Insight: Gazing again into my psychic crystal ball

By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor

I probably don’t follow many traditions about New Year’s Eve, but back in the 1990s I never missed a Dec. 31 episode of ABC’s Nightline television program because that was their annual predictions show.

The Nightline anchor at the time, Ted Koppel, would host a distinguished prognostication panel every year that featured Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and former presidential speechwriter William Safire; economist Arthur Laffer, the so-called “architect of the 1980s supply side economics” movement; and former Sports Illustrated writer Frank Deford, the dean of American sports commentary. Koppel would lead the panel through a discussion of their thoughts about the coming year in various topics and then each panelist would each make three bold predictions for the new year after a review of their previous yearly predictions.

This was always a fast-moving hour of television, and I’ve 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 panelist egos in check and discussions clearly focused on what would be in the news in the unknown year ahead.

When Koppel retired as Nightline host in 2005, the annual prediction show came to an end. Safire died of pancreatic cancer in 2009 and Deford passed away at age 78 in 2017 from pneumonia.

On New Year’s Eve in 2021, I revived the spirit of Nightline’s annual predictions show by sharing a few annual predictions of my own right here in the newspaper’s weekly Insight column.

To recap my predictions for 2025 in The Windham Eagle, it’s always interesting to see how accurate or lacking my sixth sense for the past year.

I predicted that “Conclave” would win the Academy Award for Best Picture with Timothée Chalamet winning Best Actor for “A Complete Unknown,” Kate Winslet winning Best Actress for “Lee” and Ridley Scott winning Best Director for “Gladiator II.” I’m sorry to say that none of those predictions were correct.

In sports, I envisioned Houston beating Mississippi State to win the NCAA men’s college basketball championship, the Baltimore Ravens defeating the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl in February, the Atlanta Braves knocking off the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series, and Notre Dame downing Oregon to win the NCAA College Football Championship last January. I was wrong on all four predictions, but Houston and Notre Dame each reached NCAA football and basketball title games, and Philadelphia actually won the Super Bowl.

In another prediction, I foresaw two different hurricanes striking Miami Beach, Florida in September. For the first time since 2015, no hurricanes hit the U.S mainland, so I was wrong with that one.

Here are my new predictions for 2026 and when we revisit this end-of-year column in The Windham Eagle once again a year from now, let’s see how accurate my conjectures turn out to be.

** A magnitude 7.6 earthquake will strike near Blytheville, Arkansas early in the year and leave thousands without food or shelter for weeks as flooding from the Mississippi River will produce treacherous conditions for searchers looking for survivors.

** Violent clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan led to a nationwide conflict that has become one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. Right now nearly half of Sudan’s population requires some form of humanitarian assistance and the situation shows no signs of improving. An initiative launched by French President Emmanuel Macron will bring lasting peace to Sudan.

** Rhea Seehorn will win the Emmy Award as Best Actress for her role as Carol Sturka in television’s “Pluribus.” In an upset, “Hamnet” will win the Academy Award for Best Picture in March. Ethan Hawke will win the Academy Award for Best Actor for “Blue Moon.” Jessie Buckley will win the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Hamnet.”

** NASA’s Artemis II astronauts Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Jeremy Hansen will successfully complete a 10-day flyby mission to circle the moon and return safely to earth in February, igniting America’s renewed interest in the exploration of space.

** The Seattle Seahawks will defeat the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl in February while the Carolina Hurricanes will knock off the Colorado Avalanche to win hockey’s Stanley Cup in June. Iowa State will edge Arizona to win the NCAA men’s college basketball championship in April. The Oklahoma City Thunder will beat the Detroit Pistons to win the NBA title in June. The Detroit Tigers will win baseball’s World Series toppling the San Francisco Giants in October.

** Solar tiles will start to be embedded in public roads and highway surfaces in 2026 and will become a significant improvement for towns and cities across America. The embedded solar tiles will be used to power municipal streetlights, roadway signs and traffic signals, and their use will save communities thousands in monthly electric bills.

While I may not be in the league of Nostradamus or the distinguished celebrity Nightline panel in making predictions for the year ahead, as deep thinker Yogi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be."

Wishing a Happy New Year in 2026 to one and all. <

Andy Young: Why not 12 instead of 10?

By Andy Young

The United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its nominal founding this July and as you’re reading this, wholesalers, retailers, and aspiring entrepreneurs are busily imagining, manufacturing, preparing, and/or ordering officially licensed semiquincentennial merchandise they hope to peddle for a profit as the celebration approaches.

Recent history suggests those ambitious go-getters might be onto something. After all, who wouldn’t want to find an “America250” hoodie, t-shirt, coffee mug, or refrigerator magnet under the tree next Christmas?

Fifty years ago, America’s bicentennial was all the rage. Those extant at the time remember spectacular fireworks displays over most major cities on July 4th, 1976, tall ships sailing into New York City and Boston harbors, and the 26-car “Freedom Train” full of national memorabilia (including, among other things, a moon rock, Judy Garland’s dress from The Wizard of Oz, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s pulpit and robes) that traveled nearly 26,000 miles through all 48 of the contiguous states. Some amateur investors began hoarding the bicentennial quarters the treasury department minted that year. And while their foresight hasn’t paid off as handsomely as they might have hoped, no one’s lost money, since at last look each of those now-50-year-old coins is still worth at least 25 cents. Today nostalgic types yearning for keepsakes of those events can occasionally find them at Goodwill stores, where Bicentennial coffee mugs or shot glasses often sell for as little as two dollars, or eight bicentennial quarters.

