2016: Good-bye feet!

HALLIE EPHRON: Bidding farewell to 2016. Some would say good riddance to bad rubbish. On the Chinese calendar it was the year of the monkey, not the most auspicious of the Chinese zodiac's 12 signs. As Alice said, "Curiouser and curiouser... now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!"

Pantone’s colors of the year were Rose Quartz and Serenity. We needed a little of the latter, that's for sure. Next year its color of the year is the equivalent of slime green. Good luck to us.

For me it was the year of "the upside down." I was totally hooked on the Netflix show STRANGER THINGS which introduced us to this underground netherworld just beneath our feet. And somehow it does seem appropriate that I'm mad about a show that channels X-files-style paranoia.

This year, if you asked my son-in-law what big events happened, he'd say the Cubs finally won the world series and virtual reality is kicking in. Maybe I'll get to watch next season's STRANGER THINGS with a virtual-reality headset.

And then things got even stranger with the discovery of a possible 9th planet. Massive and far beyond Pluto, it's the only thing that explains otherwise inexplicable gravitational pull.

More down to earth (and not), how about the US Women’s gymnastics team? The fabulous Simone Biles, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian. They had us glued to the TV. And  Simone Manuel became the first African-American woman to take home a gold medal in an individual swimming event.

So maybe it was, as Marie Claire magazine trumpets, The Year of the Woman. Hillary Clinton ran for president, won the popular vote by nearly 3 million, and put pantsuits back in our closets. 

It was also the year of HAMILTON, which will probably still be around in a few years when I manage to get tickets. I'll be following the career of Lin-Manuel Miranda to see what magic he spins next.

So join us in bidding 2016 Adieu (or Enough already!) What were the bright spots of 2016 for you?  

AND tune in tomorrow for the JUNGLE REDS' FIRST BIG SURPRISE OF 2016. Shhhh....