“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.” —Neil Gaiman
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The best of Indianapolis
What is the best part of your hometown?
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In Memoriam: A Look Back At Many Of The People We Lost in 2020
Some people view obituaries as morbid stories, but in truth only one line of an obit deals with death. The rest of the story focuses on the amazing lives people led. In 2020, these were the obituaries of people whose lives — and deaths — most affected me:
* Betty Pat Gatliff, forensic artist
* Neil Peart, drummer
* Michael Cafferty, author and attorney
* Mary Higgins Clark, mystery novelist
* Kirk Douglas, actor
* Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician
* Clive Cussler, adventure novelist
* James Lipton, “Inside the Actors Studio” host
* Kenny Rogers, country music singer/actor
* Bill Withers, R&B singer
* Earl Deutch, ‘Kiss Cam’ favorite
* William Helmreich, sociology professor and New York walker
* Bob Otto, who played “Taps” at more than 5,000 veteran funerals
* Tom Burford, apple expert
* Kate Matte, bookseller
* Brian Dennehy, actor
* James M. Beggs, NASA administrator
* Madeline Kripke, doyenne of dictionaries
* Jack Randall, ichthyologist and coral specialist
* Little Richard, self-described “King and Queen” of rock and roll
* Roy Horn, illusionist
* Motoko Fujishiro Huthwaite, last of the “Monuments Women”
* Fred Willard, actor
* Ian Holm, actor
* Joel Schumacher, director
* Carl Reiner, comic actor/writer/director
* Hugh Downs, broadcast journalist
* Ennio Morricone, film composer
* John Lewis, civil rights leader and congressman
* Kelly Preston, actress
* Regis Philbin, talk show and game show host
* Olivia de Havilland, actress
* Wilford Brimley, actor
* Chadwick Boseman, actor
* Ruth Bader Ginsburn, Supreme Court justice
* Eddie Van Halen, rock guitarist
* Sean Connery, actor and original James Bond
* Luis Troyano, “Great British Baking Show” finalist
* Alex Trebek, game show host
* Jan Morris, travel writer, historian and memoirist
* Ben Bova, science fiction writer
* Betsy Wade, journalist
* Al Cohen, magician and magic shop owner
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2020: The Year In Review
At the end of each year, I always take a moment to examine the ups and downs I experienced. What follows is my personal and professional review of 2020. I:
* Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the near-war with Iran, Trump’s impeachment trial, the massive wildfires in Australia and California, the coronavirus pandemic, the busy hurricane season, the racial injustice protests, the 2020 election and numerous celebrity deaths.
* Penned 16 journal entries.
* Passed the 60,000th tweet mark on my personal Twitter account (@jadewalker).
* Began a stay-at-home regimen due to the pandemic on Feb. 26. Took one COVID-19 test (negative) and purchased a dozen masks. Avoided getting sick.
* Maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.
* Read 64 books and numerous magazines.
* Watched 48 TV programs, 64 movies and listened to many podcasts.
* Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild, PEN America and the Silent Book Club, Manchester, NH chapter.
* Planted a container garden and launched a gardening journal.
* Spent months searching for our next home (alas, not in Scotland — damn pandemic). No luck yet.
* Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.
* Fainted, landed face-first on hard tile, lost a few teeth, fractured my jaw and suffered through a lot of dental work. Now wearing braces.
* Decorated the front and inside of our house for Christmas and mailed 30 Christmas cards.
* Suffered from at least 33 migraines and lost 62 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 19 hours.
* Mourned the deaths of my dear Aunt Mona, several colleagues and our 14-year-old cat Brigid.
* Worked my 30th year as a professional journalist. Am once again facing possible layoffs since my news outlet has been sold.
* Celebrated my 20th anniversary as Jade Walker.
* Celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.
* Turned 47.
Goals for 2021
* Change careers.
* Avoid any library fines.
* Organize the pantry.
* Plant more flowers and veg in the garden.
* Sleep at least 7 hours a night.
* Work on my fiction.
* Read at least 60 books.
* Practice hygge.
* Win the lottery.