Human beings seem to have a fixation about numbers that end in zero. How else to explain the significance people associate with birthdays ending with that digit? After all, the difference between turning 29 and 30, 49 or 50, or 69 or 70 is only a year, but good luck finding a Hallmark card that says, “Happy Birthday, 49-year-old.”

Attaching significance to multiples of ten seems pretty random. Why aren’t people hung up on some other number, like 12, for example? Eggs are sold by the dozen; so are roses, bagels, and rolls of toilet paper. Cans of soda or beer are sold in half-dozens, and decent pastry shop owners often send regular patrons home with a baker’s dozen of doughnuts on Sunday mornings. There are 12 numbers on a clock face, and two 12-hour periods of time equals one day. Operating under the duodecimal system makes no less sense than society’s current fixation on Base 10.

Suppose the founding fathers had decided twelve was a more significant number than ten. America wouldn’t have had any centennial, sesquicentennial, or bicentennial celebrations. Instead, there’s have been ceremonies marking the fledgling nation’s first half-duodecade in 1848. But patriotic fervor in the United States would have peaked in 1920, on the occasion of the country’s 144th (Gross?) anniversary. There might be a few crackpot decimal system advocates insisting on referring to it as the Dozentennial, but like today’s Flat Earthers, they’d have been dismissed as lunatic fringers.

A society running on Base 12 would see 2026 as just another year. However, those born in 1954 would be marking a major milestone, the completion of their half-dozenth duodecade.

It’s a good thing the United States doesn’t use the duodecimal system. If it did baby boomers would have no chance to experience the patriotic gala surrounding a Gross National Celebration, because they didn’t exist in 1920, and few of them are likely to still be around in 2064.

Thankfully though, that’s not the case. If it were, the best boomers could do would be to take some commemorative Gross anniversary 1920 quarters down to Goodwill and purchase a vintage 1992 coffee mug, t-shirt, or refrigerator magnet. <

Rookie Mama: We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet and all the peanut brittle

By Michelle Cote
The Rookie Mama

For all the joy and cheer and merriment that comes with the rise of the holiday season as it peaks toward December’s end, there are little moments that catch me pensive, nostalgic.

As a mom, I can’t be the only one feeling these whirlwind feels during winter’s rapid rise to yuletide shenanigans.

Christmastime shines a star-of-wonder sized spotlight on this true passage of time marked by traditions of old – and some very, very old – that stand in stark contrast to what doesn’t – and 
can’t – remain still (or still, still, still, as the old Christmas choral tune suggests).

Each year, I pull out my hidden trove of vintage-style Santa wrapping paper in anticipation of preparing for that magical work in which many of us parents participate each year.

I’ve had several of these rolls for many years, purchased at one of my many day-after-Christmas sprees at our local surplus and salvage store. At 17¢ a roll, I was on a roll, and despite my appreciation for all things minimalist, I don’t apply this mindset to two things – garden seedlings and Christmas wrapping paper.

I can never have enough – But I digress.

This past year, I snuck in little moments to wrap when I could, and as one of my favorite vintage 
Noel rolls of paper unrolled to its vey last scrap, a bit of sadness washed over me.

That paper had lasted me a few years and embraced many a gift as I often fought with Scotch tape and tidy creases and many a hot ol’ mess.

As I was marking up my kiddos’ names in fancy North Pole-ian script, these gifts were marking passage of time. Same wrap, different contents representing the boys’ evolving interests through the years.

When I first began writing this column, I reflected on my first baby’s first Christmas. That little dude is now 14 years old, and we’ve got three others in tow – four different flavors who share a love for laughing all the way.

Alas, the passage of time.

It’s in the rare, quiet moments that I breathe in this realization that regardless of holiday traditions, wrapping paper, dishes put forth, the boys are gonna grow up.

I can wrap many a gift, but I can’t wrap my mind around just how quickly they’ve been sprouting up before our eyes.

Perhaps that strange time warp between Christmas and New Year’s when everyone seems to forget what day it is as they assemble gifts and eat leftover peanut brittle in their pajamas is a needed break for parents as well as the kiddos.

We need that decompression and time for reflection as much as they need time to test out their new Hot Wheels and Lego sets.

We need time for deep breaths and dust – and tissue paper – to settle as the little ones continue on excitedly, completely unaware that once we box up Christmas magic and decorations and store away in the basement, these won’t come out again until everyone is one year older.

Time marches on.

These reflective, hibernatory moments are truly poignant as we high five our partners and prepare to carry on into a new year. After all, Easter decorations are lining up store shelves – Go look and see, if you don’t believe me.

But in the meantime, our crew started up a new tradition last year which we certainly did not invent and hope you’ll try, too.

An empty jar sits on a counter each January by a small notepad, and each time a memorable moment takes place – be it sentimental, funny, or something in between – one of us jots down the memory and folds it up in the jar. At the end of the year, we’ll open up the notes and read them aloud, reflecting on small memories we may have otherwise forgotten.

Call it a modern-day Auld Lang Syne if you will, filled to the brink of a cup of kindness yet we share to button up the year gone by.

So cheers to 2026 and enjoy your Hot Wheels.

Don’t forget to pick up your holiday wrap for next year at clearance prices.

And enjoy the moments intentionally all year through with loved ones.

Glad tidings, readers!

– Michelle Cote lives in southern Maine with her husband and four sons, and enjoys camping, distance running, biking, gardening, road trips to new regions, arts and crafts, soccer, and singing to musical showtunes – often several or more at the same time!