Reflections
December 31st and the year is at an end. These are days for reflection on what has gone before and awaiting what will come in the next year. When I was growing up in Boston my parents and I watched the news on WCVB. There was a Lifestyle commentator and critic who, every December 31st had a tradition. His spot on that evening would always consist of him saying, very fast, brand names of things that had been fashionable the previous year. It lasted less than a minute, and toward the end he would begin to slow down and would end at a normal speed. There were no sentences, simply names. That is the memory I have. A compilation of the year in our daily lives. But this is an artificial ending. Every day is the end of a year. December 31st is simply the end of the calendar year. And it's only wherever the Gregorian calendar is followed. Yes, it's now a civil calendar and used internationally so that everyone knows what day the other is talking about. Still, there are broad areas in...