in Munich, Germany.

January 1, 1934: Columbia Win the Rose Bowl

January 1, 1934, 90 years ago: The football team of Columbia University wins the Rose Bowl.

Stop laughing. It happened.

When the Ivy League was founded as an official college football league in 1954, its teams agreed not to participate in postseason play. That choice still stands. But before that, the teams were permitted to do so. This included the Rose Bowl. Brown played in it in 1916, and lost to Washington State. The University of Pennsylvania lost to Oregon in 1917. Harvard beat Oregon in 1920.

But then, it didn't happen again until the 1933 season. Coached by Lou Little, Columbia were 7-1, having beaten Lehigh, Virginia, Penn State, Navy, Lafayette and Syracuse at home at Baker Field in Upper Manhattan; and Cornell away. Their only loss had been 20-0, away to undefeated Princeton, coached by Fritz Crisler, who did not accept a bowl bid. (Crisler gave Princeton a "winged" design on their helmets, and took it with him to Michigan, who are now the first team fans think of when they think of the design.) The Rose Bowl not yet being automatic between the Champions of the league known today as the Pac-12 and the Champions of the Big 10, they were invited to play in it, and they accepted.

Stanford's teams were called the Indians until 1972, then the Cardinals until 1981, and finally just the Cardinal, after the shade of red they wore, rather than the bird known for the color. In 1933, they were 8-1-1: They beat San Jose State, UCLA, Santa Clara, the University of San Francisco, the Olympic Club of San Francisco, Montana and arch-rivals the University of California at home at Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto; and USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum. They lost away to the University of Washington, and tied Northwestern away. Among their players was David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard.

It had rained for 3 days before the New Year, and the field at the Rose Bowl stadium in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California was described by a Columbia historian as a lake. Attendance was 35,000, the lowest at the game since 1920.

Stanford were heavily favored, having allowed just 5 touchdowns all season. And it rained again, so the field was even worse. The 1st quarter ended scoreless. Early in the 2nd quarter, Columbia quarterback Cliff Montgomery called a trick play: He handed off to Al Barabas, and faked a handoff to Ed Brominski, and he and Barabas ran in opposite directions. The Indians were fooled, going after Brominski, while Barabas ran 83 yards for a touchdown.

That was the game, right there: The muddy field prevented Stanford from getting anything going, and the 7-0 lead held. Columbia had pulled off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, and became the last Ivy League team, and the last college football team from New York City, to win a bowl game.

Whether this remains the greatest win in Columbia history is debatable: On October 25, 1947, they dealt Army their 1st loss in 4 years, in a game known as the Miracle of Morningside Heights.

It would take until the next year for the Orange Bowl and the Sugar Bowl to be first played, and 2 more years for the Cotton Bowl.

You Say You Want a Resolution?

For this last post of the calendar year, let's check my New Year's Resolutions for 2011, and see how I did:

* Do a better job at my new job, unless I can find a better one.

Can't say I did much better, although I did get a Christmas bonus this year, which I did not get last year, so I must be doing something right. On a scale of 0 to 10, a 6.

* Treat Ashley and Rachel equally.

No. I won't say which one I'd been favoring, but the other one doesn't seem too upset with it. Still, this was a failure. This is a 2 at most.

* Get to a few more Yankee games -- home and away.

Nope. Just one. I didn't even get to Yankee Stadium II for either of the games the Rutgers football team played there this season, either the win over Army or yesterday's Pinstripe Bowl, in which they beat Iowa State 27-13. But I did, at the least, "complete the circuit," getting to all 3 "local" ballparks: Yankee Stadium, Citi Field and Citizens Bank Park in Philly. So it's somewhat appropriate that I give this a 3.

* Come up with the money to make a trip to Europe, or at least to Britain.

Nope. The closest I got to seeing Arsenal live was one Red Bulls game, with Thierry Henry -- who is about to go back to Arsenal on a 2-month loan. (They beat fellow Londoners Queens Park Rangers today, 1-0.) This is a big fat 0.

* Call right-wingers out on their lies and ignorance. I think I already do a good job of this, but it must be done, perhaps more than ever. The 2012 election is less than a years away.

To borrow a phrase their side likes, "Mission Accomplished." For the most part. An 8.

Total, 19. Out of 5, 24. Average, 4.8. That's pathetic.

