Insight: Gazing once more into my crystal ball

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

I can’t be labeled as a “traditionalist” because I don’t stay up to watch the annual countdown in Times Square on New Year’s Eve, and I certainly do not make New Year’s resolutions.

But way back in the 1990s, I never missed a Dec. 31 episode of ABC’s Nightline television program because that was their annual predictions show. Nightline’s host, Ted Koppel, would bring back the same panel every year of fearless prognosticators including Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and former presidential speechwriter William Safire; renowned economist Arthur Laffer, who was the so-called “architect of the 1980s supply side economics” movement; and witty former Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford, the dean of American sports commentary.

For me, it was always a gripping hour of television, and I always appreciated the keen insight of Koppel, who was able to move with ease from topics ranging from politics to religion to business to sports, all while keeping the esteemed panelists’ egos in check and the discussion centered on what they thought would be the breaking news in the unknown year ahead. Sadly, after Koppel retired as Nightline host in 2005, the Nightline prediction show came to an end. Safire died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 and Deford passed away at age 78 in 2017.

But on New Year’s Eve in 2021, I revived the spirit of Nightline’s predictions show by sharing a few annual predictions of my own here in this column.

To recap my predictions for 2024 in The Windham Eagle, it’s interesting to see how accurate or lacking my sixth sense was in the past year.

** I predicted that Purdue would win the NCAA Men’s College Basketball Tournament in April by defeating Houston in the championship game and that the San Francisco 49ers would defeat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl LVIII in February. I also predicted that the Philadelphia Phillies would win the 2024 World Series by defeating the Houston Astros and that Oklahoma would win the national college football championship in an undefeated season. For real, Purdue lost to Connecticut in the Men’s College Basketball championship game in April, while Kansas City beat San Francisco in the Super Bowl in February. The Los Angeles Dodgers won this year’s World Series in October over the New York Yankees, and Michigan won the 2024 national college football championship by defeating Washington in January. In recapping my predictions, I did have Purdue and San Francisco 49ers both reach their respective title games, but they each lost, and all my other predictions were also wrong. All four of my championship predictions for the past year were wrong.

** I incorrectly predicted that NASA would successfully launch Artemis II in November for a manned spaceflight around the moon and back to Earth as the U.S. took its first steps to establish a scientific mission there. That mission has now been pushed back to April 2026 at the earliest. Once again, I was incorrect about this prediction too.

** Per last year’s prediction, “Oppenheimer” indeed won the Best Picture Academy Award in April. However, “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig didn’t win the best director award, Christopher Nolan did for “Oppenheimer.” Paul Giamatti didn’t win the best actor award for “The Holdovers,” Cillian Murphy did for “Oppenheimer.” Carey Mulligan didn’t win as the best actress award for “Maestro,” instead, Emma Stone did for “Poor Things.” Therefore, I only got one out four predictions right in this category.

Here are my new predictions for 2025 and when we revisit this end-of-year column in The Windham Eagle again a year from now, let’s see how accurate my conjectures turn out to be.

** “Conclave” a fictional dramatization about the election of a new pope will win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Timothée Chalamet will take home the Best Actor Oscar for the film “A Complete Unknown” about singer Bob Dylan. Kate Winslet will win Best Actress for her starring role in “Lee.” Ridley Scott will win the Academy Award for Best Director for “Gladiator II.”

** Houston will defeat Mississippi State on a last-second shot to win the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament in April. The Baltimore Ravens will defeat the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl in February. The Atlanta Braves will crush the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series in five games in October. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will upset Oregon to claim the NCAA College Football Championship in January.

** Two different hurricanes will strike Miami Beach in September and the saturated wet soil will lead to a frightening collapse of at least five major high-rise condo and apartment buildings there. It will lead to the evacuation of other buildings on the beach and many people living there will have no place to go. Converted airplane hangers will be used to house thousands of displaced residents, and they will be living there for months.

Once again, I probably need to remind you that I’m certainly not in the league of Nostradamus or the distinguished celebrity Nightline panel, but as playwright Eugene Ionesco once said, “You can only predict things after they have happened.”

Wishing a Happy New Year in 2025 to one and all.

Andy Young: Incompetence pays a dividend

By Andy Young

Like many males of his generation, my father was exceptionally good at working with his hands. Trained as an electrician, he also learned basic carpentry, mechanics, masonry, plumbing, and auto body repair. He could fix anything, so naturally he tried to pass some of his very practical abilities on to his children, starting with his oldest son.

Much to Dad’s disappointment, I wasn’t the most eager or hardworking apprentice. However, I ultimately mastered every skill he had, except those related to electricity, carpentry, mechanics, masonry, plumbing, and auto body repair. Today the only talent I have that he didn’t came courtesy of my maternal grandfather’s DNA. I can change nearly any indoor light bulb without needing a stepladder, something my 5-foot-7 father couldn’t always accomplish.

My failure to pick up any of those valuable skills was as much due to impatience as it was to any innate disability. Then, as now, I enjoyed trying things I quickly excelled at, but if I couldn’t master something instantly frustration kicked in, followed in short order by indifference, disdain, and, depending on how long certain adults insisted I keep trying, deep loathing.

In retrospect, being able to perform what some consider basic tasks would have saved me thousands of dollars over the years. Paying people to keep cars running efficiently, unclog pipes, repair furniture, put up sheetrock and rewire electrical outlets is expensive. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t taken any cruises or invested in any timeshares recently.

Or ever.

But every so often having a limited skill set can come in handy. Late last month my washing machine stopped completing the “spin” part of its job, meaning every load of laundry needed to be wrung out, item by item, and then line dried in the basement, since even a dope like me knows enough not to put dripping clothing into an electric dryer.

Getting a repairman to come diagnose (and subsequently fix) a large home appliance is difficult under normal circumstances, but it’s next to impossible to find one during the holidays. The few potential repairers who responded to my phone calls indicated they wouldn’t be available until the second week of the new year. There would be a significant cost just to have them show up, and the price of parts and labor was likely to dwarf that initial fee. The machine was already elderly when I moved into my current residence nine years ago, so a number of my well-meaning friends suggested I cut my losses and buy a new one. I considered that until I learned what new washing machines cost.

So, I did what comes naturally: nothing. But as my supply of clean clothing dwindled, I realized I needed to take action. I tentatively put in a test load consisting of just washcloths, socks, underwear, and thin t-shirts, all items which could, if necessary, be squeezed out manually and then hung up to dry. But before starting I felt around under the washing machine’s agitator and found two separate sizable wads of dried paper towels, which I hypothesized might have once been wet paper towels that maybe, just maybe, could have messed up my washer’s inner workings. The laundry came out fine, as did the next load, which consisted of heavier items like sheets, towels, jeans, and sweatshirts.

My inability to get anyone to come out and relieve me of several hundred dollars to see if my washing machine was salvageable resulted in the problem resolving itself, saving me lots of money and stress in the process.

It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes, against all odds, ineptitude actually pays off. <