Eleven Months of Memories
Ten fingers and ten toes
Nine (ten, actually) Gheorghemas albums
Eight Bud Lites with Andy
Seven Book Categories for Reading
Six Cylinders for Shlara
Five Givings of Thanks
Four Badass Women
Three(+) Decades of Love’s Labor
Two Things You’re Needing
And a Fat Guy in a Sweet T
This Gheorghemas has been a bit of an emotional journey for our little village. We've written about love, loss, community, and appreciation, with just enough goofiness to keep our fans from wondering if we've lost our edge.
The year past offered similar themes, sprinkled as they were between a shitload of posts about music, W&M basketball, poop, beer, and cars. We wrote a lot about cars this year. Specifically, zman wrote a lot about cars this year and we all learned a lot.
By the numbers, with Mark Twain's perspective on statistics duly noted, we had a productive year by recent standards. 2018 is the first year since 2013 in which our postcount increased over the year previous. This very post gives us 213, topping last year by one. Those 213 posts mean that we kept our 11-year streak of at least 200 posts alive. We seem to have hit a comfortable stride in our middle-aged years, bloggily speaking. (If 15 is middle-aged, does that mean every blogyear is the same as three human years?)
Reflecting back on 2017's year-in-review, I note that the tone was a bit downcast given the state of affairs in our political nation. Shit hasn't gotten any better in that area, has it? And Gheorghies have dealt with personal pain, the deaths of loved ones, and professional strife, all while living through a ceaseless barrage of bullshit from our government. (I do recommend Dave's Park the Bus post from this morning for its paragraph-long distillation of our leader's degeneracy and incompetence.)
As ever, though, this place is a refuge from the real world. Whether it's a venue for venting inchoately into the void, or learning about music, or smiling at something preposterously silly to the point of sublime, G:TB delivers in spades. I'm more convinced than ever that community matters to our mental health, and even more convinced that G:TB offers a real sense of community for those of us that choose it.
Mazel Tov, Gheorghies, and thanks for another year of glorious, mood-lifting goofballery.
On to the stuff you're all waiting for.
January
You knew it was gonna be some kind of year when the very first post was about TR spraining his dick.
It should've also been a clue when zman did a three-part series on a bills/jaguars regular season game:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
We know someone who did The Dakar Rally. Sort of. Six degrees of Gheorghe, or something.
I learned some lessons about civics. (Reminder, go see a naturalization ceremony if you want to feel good about America.)
Zman wrote about cars, and the law, and John Cena. Two of those things are areas of significant expertise for our in-house counsel.
TR's second post of the year had 'fecal deluge' in the headline. Strong start.
Isolated vocal tracks are cool.
Weasel playing the rock and roll, documentary-style.
February
The year's shortest month only delivered 14 posts, but there was some wisdom to be won.
'Never had to/But I better knock on wood' takes on a new meaning in the Trump era.
Life. Celebrated Daily. As the alternative seems bleak.
TR, zman, a plane to Tokyo and Johnny Dangerously.Afterschool Special: It Makes Me Anxious.
John Perry Barlow's rules of adulting.
Not Four Years, But a Lifetime.
Ten for the Wrens
Z on B(MW)
March
'This is William & Mary's Year'. Let the record show that it wasn't, but that the Wrens finished the season as the best-shooting team in America. And that ain't nothing.
Fountains of Wayne were featured in the first Whitney's 6-Pack. Whitney had a lot more six-packs that he didn't write about.
Zman sued the President*.
One of several inspired Fashion is Dumb posts by the Teej.
Guestie from a young reader who lives in TR's house.
Judge Alison Nathan has a posse.
Dave is Russell Crowe is Dave.
The 12th Day of Gheorghemas 2017 was celebrated on March 29, 2018.
April
I had an idea for a tattoo. There's no way I'd follow through on something like that, though.
Danimal made The Masters!
TR and Andre the Giant.
Topps 80s baseball cards - #2!
We didn't buy Cal Ripken's house. But we should have.
Return of zman Bouillabaisse.
The 411 on 420.
"Mark this, friends. I predict that I'll smoke a joint together with my now 16 year-old daughter before she turns 25. And I'll do it legally, where I live today."
TR stole Whitney's 6-Pack.
We used the phrase 'toxic bubble of handjobbery and mendacity' in a post. That might be the highlight of the year.
May
May was a month of milestones, with fully three different long-running endeavors coming to fulfilling ends.
Whitney repped Britney Spears.
Made up for it with a Connells 6-Pack. We were slackjawed there for a minute.
Apparently I also stole the 6-Pack idea. Didn't remember that.
Jim Comey's is a complicated legacy.
Our eight-year journey finally reached its destination: the top-ranked set of 1980s Topps baseball cards!
Abe Lincoln retired from the National Memorial Day Parade.
Here's to TR's goth Sheila.
Pugs not Drugs.
Weed might have been our third-most popular subject this year, behind music and the Wrens. Here's zman with a legal angle.
My daughter retired from competitive soccer. I waxed maudlin, part one.
We didn't buy this awesome map of the Hundred Acre Wood, either.
June
I used the Caps' Stanley Cup run as an excuse to write about the Red Sox.
We didn't buy Gheorghe's house, either.
My daughter dropped her debut hip-hop track.
We made a vasectomy playlist. As one does.
TR's got his mind set on wanting to rock.
We didn't buy Mike's Paul Newman, either.
"Fuck Civility. Civility got us Neil Gorsuch."
July
Lots of music this month, wrapped around a handful of serious and silly. So, kinda G:TB in a microcosm.
