The Year 2011...

On the last day of 2011, here some notes about 2011 and then the annual Sage awards for the best and worst of the year...

Interesting Travel for 2011: I traveled to Turkey, with my brothers and sister-in-law, in July, with first-time stops also for me in Germany, Canada (in Vancouver), and Seattle, Washington. In Turkey, we visited Istanbul, Izmir, and Yenipazar. And back in Wyoming, I was able to visit my aunts and uncle, all whom are in their 90s. For the college in April, I traveled with other faculty members by train to Chicago for the Higher Learning Commission conference. With the Delta newspaper students at the college, I also traveled in April to Springfield, Mo., for the MCMA convention. During the Springfield trip, we enjoyed a national performance called "The Aluminum Show." All were great trips!

Most Interesting Project at the College: Working in the summer with an amazing student named Amit Jain who designed and created the Delta Online newspaper website, the first for Mass Communication at the college.

Another Digital Book: With my other digital e-books on Amazon.com of "Sage Street" and "The Wolves and Short Stories," I added just this month "News At 10," a compliation of "This Just In" columns from this blog.

Most Interesting Professional Moment: I was pleasantly surprised to receive the John McCallum Excellence in Teaching Award at the college. It is voted upon by administration, deans, and past recipients, with nominations from fellow faculty. With it in May came months of drafting my speech for the Convocation ceremony in September. It went well and people said they liked it.

O.K., now for the Sage citations of best and worst....

Best World Historical Moment: The "Arab Spring" uprising that started with Tunisia and continued to Egypt and Libya, as people cast off dictators and claimed their right to democracy. It is still a work in progress, but it is a hopeful sign for a better world for all.

Best U.S. Historical Moment: The homecoming of the American troops out of Iraq for the end of the Iraq War this month. Finally!

Worst National Problem: Unemployment. It is still too high. People need good jobs. Other nominee: The Afghanistan War, another quagmire. (An awful national event was the Joplin, Missouri, tornado.)

Terrible World Disaster: An awful world event was the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, followed by the nuclear plant leaks. (I don't think I had ever seen such devastation in a string of ongoing horrors.)

Worst Scandal: The Penn State University football program's child sex abuse scandal, said to be the worst in U.S. sports history. Terrible problems were exposed by the so-called "Paterno culture" concerning college sports.

Most Irritating Line: "To take America back," uttered mainly by Tea Party people. Backward would be the correct definition of it.

Best Books read in 2011: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" by Frederick Douglass, read for yet another time and "American Massacre" by Sally Denton about the Mountain Meadows massacre, the worst civilian massacre in the 19th century. (I enjoyed reading both books as a class book club reading with students in the Basic News Reporting class.) Other nominees: "The Amateur Emigrant" by Robert Louis Stevenson (read on a plane to Turkey), "The Colonel and Little Missie" by Larry McMurtry (read on a train to Chicago), "Quarrels That Have Shaped the Constitution" by John A. Garraty, "Polio, An American Story" by David Oshinsky, and "Moments, the Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photographs" by Hal Buell.

Most Amazing TV moment: When Anderson Cooper of CNN and his camera crew had to run from thugs who were unhappy about coverage of the Egyptian protestors in Tahrir Square in Cairo.

Most Amazing TV Feature moment: The "60 Minutes" segment by Lara Logan about the mountain climber Alex Honnold who doesn't use safety ropes and scales cliffs with just chalk-covered fingers and strength. Amazing!

Most Awkward TV moment: When Texas Gov. Rick Perry forgot his campaign rhetoric and then just made it worse by trying, unsuccessfully, to remember. I was embarrassed for him, but glad to see his campaign sink like a rock because of his poor debate performances.

Most Entertaining TV Reporters to Watch: TV reporters who were drenched by hurricanes. Always entertaining to see wet and wind-shoved TV reporters.

