Hello everyone!  Gather ‘round with a hot beverage as Old Man Barcia conducts his annual rant!

I have been writing this post for a number of years and have covered most topics.  Every year I am tempted to go negative.  Or, I decide to skip it – but then start playing with ideas and vomit another pile of drivel to clog your feeds for one more New Year’s Eve, since without it I would disappear on social media because I post minimally otherwise.

I’ve decided to reverse tables on AI, our future overlord.  Instead of it trying to mimic me, I will try to mimic AI.  This may be a valuable skill when we need to communicate while traversing the matrix or avoiding a terminator.  But I digress.  Here is my post as if I fed it into AI (I didn’t):

It has been an incredible year with a vast diversity of experiences.  I would like to share some of my insights into this fabulous year of two zero two five, starting with one slash one and ending with twelve slash thirty one.  Of course there have been ups and downs, but many have had the ability to share a multitude of diverse encounters enhancing their ability to navigate an ever dash changing world while still exploring the joyous adventures one can entertain with family and friends.

Come join me on a wondrous adventure filled with excitement and awe as we rediscover the year’s incredible array of experiences.  While reading please take stock of your own lives and consider the jubilation of another outstanding year.  To initiate our discussion I first convey a list of our planet’s greatest joys and hope these bring you the same feeling of warmth they give me – also a living and breathing person.

• Sunny days on pristine sandy beaches
• The grandeur of a palatial mountain range
• The year’s oneST snowfall creating a winter wonderland filled with the bliss of a whitened countryside
• Watching a rainbow form over a rain dash softened assortment of rolling hills
• The northern lights exposing the secrets of a captivating universe
• Seeing –

OK I have to cut this short.

Hopefully we redirect away from AI-driven nonsense like this.  And hopefully the optimistic possibilities of AI take hold rather than the doom some (including its creators) predict.  So instead . . . um . . . let’s have some bests, worsts, and other collections with no real focus.  Meant for lighthearted fun and all up for discussion; we have enough tense topics to bring anxiety.  Enjoy and be sure to debate as you raise a glass this New Year’s!

City Most Likely City to be Contacted When We Have a Problem

• Houston

A Collection of Awful Movies

• Caddyshack II
• Independence Day Resurgence
• 13 Going on 30
• Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
• The Hangover Part III (I admit I turned it off about 20 minutes in; I just couldn’t do it)
• Xanadu
• Exorcist II:  The Heretic
• The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu
• Grease 2
• Jurassic World Rebirth
• Batman and Robin

Best Donut

• Chocolate frosted with sprinkles

Best Modern Period for Popular Music

• Mid-1950s through the end of the 20^th Century

Worst Modern Period for Popular Music

• Everything since (prove me wrong)

Forgotten Wisdom

• Two seemingly conflicting ideas can be right (or wrong) at the same time.
• Not everything is what it seems at face value.
• Nuance and context matter.
• Don’t bet on the Jets.

A Collection of TV Classics

As TV has becomes more niche we have lost the unifying factor of a Thursday night serving as fodder for weekend discussion.  Many shows are now drawn out dramas with actors using soft yet raspy voices to seem more dramatic.  Here is a collection of classic shows, many which offered light-hearted escapes and occasional “special” episodes to tackle social issues.  If you haven’t seen them (Gen Z, I’m looking in your direction), they are worth checking out.

• All in the Family
• Good Times
• Cheers
• Seinfeld
• Sanford and Son
• The Simpsons
• Family Guy
• The Twilight Zone
• The Jeffersons
• The Honeymooners
• Friends
• Love Boat
• Fantasy Island
• Colombo
• Different Strokes
• Batman the Animated Series
• The Facts of Life
• Taxi
• M*A*S*H
• Family Ties
• What’s Happening!!
• Soap
• How I Met Your Mother
• I Love Lucy

Best Motive

• Quietly offering help for no credit or benefit

Worst Motive

• Ulterior

Best Baseball Development this Century

• Pitch Clock

Worst Baseball Developments this Century

• DH National League
• The “bullpen” game
• Free baserunner extra innings
• Specialized rules for plays at the plate

Most Needed Development for Baseball

• Hard salary cap

Best Advice for a Pinch Runner in Game 7

• Take a real lead off 3^rd base

Easy Ways to Improve the Human Condition (in case you don’t do these already)

• Look at the person with whom you are interacting, not your phone
• Simple words like “please” and “thank you”
• Hold the door
• Step aside so another person can pass
• Apologize if you’re out of line
• Forgive someone who apologizes
• Mind your own business (there might more to the err you are witnessing)
• Ask the customer service rep how he/she is doing

Easiest Way to Offend in 2026

• I’ve said too much already

Worst Businesses to Start in 2026

• Super Mega Shopping Mall
• Jack’s Midtown Office Space Rental
• VCRs and Tape Recorders R Us
• The Phone Book Store
• Sports Phone:  For All the Sports News Instantly
• The New American Encyclopedia
• The Typewriter Repair Institute
• Jack’s Farm for Circus Animals
• Spell Checkers for Hire
• Baltimore Opera Hat Company
• Joe’s Cash-only Gen Z Coffee and Cigarette House

Worst Places to Drive

• The bottom of the ocean
• Mount Everest
• Amazon Jungle
• North Dakota during a blizzard
• Across an icy lake about to melt
• Up the cliff side of the Half Dome at Yosemite
• Anywhere in the five boroughs of NYC

Worst Interview Question after a Great Moment or Tragedy

• “How does it feel . . .?”

Worst Trends

• Pretty much anything put out by social media

Best Way to Describe Someone Who Prattles on in a New Year’s Post

• Grumpy Old Man

Best Generation

• Greatest (thus the name)

Coolest and Most Fun Generation

• X (If you disagree, we don’t really care)

Best Celebrity Monologue

• Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes

Most Irritating Sounds

• Nails scraping on a chalkboard
• Chewing ice
• Metal on metal brakes
• Endless honking of a car horn
• Guitar feedback (unless in context suiting a song or performance)
• High-volume Static
• Any song by Kendrick Lamar

A Collection of Cool Movie Lines (see if you can guess each movie)

• You’re an All-American and our captain, act like it! . . . I believe I am.
• Leave the gun, take the cannoli.
• It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.
• Don’t call me Shirley.
• People will come.
• So I got THAT goin’ for me, which is nice.
• Looking good Billy Ray . . . Feeling good Louis!
• I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen.
• Hey Dr. Jones, no time for love.
• Get busy living, or get busy dying.
• You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms with the most convenient definitions.  But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal.
• You talkin’ to me?
• That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.  What will your verse be?
• Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
• Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die.
• Are you telling me that you built a time machine, out of a DeLorean?
• It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses.
• And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!!!
• Nothin’ is over until we decide it is.  Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?  Hell no!
• Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.
• Apes don’t read philosophy . . . Yes they do, Otto. They just don’t understand it.
• I’m not the man I was.
• I just don’t see how a world that makes such wonderful things could be bad.
• You’re tearing me apart!
• With great power comes great responsibility.
• Say “what” again!
• Love don’t make things nice; it ruins everything and breaks your heart.
• You can’t handle the truth!
• Each man’s life touches so many other lives.  When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?
• Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
• It’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I just don’t care.
• I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!
• Well, nobody’s perfect.

Best Way to Ring in the New Year

• Whatever way you please!

Happy New Year and here’s to a great 2026 everyone!