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My top 10 favs of 2020: A year spent reading, watching and listening to stories
Amidst the dumpster fire that was 2020, I consumed 64 books, 48 TV programs, 63 movies and many podcasts. These were my favorites:
(Note: Not all were released during the past 365 days.)
MY FAVORITE BOOKS – FICTION 1.
If It Bleeds by Stephen King2. “Fangs” by Sarah Andersen
3. “Book Love” by Debbie Tung
4. “The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern
5. “Dead Things” by Stephen Blackmoore
6. “Broken Souls” by Stephen Blackmoore
7. “The Bar Harbor Retirement Home for Famous Writers (And Their Muses)” by Terri-Lynne DeFino
8. “This Is How You Lose the Time War” by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
9. “The House in the Cerulean Sea” by T.J. Klune
10. “One Hundred and Fifty-Two Days” by Giles Paley-Phillips
(Honorable mentions: “Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg, “Happily Ever After & Everything In Between” by Debbie Tung, “Before the Fall” by Noah Hawley, “The Chain” by Adrian McKinty and “Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre” by Max Brooks.)
MY FAVORITE BOOKS – NONFICTION 1.
“52 Loaves: One Man’s Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning and a Perfect Crust” by William Alexander2. “Spectacles” by Sue Perkins
3. “One Day: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America” by Gene Weingarten
4. “At Home: A Short History of Private Life” by Bill Bryson
5. “Chase Darkness With Me: How One True-Crime Writer Started Solving Murders” by Billy Jensen
6. “The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden” by William Alexander
7. “Flirting with French: How a Language Charmed Me, Seduced Me and Nearly Broke My Heart” by William Alexander
8. “Container Gardening Month by Month: A Monthly Listing of Tips and Ideas for Creating a Professional Container Garden” by Gloria Daniels
9. “My Wife Said You May Want to Marry Me: A Memoir” by Jason B. Rosenthal
10. “The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir” by Ellie Mathews
(Honorable mentions: “Mobituaries: Great Lives Worth Reliving” by Mo Rocca, “Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death” by Caitlin Doughty, “101 Organic Gardening Hacks” by Shawna Coronado, “If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now: Why We Traded the Commuting Life for a Little House on the Prairie” by Christopher Ingraham and “The World According to Tom Hanks: The Life, the Obsessions, the Good Deeds of America’s Most Decent Guy” by Gavin Edwards.)
Overall reading ratio: I read 18,979 pages — 57% fiction, 43% nonfiction; 48% male authors, 52% female authors.
MY FAVORITE TV SHOWS 1.
Escape to the Country
2. Gardener’s World
3. Love Your Garden
4. The Great British Baking Show
5. Somebody Feed Phil
6. Travelers
7. Evil
8. Chef’s Table: BBQ
9. Why Women Kill
10. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel(Honorable mentions: 9-1-1, Supernatural, Diagnosis, The Mandalorian, Lenox Hill, America’s Test Kitchen, Nadiya’s Time to Eat, Grand Designs, Flashpoint, The Resident, 9-1-1 Lonestar and Barry.)
MY FAVORITE MOVIES 1.
The Booksellers
2. If Anything Happens I Love You
3. Dear Santa
4. The Report
5. 1917
6. Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind
7. Bushwick
8. Betty White: First Lady of Television
9. The Quiet Place
10. Kedi(Honorable mentions: The Old Guard, Enola Holmes, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Marriage Story, Toy Story 4, Christopher Robin, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story and Onward.)
MY FAVORITE PODCASTS 1.
Lost at the Smithsonian with Aasif Mandvi
2. Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me
3. Small Town Dicks
4. Against the Rules
5. Mobituaries
6. Christmas Past
7. 99% Invisible
8. Clear+Vivid With Alan Alda
9. The Anthropocene Reviewed
10. David Tennant Does A Podcast With…
and
Sue Perkins: An Hour or So With… (tie)(Honorable mentions: Radiolab, Criminal, Death Sex & Money, Sidedoor, Fresh Air, Dear Hank & John, Nocturne, Awards Chatter, The Christmas Stocking and The Daily.)