"You Put Out a Paper. It's What You Do."
I followed through with something. Finally. It's a whole new me.
Anthem to a Layoff.
The new W&M logo is...well, it's okay.
OBFT explains G:TB, in a manner of speaking: "At some point late on Saturday, or possibly Friday (definitely wasn't Thursday or Wednesday), with a good-sized group of dudes sitting around the table in the dining room, someone commented about how lucky we are to have this many friends ready, willing, and able to spend several days together, as comfortable in each other's company as ever, after so many years." I'm gonna get that tattooed on my face.
August
zman's brilliant 'lazyman's filler' series is worth checking out in its entirety. The final episode, courtesty of Rootsy, came out on the first day of the month.
The inside story of the new W&M logo, which upon further review, is...okay.
Z wrote about Hungarian rap, which is a pretty Z thing to write about.
You can kinda see the bones of what would become WCSAGD in this excellent post about cars and paint colors.
Wayne Rooney made the play of the world soccer season for D.C. United.
Whit found the worst song ever recorded.
September
Squirrels are the progenitor of the human race. You're welcome.
We only did one Better Know this year, and it featured the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Peak Gheorghe.
Danimal went to Notre Dame, and couldn't come up with a better post title than 'Random Post'. Was Touchdown Declan too hard to figure out?
Never Forgetting Means Remembering.
The 'badass women' tag got some work this year. As Shlara pointed out during Gheorghemas, it probably could use some more.
October
A 6-Pack about actual six packs.Turns out we had multiple posts about shit this year. Strong.
We crossed the 4000 post mark. That's a lot of dipshittery.
Whitney dropped his annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame post.
Zedman initiated the best post series of the year on October 12, giving Whitney license to procure a 1969 Chevy Impala convertible. The WCSAGD arc, along with his general excellence in the field of jurisprudence, music, and bouillabaisse earned Z the coveted Gheorghie of the Year award. His reward is that he's required to keep posting for our entertainment.
Teejay wrote a book.
Jimmye Laycock retired. Dave Fairbank wrote about it, exclusively at G:TB.
November
14 posts? Guess we were all busy working to get out the vote.
Whitney gave us the best 15th blogday presents we could ask for. Potentially the greatest post in G:TB history. I think we should give him Gheorghie of the Year. Someone ask Z to give the trophy back. That shouldn't be too awkward.
Back at it with This Week in Wrenball, for another ultimately futile effort. Like Sisyphus, Tribe fans push that boulder up towards Capistrano year after goddamn year.
Danimal can't font for shit, but he can spin a yarn. This one about Warren Spahn is a beaut.
Here's to you, Gheorghies. You're the best.
Posts
16 comments:
This is always my favorite post of the year. I’m a sucker for a clip show, I guess. I will say that many of the posts and comment threads hold up to months-later revisiting.
Kudos to rob for the energy to plow through 200 posts.
i just had a great idea for this post, which i will undoubtedly forget before next year rolls around. i'm going to go through the comments and find selections from each gheorghie for a 'who said it' quiz. for example, we'll start with an easy one:
"i would love to get some big ink on my back, but unfortunately, my rapidly spreading back hair limits my back tattoo options to either a Sasquatch or the members of zz top."
Man, I was off the grid for a couple days and missed a lot of action, including some xmas music recs tailored to my esoteric tastes.
I heard Back Door Santa on our local low power FM station the other day - killer track. Also learned of Santa Sabbath - anyone heard this? It's perfect covers of Black Sabbath tunes turned into Christmas songs. Pretty damn good.
I'm guessing that quote comes from TR. And TR- there are options to deal with the back hair jungle that are surely less painful than the big ink would be.
While it may be tempting to go with Zman on that, I’m gonna say Dave. Here’s my reasoning: ZZ Top likely fell into Zman’s pop culture vortex from his childhood. His intellectual parents minimized his lowbrow exposure to the world for a few years. Mine had no fucks to give about parking me in front of cable TV alone for hours at a time.
Dave. Final answer. Also b/c he’s a swarthy mofo.
It was less intellectualism and more a dearth of cable TV stemming from poverty/thriftiness that created my pop culture vortex. But I’m familiar with ZZ Top. I even had shorts with a Velcro fly! I am not the author of that quote though, there is no ink in my future.
I've got a VHS of ZZ Top videos. It's high art. Looks even better when you're wearing cheap sunglasses.
Holiday preset for myself - set a colonoscopy appt for early February. Good times.
Wow - a colonoscopy preset is a bold choice, depending on how often you hit the button.
I have an endoscopy in February. Nighttime GERD is no joke.
You know I'm a fan of Cheap Sunglasses, Rootsy.
I’m off until the 3rd as this is a pretty dead time of year for my business. It’s quite the opposite for my wife who works in the food biz. All her restaurants are open and crowded from post Xmas through the new year so she can’t take much time off.
As a result, I’ve been Dadding this shit out of the past couple of days. DeChristmased the house, laundry, dishes, god knows how much toy assembly and then topped it off with teaching the kid to ride a bike today.
Greg arrived in town this afternoon though, so I’m sure I’ll blow all this goodwill I’ve built up in no time.
Joe Kickass has landed. Watch out Melbourne, Palm Bay, Indialantic metroplex.
TJ is reallllly enjoying his night on twitter.
*waves hello*
I remember when he channeled that energy towards GTB. Sigh.
I did the ol' two birds one stone thing and did the daily double - colonoscopy and endoscopy at once. Slipped the (very attractive) female doc a fiver pre op to do the endoscopy first..
KQ coined it fingercuffs. Name the movie.
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