Reality Bites for the week of Dec. 7 by James Norton

Some days I can’t tell if I’m Winston Wolfe or Abe Froman – breaking the fourth wall

There are some of you who try to figure out the heading of my column and the relationship between it and my message (if you want to call it that) in the paragraphs to follow.  For those people I say ‚Äì good luck and get a life.  For the rest I say ‚Äì enjoy the show; I‚Äôll be here all week.  Please remember to show the paper to your friends.

  While I wish that more people would email me with comments and opinions, I have to admit I get my fair share of shots from the liquid courage crowd and every once in a blue moon, there is someone who at least on the surface has the epigrammatic temperament and intellectual savvy to volley a waggish chestnut or two.
  What did I just say?  Nevermind.
  2006 is right up on us, which means we should be thankful to have made it through 2005 intact.  I know that looking ahead to the New Year, I have a personal goal to write something less quixotic, rambling and manic than what you‚Äôve been used to reading here.  I also hope to be in much better physical shape overall than I was a year ago at this time and I‚Äôd like to somehow spend more time with my kids (even though they recently moved to England).
   Beyond the personal goals, comes a few business-oriented goals I won‚Äôt bore you with.  Along with that are goals for the paper ‚Äì which have a lot to do with a lot of other people who aren‚Äôt associated with us.  Let me explain.
   I have gone on and on here trying to explain about how the paper works, what the differences are between commentary and news reporting are, how the weblog works in general ‚Äì even broken down how the rumor column (Newstalk) is compiled.
   Nobody gets it.  They think it is a personal soap box for two or three people here and that there‚Äôs some kind of vast conspiracy going on.  Now that‚Äôs ridiculous ‚Äì but it‚Äôs what they believe, trust me.
With all the finger pointing and tongue wagging going on around the city regarding the ‚Äúliberals‚Äù who for one reason or another have chosen to disguise themselves as ‚Äúprogressives,‚Äù there doesn‚Äôt seem to be much in the way of legitimate argument against some of their ideals, at least from a ‚Äúyellow dog Democrat‚Äù standpoint.  People still reeling from the local and special elections of late have been left wondering what the hell happened.  Two women ‚Äì each with some good and not so good political views are the only ones in the race to replace now state Senator Jehlen.  Please no hate mail because of that last statement ‚Äì I don‚Äôt have anything against women in politics ‚Äì it is what it is, and nothing more.
    I‚Äôm sure they‚Äôre both going to be totally excited to hear that I‚Äôll be moderating the debate.
    There will be more exciting things going on at the paper this year and there will be plenty to report about.  Across the city, things are changing at a rate nobody could have ever expected and along the way there will be some bumps in the road for sure.  There will be further talk of gentrification, of proper government, adequate protection (police and fire), better education, local land use development and many more important issues.  This is an exciting time to be a resident here, in arguably the best city in the world to have been raised in and still lucky enough to afford to live here.
    This coming year, in this space, I will be re-addressing some personal issues, trying to make some sense out of local business issues (especially real estate related) and of course poking fun at the political zombies a.k.a. Pod People.  For now, the internet radio station thing is on hold until I find a way to shake more money off the tree and/or figure out a way to acquire 3 to 4 more hours per day.
     As Ferris Bueller said:  ‚ÄúLife moves pretty fast.  If you don‚Äôt stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.‚Äù  Think about it.

.