a short list of things i’d like to see in 2021

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In the last week of December in 2018 I cobbled together a list of things I’d like to see in 2019. Last year, I did the same thing — a list of things I’d like to see in 2020. I figured, what the hell, I might as well do it again this year. Sure, I didn’t actually get to see any of the things on either list, but that’s not really the point. I don’t actually expect to see any of these things happen in 2021; I’d just like it if they did.

Consider this to be an addition to or an extension of the two prior lists, because I’d still like to see those things. I’ll repeat a few items from the two previous lists because I’d still very much like to see them. Anyway, here, in no particular order, are some things I’d like to see in 2021:

— A memorial to the hundreds of thousands of folks in the US who died from Covid-19.
— Better and more ubiquitous public transportation (buses, trams, teleportation booths) that reached poor, working class, and suburban communities.
— More bat houses. Bats are cool.
— Universal selective service in the US. Not necessarily military service, but a couple years of compulsory national, state, or local service (2019).
— The return of clotheslines. Best (and most picturesque) way ever to dry clothes.
— Federal support for states that pass Idaho Stop/Delaware Yield laws for bicycles.
— Speaking of which, I’d like to see cyclists stop putting speakers on their bikes. If you want to listen to music when you’re cycling, buy some goddamn earbuds.
— Brett Kavanaugh busted for DWI (2019, 2020).
— A global ban on leaf blowers. Leaf blowers are NOT cool.
— A complete rewriting of the last season of Game of Thrones. I mean, c’mon.
— Donald Trump and his family of grifters and traitors in handcuffs (2019, 2020).
— Turtle ponds in new neighborhoods. Turtles are cool.
— A minimum wage that would allow a single person to hold one job and be able to support a family.
— Speaking of work, a new Works Project Administration that paid folks to build, repair, and beautify US infrastructure, and that hired artists of all types to contribute. Maybe tie that in with the universal selective service? Yeah, that would work.
— The patriarchy smashed into tiny shards, those shard ground into dust, that dust buried deep in the earth, the earth above it salted so that nothing will grow there for a thousand years (2020).
— Trees. I’d like to see more trees planted. All types of trees in all types of places. I like trees. Trees are cool.
— Reality Winner released from prison (2020).
— Small tax rebates for folks who allow/encourage wildlife to live in/on their suburban homes. I’m talking rabbits, opossum, squirrels, chipmunks, bats (of course), probably birds, groundhogs. I’ve no idea how that would actually work, but I like the idea.
— And, of course, actual usable pockets in women’s clothes. It’s 2021, for fuck’s sake (2019, 2020).

As before, I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff. This is just off the top of my head; this is me killing time before I go run some errands.

What about you? What would you like to see in the coming year?

18 thoughts on “a short list of things i’d like to see in 2021”

      • Jet skis are fun. But awful. Same with snowmobiles. There’s a LOT of tech grounded in terrific ideas but are completely awful because they make noise. Hair dryers and electric shavers, for example. Vacuum sweepers. I could go on — but it’s a nice quiet morning with about six inches of new snow, and I’m going to enjoy the peace. Until the snowblowers start up.

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      • Even though I’m a professional ‘noise’ creator, I really dislike noise in my environment. Humans have forgotten how quiet the world once was. No-one even notices noise pollution because we’re just so accustomed to it. On that topic I highly recommend Patrick Shen’s ‘In Pursuit of Silence’

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      • I’ve lived in major US cities (NYC and DC) and loved them, and I’ve lived out in the countryside (rural New Hampshire and rural Pennsylvania) and loved it. The quiet, the clarity of the night sky, the solitude. And really, the silence of nature isn’t always that silent; there’s wind, there are animal sounds, there’s bird song, there’s the sound of insect. But there’s nothing mechanical about the sounds of nature, and that seems to make a difference.

