Andrew Sullivan has a good year-in-review essay at the back of this week’s issue of Time magazine — and I’m not just saying it’s good because it begins and ends with a Lord of the Rings analogy (though that certainly helps). :)

James Poniewozik’s 2003 wrap-up article is also worth reading. He argues, essentially, that this was the year when the cultural “mainstream” ceased to exist (and that “in some ways the mainstream is now itself a niche” — case in point, Clay Aiken). Excerpt:

Of course, no sooner had the printing press been invented than some pundit was probably bemoaning how people, individually consuming those newfangled “books,” would lose the community spirit engendered by Passion plays and witch burnings. And it’s worth remembering that mass culture was a 20th century anomaly. …

Increasingly, the events that most deeply, if briefly, unite that floating mainstream are deaths: Johnny Cash, Bob Hope, Katharine Hepburn. The intensity of response to the passing of John Ritter, a likable actor from a campy ’70s sitcom, seemed to surprise even his fans. In a culture with few common cultural referents, the past is what we share the most. …. When old stars pass, they take with them a piece of a time when we weren’t so niched and subdivided by the market and our own choices. To make the metaphor a little homier, the pop-culture mainstream is a family that used to get together for dinner once a week but now does so only at weddings (or dating-show finales, anyway)–and funerals.

This is an interesting point, too:

In fact, it was easier for a work to provoke discussion if no one saw it. Possibly the most debated works of 2003 were The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s unfinished movie about the Crucifixion; The Reagans, a TV biopic that no one outside CBS saw before the network canceled it under protest; and Daniel Libeskind’s World Trade Center rebuilding design, which spent most of the year on the redrawing board.

I’m sure you can pick apart Poniewozik’s arguments and find various inconsistencies and instances of b.s. in there (though I’m too lazy to do so at the moment), but overall, I think he’s got some good points.

Oh, I like this excerpt too:

And in Iraq, unlike Vietnam, there was no Walter Cronkite to speak for the great middle. Ratings for cable news shot up, while big-network newscasts stayed level or even dropped. Some viewers’ media choices became a kind of political secret handshake. Pro-war, you watched Fox News, learned that the war was a rout and disdained the liberal big media. Antiwar, you watched BBC News � or al-Jazeera on satellite � learned that the war was a quagmire and disdained the jingoistic big media. Pox on both your houses, you watched Jon Stewart.

Or you voted none of the above. What network did the most people watch the night the ground war began? NBC. While ABC and the Fox network went with war news, the Peacock had the sense, bravery and civic responsibility to air … “Friends.”

Heh. Read the whole thing, as they say.

Oh, by the way, in case you were wondering, the title of this post is a rather random reference to a Makem & Clancy song. (Hi Dad.)

Heh. Methinks ScrappleFace’s Scott Ott is a Lord of the Rings nerd!

A surprise offer by Saddam Hussein to personally lead U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney to Usama bin Laden’s mountain hideaway may have been inspired by one of ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies he has watched while being held by the U.S. military. …

Saddam recently told interrogators, “We’ll be nice to them if they’ll be nice to us. We swears to do what you wants. We swears to serve the master of the petrol [his nickname for Mr. Cheney]. We will swear on…on the petrol! Yes, on the petrol; on the petrol.”

Everybody’s favorite Texan has a brand new blog!

No, this does not mean George W. Bush has learned how to work a computer… because I’m not talking about George W. Bush. I’m talking about Chris Fahrenthold, of course!

That’s right, one of my most prolific commenters has starting a solo blogging career! I’m so proud… (sniff, sniff)… it’s called SoTheBearSays (capitalization mine) and it’s coming to an Internet near you!

The blog is a Christmas present from Adrienne (who has solicited my help on the HTML, which may be forthcoming at some point :). Thus far, Chris’s initial posts have dealt with two wildly divergent topics: his desire to become Pope (the man is a Baptist, mind you) and his Christmas speeding ticket (ouch).

Anyway… check it out!

UPDATE: By the way, I must say the blog started on a truly excellent note, with what I can only assume was a deliberate Lord of the Rings reference: “And So It Begins…” These are, after all, the very words of King Theoden in The Two Towers’s Helm’s Deep battle scene, after the first Orc is downed by a wayward arrow from an elderly Rohirrim soldier. Adrienne, you did that on purpose, right? :)

We had a fine Christmas here in Arizona. Of course, it’s just the first of two Christmases for me; my family will celebrate Christmas on Dec. 29, when we’re all together in New York. :) But this was certainly a good start.

Here is my traditional Christmas picture of all the gifts I got:

Among the highlights: awesome Notre Dame pillow and blanket from Jen and Soren; cool Lord of the Rings “weapons and warfare” book and LOTR trivial pursuit game from Becky (we played twice–I won both times); digital thermometer thingy, also from Becky; big fat “Century” photo book from my parents (technically a Hanukkah gift); a cell phone headset from Becky; various nice-smelling soaps and related bathroom products from Becky and her parents; a soft, very nice, dark green sweater from Becky’s uncle and aunt (not pictured because I was wearing it when I took the photo); and Best Buy gift cards from Becky’s parents and Casey. And there’s more — but you can see that! :)

Of course, Christmas is supposed to be about giving, not receiving, so let me tell you about some of the stuff I gave! Becky was the beneficiary of a rather substantial Target shopping spree, which produced various stocking stuffers like snowflake earrings, cow socks, SpongeBob SquarePants stickers, etc.; Lonestar’s greatest-hits CD; the double DVD of both X-Men movies; a floating candle set; and more. Soren, a fellow LOTR nerd, got a Gollum action figure and a Balrog candle holder (the fire illuminates the Balrog’s head — very cool!), while Jen got a neat vibrating pillow, and Casey got a book called “The Lies of George W. Bush” (or something like that). Becky’s parents, for now, got a CD-burned copy of “Butter Baggings and the Fish of Doom,” but their real present is yet to come; I’m still working on making it. :)

Becky and I emptied our respective stockings and opened most of our presents for each other in the morning. Then we went over to her parents’ house in the early afternoon and opened more presents there. (You can see my cell-phone posts of all this, as it was happening, in my new Holidays 2003-04 blog category.) Here’s a picture of Becky in the robe that her parents gave her, and below it, a shot of her reveling in the glory of said robe, with the chaos of present-opening all around her:

About those Best Buy gift cards… Becky’s parents attempted to trick and confuse me by wrapping theirs inside a Victoria’s Secret bag. Heh. I must admit, I was momentarily at a loss:

After we finished opening presents, we watched a couple episodes of South Park from the first-season DVD that Becky bought for her dad:

When we got home, Becky and I played Trivial Pursuit and then watched Two Weeks Notice, which we had rented from Blockbuster the previous day. Oh, and we played with the kittens, who were themselves spoiled with various Christmas presents this morning (many of them involving catnip in some form).

Now Becky is asleep (early to bed and early to rise!) and I’m left to ponder the remaining tasks I must do before leaving on a jet plane for the East Coast on Saturday morning: finish our Christmas cards (yeah, a little late, so sue us), finish Becky’s parents’ Christmas gift (also a little late), figure out my finances, probably buy my new iBook, and of course, pack. Oh, and I have to work tomorrow. Oh, well. Nobody ever said the holidays aren’t stressful. :)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!