Dave Barry's Year-in-Review

Dave Barry's annual snarkfest is getting easier and easier to write. Some might say it writes itself.

Dave Barry’s Year in Review: Is there anything good we can say about 2018?

Have a boofing new year.

Pay Phones

Remember coin-operated pay phones? Before cell phones, they were how we called people when away from home. When away at boarding school and college, it's what I used to call home, collect. My first decade in NYC made good and frequent use of them. Calls were 10 cents. When I became a commuter after moving to the suburbs, I was on the line at the bank of pay phones every evening at Grand Central Terminal to let the family know when I'd be home.

At their peak in the 1980s, more than 2 million pay phones were connected across the country by AT&T and Bell System companies, many in phone booths. Only 100,000 are still in use today.

I passed one today while on a walk. Emergency calls are free, local calls are 50 cents, and you can call anywhere in the world for four minutes for $1.

Who knew?

50 Years Ago ~ Earthrise

It was 50 years ago that the crew of Apollo 8 orbited the moon and astronaut Bill Anders snapped the picture Earthrise.

Earthrise ~ Bill Anders

Great Grey Owl

While doing yard work last week, I heard a rustle in the trees.

Naughty Or Nice

Gary Varvel

Mike Lukovich

Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Remarks

Two years ago I posted about Patti Smith's standing in for Bob Dylan at the 2016 Nobel Prize awards ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden. She sang A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall to great effect.

I can't remember why Dylan didn't go to Stockholm himself to accept the award, but he did record his thoughts several months later in LA about the many literary connections in his life and music.

They are remarkable.