LIGHTSIDE

Happy (Gasp) New Year!

ARTHUR J. MAGIDA

Special to The Jewish News

I

ast Saturday at mid-
night, nothing happened
and everything did hap-
pen. In the vast cosmos, as the
planets move on their unvary-
ing orbits around the sun,
there was no blaring of
trumpets or salutes of cannon
to congratulate the earth on
completing, once again, its
yearly travel about our star.
But here on earth, a collec-
tive shout greeted 1989,
emanating from Times
Square, and followed by

countless renditions of that
tireless standard, "Auld Lang
Syne." -
We've been through all this
before, but 1989 has some-
thing downright terrific going
for it. It will bring down the
curtain on the '80s, a decade
marked by the murder of John
Lennon, the war in Lebanon
and the intifada, the balloon-
ing of the federal deficit, the
crash of the space shuttle, the
conviction of Wall Streeters for
inside trading, charges that
Austria's president was an ac-
complice to the Holocaust —
and a presidential election in
the U.S. marked by the most

negative campaigning in
memory.
Indeed, 1988 may be re-
membered as the year that
nastiness came out of the
closet. We witnessed the
popularity of Geraldo Rivera
and Morton Downey Jr. to
George Bush's brash, Rambo-
like invitation to the world to
"Read my lips."
Any year that ends a decade
like the '80s is a grace year,
but until the decade complete-
ly winds down, here are a few
reflections — choice and other-
Wise — about the New Year,
the old year and years in
general.

Pecaift-R 1188 Woutt) BE "THE
r WTI IN HigoRY.

Art by Jim Patterson

44

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1989