A list for 2009...

As the year 2009 comes to an end, here is a list involving moments of great impression, new knowledge, interesting insight, or entertaining amazement...

Something new for me in the year 2009: This "Sage Street" blog. I started it in late July. I enjoyed meeting Bill Rasmussen, the founder of ESPN. I presented my first PowerPoint presentation for high school students at sessions at the college library. The subject was on political cartoons and President Abraham Lincoln.

Biggest disappointment in something new for me in 2009: Facebook. Nice to connect to people, but not much there other than knowing that someone else is still alive. Sometimes it reminded me of being an adult who has to sit at the kids' table for dinner. Honorable mention: Started the year excited and ended the year with mixed feelings about President Obama. Disappointed with the war surge for Afghanistan and his lackluster support for a public option in the health care reform plan. But when Obama displeased me, all I had to do was listen to the horribly awful Republicans, and then it made me feel better about Obama.

Best movies of the year (that I saw): "District 9," "Sin Nombre," "(500) Days of Summer," and "Star Trek."

One of the strangest movies (released in 2009) that I have ever seen: "District 9." A documentary-style science fiction, its storyline was like nothing I'd ever watched and, to the last moment, it was intriguing. The "alien" kid in the movie is about knee-high to a grasshopper, and only those who have seen it will understand the humor in that statement. (O.K., I'll tell you...The aliens in that movie looked like grasshoppers.)

Best TV entertainment shows of the year: "Parks and Recreation" (NBC), "Medium (CBS)," "Saturday Night Live" (NBC) though some episodes were better than others, "My Name Is Earl" (NBC), "Community" (NBC), "Smallville" (CW), "Jeopardy" game show (ABC), Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show," (Comedy Central), and "Monk" (when I could find it--not sure of its network).

Best TV news programs: Almost anything that "Frontline" (PBS) covered, "Bill Moyers Journal," "The PBS NewsHour" (PBS), "The Keith Olbermann Show" (MSNBC), "The Rachel Maddow Show" (MSNBC), "NOW" (PBS), "60 Minutes" (CBS), "Nightline" (ABC), "Sunday Morning" (CBS), and the "Ed Schultz Show" though it comes on opposite my evening news programs, so I didn't watch it as much as I would have liked. For online news and commentary, I liked the articles by Glenn Greenwald for Salon.com.

Specific moments that I liked on TV in 2009: The weekly "In Memoriam" segment and sometimes the panel discussion on "This Week with George Stephanopolous" (ABC), some interviews and the segment about book recommendations on "Fareed Zakaria's GPS" (CNN), some segments of "360 with Anderson Cooper" (CNN), the banter of "The McLaughlin Group" (PBS), the Steve Hartman "Everybody Has A Story" segments on "The CBS News with Katie Couric" (CBS), the "Making a Difference" segments on "NBC Evening News with Brian Williams" (NBC), some interviews by Christiane Amanpour on her news show (CNN), some inerviews by Oprah Winfrey on her show, the beginning segment, especially when political, and the usually very adult songs sung by Andy Samberg on "Saturday Night Live," the moment of Rachel Maddow eating popcorn as she watched something daffy, usually involving Republican politicians, and Keith Olbermann's hilarious impression of Lou Dobbs.

The TV interview show I'd like to see (or help start): A show that features the stories and interviews of people who were in famous Supreme Court cases, people who were in famous photographs, and people who are activists in different causes.

People who I admired that died in 2009: Walter Cronkite (who I was able to interview many years ago), Eunice Shriver, Karl Malden, Frank McCourt, and Ricardo Montalban. (I remember hearing poet W.D. Snodgrass at a poetry reading at the University of Arizona.)

Best TV sign-off: Charles Gibson's "I hope you had a good day" on "ABC Evening News with Charles Gibson" and the Edward R. Murrow line of "Good night and good luck" by Keith Olbermann on his news show.

TV shows I never watched (not even once) in 2009: The conservative talking heads on Fox network, "American Idol," anything involving a tabloid couple named Gosselin.

The TV show of 2009 that most bewildered me: "The Biggest Loser" about people losing weight. I still can't believe that is actually considered "entertainment." ???? Also, a question: If the biggest loser is the winner because he or she loses the most weight, then what did they call the person who was the worst at losing the weight?

Best networks: PBS, History Channel, CNN, Headline News, SyFy Channel (though I preferred the abbreviation SciFi), MSNBC, the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TV Land.

Some good books that I read within the year: Too many to mention. Lots of good ones. "Nothing to Fear" by Adam Cohen, "Six-Legged Insects, Using Insects as Weapons of War" by Jeffrey A. Lockwood, "Inventing the Job of President" by Fred Greenstein, "Sugar of the Crop" by Lana Butler, "Journalism's Roving Eye" by John Maxwell Hamilton, and others. Also, re-read the book "The Professor and the Mad Man" and John Hersey's "Hiroshima."

One of the seven percent...

I heard on TV that only seven percent of Americans don't have a cell phone...and I am one of them.

It's not that I am opposed to technology and electronic devices. If I need and want one, then I'll buy one. If you need or want one, then buy one.

But I honestly don't need one yet. I needed one way back when I was traveling weekly on snowy Wyoming roads, delivering my newspapers to a printer hundreds of miles away. But they didn't have them then.

Why should I get one now when my land-line phone is fine and adequate for my needs? (Relatives and friends know my number and how to reach me.) Why should I get one now when it will likely just add more expense to a phone bill? Why get one and risk even a long-term threat of possible brain tumors, if various research about "putting a microwave-like device against your head...and cooking" turns out to be correct?

About half of the time when I call someone who's using a cell phone, the reception is either bad (unless they are truly frying bacon) or the connection will suddenly end, as their batteries die, and we are cut off from our conversation.

If I were traveling a lot, I would want one. Maybe that will mean a summer purchase sometime. If I had children who were college students and traveling the roads to college, I would want them to have one, though I would encourage "emergency use" mainly.

I have told students that I will certainly get a cell phone when, not only do they come with Internet and photograph capabilities, but also work as a flashlight, a shaver, and a taser.

So, I still don't feel the need to rush out and buy a cell phone because 93 percent of Americans have them. I am fine being in the seven percent.

Three pop culture questions...

Three questions came to my mind today concerning pop culture in America:

• 1). There is a show on the Sci-Fi channel called "Ghost Hunters." Question: How long can an actual TV series exist with episodes wherein so-called ghost hunters jump or scream or say "What was that?" and there is never anything remotely close to a ghostly image apparent or captured on film?
• 2). I listened to only the start of the County Music Awards program tonight because it featured singer Taylor Swift and, as I had an earlier opinion about her singing, I wanted to see if my opinion was wrong. No...I still don't think she can sing. Is it just me?
• 3). Why in the world would someone spend more than five minutes per day on Facebook? After finding out that everyone is doing okay, usually in very mundane ways, I have found that even the dictionary reads with greater excitement--Oh, that's an interesting definition of mung beans...