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  3. Not my full list – as you aware Greg, still some technical issues but after much thought I have chosen these as my top 3
    Leafblowers A biggie. I’m very good friends with a guy who trains people with similar abilities to his, but no specific expertise in the use of horticultural implements, hand and powered. Except the Leaf blower. The leaf blower is his gig and nobody’s getting that, gig.
    I couldn’t look him in the eye if I said I’d supported a leaf blower cull.
    Ergo I want MORE and Leaf blower’s ARE cool.
    My mate tells me, every time we get to chat.
    Hell, he’s been on local TV News with his leaf blower. (sorry, bit carried away there but as I said at the top a BIGGIE)
    GoT Absolutely yes please. Fuck it take the whole thing back, rewrite it, re-shoot it…The whole thing, again. Bring out a Rap version of it. BUT keep the main production units in Ireland. Keep training people who need it in those hard, soft & creative skills. Brexit, Greg, gonna fuck us over.
    And keep Husky Guy who lives close to me and trains them on the sidewalk at the front of my house. I take the rap for not trimming back that plant that day I nearly tripped over your pack.
    I tried, but Granda R illicitly took the cutting that it is rooted from. Granda R loved it and so must I (even though it is really, really, ugly and does overhang the fence a little too much)
    So, more huskies please. Husky lanes through-out. Husky lanes in front of schools, for moms & pops to use when dropping off their kids. Some snow please too, not our normal wet miserable but the dry snow that the Polish guys on the plant prefer too, yeah it a Whole lot colder. But its dry.
    (I really like huskies, but I’d really like to see kids using their own dam feet – which ever it works to keep them safe but use their own dam feet.) Some snow
    DT All neo-libs &similar arseholes. But go further please. Draw, Quarter & Hang, Jacob Rees Mogg, for example, a. for giving his kids silly, silly names, b. for every single other thing that comes out of his mouth or rattles around in his empty, empty, EMPTY, soulless, greedy head. And that guy ain’t getting autocorrected, I don’t want to ever have to use his name again.

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    • Now THAT is a solid rant. People tend to dismiss ranting, but there’s nothing like a rant for getting the blood pumping and emptying the spleen of ill humours. After a good rant, folks just feel better. But only afterwards — only after you’ve finished the rant. If the rant gets interrupted somehow, you feel sort of shitty.

      I’m aware of Jacob Rees-Mogg, though when I first heard of him I assumed he was fictional. It turns out he’s very nearly a real person. A despicable person, to be sure. I wasn’t aware, however, that he was allowed to breed. And now, having researched the names of his children, I wonder if he could be charged with child endangerment — because where I grew up, a kid saddled with a name like Alfred Wulfric Leyson Pius Rees-Mogg would routinely be in danger.

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      • Thanks Greg, I was brought up to love not hate. But I really hate that fucker. We have three boys, Brenainn, Tiarnan and Oisin, now in their 20’s. Research those names and I’m kinda guessing that you will. Cos we really love our boys, we decjded early to give them power, power that their name might speak to. I’m in the middle of something else right now. But I’ll be back. Thank you. Karma ain’t no bitch.

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      • Peter, didn’t have to research the names; I know them. My people are from Fermanagh — Fenians who came to the States in the 1860s.

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  4. Cheers, Greg. What part of Fermanagh? 1st person in the world to get one of the vaccines and you’ll know what one of the first things she said was when being interviewed – “I’m from Fermanagh…” A Down man myself, with deep, deep South Armagh roots. Heather, my partner, nearly 40 years now, Mother of My Children…, her roots are Derry. With deeper roots stretching back across the Irish Sea. And here I’m not even procrastinating, I’m actual creating.

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  5. Had a little look at my counter list again,not as hyped as yesterday, so calmer, Less stuff. DWI Arsehole Guy – Every DWI arsehole: busted, gaoled, vehicle sold or scrapped. I have skin in this game (a long, long, time ago and very sadly on the perpetrators side. Back then they didn’t do the gaoling bit, it was a rap on the knuckles, don’t be naughty again. Kindergarden justice. Glad to say though, the perp has since made significant & heartfelt reparation, every day, since.) This shit causes real harm to all the families involved.

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