Alan for a bloke who claims not to have a huge chip on their shoulder, you sure are a misery queen.

Do try to have a Happy new Year, if you can.

Well, Hasbeen, thank you for your good wishes! And the backhanded compliment! You have a happy, prosperous and healthy new year!
Alan B.

OK Alan we know all that (2posts back) now what are you trying to tell us.
Never make assumptions about what people know or don't know.

Happy New Year to all, but make a new resolution;
Try not to insult others when you disagree with them.
We could do with a lot less of that.

What the ultra-right-wing geniuses commenting here just refuse to understand,
Alan B,
I don't believe it's a refusal to understand. it's trying to make sense of the largely ultra-left-wing media's convoluted, devoid of fact reporting that's brought it all on. They're responsible for most of the social & economic mayhem of our days. I'm no fan of Trump but I still have to see & hear him say that he didn't want to sign the cheque. With a Demographic like the US I'm surprised they still exist !

A SINCERE HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred,_Lord_Tennyson Britain’s Poet Laureate (1850-1892) wrote more than "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1854).

Prolific Tennyson also wrote an earlier poem "Ring Out, Wild Bells" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells (published 1850). Now days it rings out the old year and rings in the new, on New Year's Eve.

The words http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Out,_Wild_Bells#The_poem have deep meaning.

Also bringing the poem to life is a sad and moving musical version by Canadian singer Alana Levandoski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alana_Levandoski.

Alana sings it here http://youtu.be/dbnsIydaYYg

The sad tone has special poignancy for a year of bushfires here and COVID everywhere.

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

First Verse/Chorus

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

First Verse/Chorus

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Pete

At the risk of sounding like a Trump supporter, can anyone provide a link that shows him saying "I'm not signing that Biil" ?