Best TV program: "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC. I watched it regularly throughout the year and was greatly informed. Other nominees: "Nightline" for interesting news segments on ABC; "Saturday Night Live," though some shows were better than others; "Hell on Wheels" on AMC; "Haven" on the SyFy channel; "Prime Suspect" on NBC because actress Maria Bello is great and provided an interesting character; "Merlin" on the SyFy channel; "Glee" for the musical performances on Fox; "Teen Wolf" on MTV which I stumbled upon while channel-surfing in the summer and was pleasantly surprised by the scary elements with a good ensemble of characters; "60 Minutes" for continued reliability; "CBS Sunday Morning" for interesting feature stories; "The Ed Show" on MSNBC, "the McLaughlin Group" on PBS; "Anderson Cooper 360" on CNN; and "Wipeout" for being so strange as a contest with witty banter; and many programs, such as Frontline and musical performances on PBS.

Best TV Actress and Actor: Maria Bello (Prime Suspect) and Anson Mount (Hell on Wheels).

Best Network: PBS. Other nominees: MSNBC, History channel, Animal Planet channel, SyFy channel.

Worst TV programs: The many reality TV shows. When will that trend end?

Watched with Mixed Emotions: I watched all of the Republican presidential debates, because I thought I should, being in journalism and as they were part of history. But, wow, it was difficult and aggravating at times, leading to believe that this crop of Republican candidates (with a bunch of Tea Party types) is the worst selection I have ever seen.

One Appreciated Moment from Republican Candidate Mitt Romney: When he said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer just today that he watched and enjoyed Laurel and Hardy and the Three Stooges.

What I Didn't Watch (historical moment or other): Not one minute of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Not one minute of "American Idol" (in fact, I never have seen it).

Most Under-Reported Subject: The military's drone program, wherein apparently drones are killing more civilians than terrorists.

Most Used Website: The Delta Online. For a national one: Probably Facebook. Other nominees: Highereducationjobs. com, Journalismjobs.com, Mandy.com, Amazon.com.

Best Song discovered in 2011: "Tonight the Streets Are Ours" by Richard Hawley. Other nominee: "Ah Leah" by Donnie Iris.

Best Movie seen in 2011: "My Boy Jack" about Rudyard Kipling's son and WWI. Other nominees (seen through Netflix DVDs): "Howl" about Allen Ginsberg's controversial poem with drama and illustrative art mixed interestingly; "Get Low" with performances by Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek; "Devil" which was scary; "Monsters" for the way the couple's relationship developed as they traveled space alien-infested territory; "Triage" with Colin Farrell; "Prayers for Bobby" "Skyline," "Clash of the Titans (2010 version); "Vanishing on 7th Street," "A Shine of Rainbows (with might have been an Irish movie)," and "The Disappearance of Alice Creed" for twists and turns.

Best Foreign Movie seen in 2011: "Fateless" with memorable scenes in a story about a Polish Jewish boy during the Holocaust. Other nominees (also seen through Netflix): "Even the Rain" about a film in Bolivia about Christopher Columbus while residents fought for water rights; "The Devil's Backbone," "Kisses," "El Bola," and "Swimming Upstream" about Australian Olympic swimmer Tony Fingleton.

Best Documentary seen in 2011: "A Day in the Life" about clips from videos taken on one day July 24, 2010 around the world. Other nominee: "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about a graffiti artist. (Previous great documentaries in this category have been "The Tank Man" which is probably the best I have seen; "Two Days in October" based upon the book "They Marched Into Sunlight;" "Born into Brothels," "The Conscientious Objector;" "Pete Seeger, the Power of Song;" and "McLibel.")

Best Magazine: History magazine. Other nominees: Mother Jones, Country, Intelligence Report (of the Southern Poverty Law Center), the Amnesty International magazine, and Mules and More.

Other Sage nominees for Person of the Year: Elizabeth Warren, candidate for U.S. senator from Massachusetts who speaks so eloquently for the middle class and poor; Ralph Nader, consumer advocate who continues to be correct on the issues, most recently about the problems of money and college athletics; Gabrielle Giffords, U.S. Congresswoman who survived a terrible assassination attempt; mountain climber Alex Honnold for his amazing skill and fearlessness; and Barack Obama, U.S. president for ending the Iraq War and sounding more like the candidate with the liberal ideas that most of us voted for.

Sage Award Person of the Year: This year, Sage Street agrees with the choice of Time magazine's person of the year, which was the "protestor." The Sage Street blog editor proudly accepts the award, in being a long-time protestor on many issues and levels over the years. But the award actually goes to all of the freedom and rights protestors of 2011, especially those in the "Occupy" movement and the "Arab Spring" democracy protests.