*

So here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2012:

For this last post of the calendar year, let's check my New Year's Resolutions for 2011, and see how I did:

* Do a better job at my new job, unless I can find a better one. (Again.)

* Remember that Ashley and Rachel are 4, soon to be 5, and that they won't understand everything I say, but they will hear things I say, and that I should temper my words accordingly. So as to avoid awkward questions. I mentioned the word "war" to them earlier this year, and Rachel asked, "What's war?" I told her the truth: It's when 2 countries have a fight with each other. She seemed to accept that definition.

* Get to a few more Yankee games -- home and away. (Again.)

* Come up with the money to make a trip to Europe, or at least to Britain. (Again, this resolution is made. Maybe 2012-13 will be the season -- if not 2012 being the calendar year.)

* Help President Obama get re-elected, and get the House of Representatives back, and keep the Senate, so that his 2nd term will have more caffeine and less Tea.

* Treat people better. Even when a lot of them piss me off. (Admittedly, this could be either the easiest to pull off, or the hardest.)

Happy New Year, and don't celebrate too hard. I want you alive to read my blog in 2012 and beyond.

High Resolution

For this last post of the calendar year, let's check my New Year's Resolutions for 2010, and see how I did:

* Do a better job at my new job, which looks like it will be a whole lot better than my old job: Real estate brokers are very tough to work with.

I guess I did well, because not only do I still have a job, but I got a raise. Not a big one, but a raise nonetheless. On a scale of 0 to 10, this is a 7.

* To continue to enjoy being Ashley and Rachel's uncle.

Definitely doing okay there, although I need to work on not favoring one over the other. I'm not going to say which one appears to be getting the favoring, but the other one does seem to be trying a little harder to get my attention, so I have to make sure it works, so that it balances out. This is an 8.

* To get to a few more Yankee games at the new Stadium.

Only got to 2 in the 2010 season. Which is as many as I've been to in each of the last few seasons. That's not enough. I did "complete the circuit," going to all 3 local parks (Yankee Stadium II, Citi Field, Citizens Bank Park), and I did go to a road game this season (Yanks vs. Orioles in Baltimore). But that's the minimum requirement: All 3 locals plus one Yankee road game. And since Fenway is almost impossible to get into, especially for Yanks vs. Sox, and Baltimore is the only other AL city that's within a 9-hour Greyhound ride, Baltimore is usually the one. I've seen the Yankees in Cleveland and Toronto, the 2 next-closest. I'd like to make Detroit and/or Chicago next season, but with the stupid Interleague schedule, the Yanks almost always go there for midweek series, so that might not be doable even if I have the money. So this is a 4 at best.

* To come up with the money to make a trip to Europe. It's about time I visited. It's also about time I stopped talking about Arsenal, and watching them only on television from 3,500 miles away, and actually saw them in person.

Not by a long shot. I got no closer to London than Boston. Which is closer to Dublin, both literally and figuratively.

(Not that I dislike Boston. It's a great city. I hate its sports teams, though. The Red Sox, the Celtics, the Patriots, even the New England Revolution. Not so mad at the Bruins or Boston College, although the University of Connecticut basketball programs, with both men's coach Jim Calhoun and women's coach Geno Auriemma being Sox fans, are de facto Boston teams.)

I did get to see Arsenal play at some new bars, but not in any new cities/metro areas, let alone States. I did get to see several Red Bulls games, including one on the road in Boston/Foxboro, but that's not the same thing. But the New York Gooners now seem to have accepted me as one of them in this, my Season 3 with the club. Still, on a scale of 0 to 10, this was a 2, maybe.

* To treat people better. I don't regret many things I've done, but I do regret many of the things I've said. (Not on this blog, though.)

I don't think I made much headway here. But I don't think I've slipped, either. So, 5.

Total, 26. Divided by 5 resolutions, that's a 5.2. Not very good.

*

New Year's Resolutions for 2011:

* Again, do a better job at my new job, unless I can find a better one.

* Treat Ashley and Rachel equally.

* Get to a few more Yankee games -- home and away.

* Come up with the money to make a trip to Europe, or at least to Britain.

* Call right-wingers out on their lies and ignorance. I think I already do a good job of this, but it must be done, perhaps more than ever. The 2012 election is less than 2 years away.

Happy New Year, and don't celebrate too hard.