Happy New Year!

Root beer floats? Nice.

I'm drinking green tea and working on a new Amtgard sword. Not exactly a holiday kind of thing, but at least I'm being productive.

Alas, all I will do is sleep...

Batten down the hatches for 2009.

Dutifully nursing my hangover over here,halfway through Jan 01,2009.

Happy New Year everyone !!

It's a new year and Deepak Chopra strikes back at the Wall Street Journal which published an excellent article by Steve Salerno "The Touch that Doesn't Heal " on  CAM (Chopra calls it integrative medicine.) in an article titled "Leave the Sinking Ship"Deepak Chopra, MD! along with Andrew Weil, MD! and Rustum Roy, PhD! "invite the Wall Street Journal and its staff writers to
board the lifeboat of integrative health, rather than go down with the Titanic, in yet another failing business sector--healthcare."

The Redhead and I will have a glass of champagne in a few minutes, then I'm off to bed while the night-owl will do whatever she does while I sleep. Happy New Years Eve to everyone.

You Americans are still in 2008? That is SOOOOOO last year.

Can I just boast that I just had my first dry New Year's Eve in about 15 years. Mr Shrek is still in the UK taking care of his brother's funeral arrangements so it was just me and the Shreklettes and therefore no drinking. Two year old kids just don't know how to do shots these days.

Anyhow Happy New Year to all Pharyngulites, may your hangovers not last past midday.

I didn't get drunk enough last night, I didn't have a hangover at all today.

Anyway, happy new year to those who are almost a day behind the times.

Yeah, it's been 2009 for just over fourteen and a half hours here - but I guess we can pretend for the sake of you lot who are so far behind the sun.

Happy New Year, Pharyngulites. May it be good to us all.

Cold sober, though maybe not for long.

My uncle just got an open container ticket and his driver (his sister-in-law) got arrested for driving on a suspended license and they'll probably get her for DUI once they get to jail. Happy New Year's, I guess.

At least there are four brand new puppies...

Happy News Year' - I love you guyss. - sa

whoa! PZ pimping the TSHFT podcast?

~Dan
http://jazzsick.wordpress.com/

Happy New Year, slowpokes.

Happy New Year to everyone - from someone who went to sleep in 2008 and woke up in 2009.

Wow, another great podcast.

Seriously, though. Stop these shenanigans of linking to these passionate, intelligent and attractive podcasters.

I already have to listen to Skeptic's Guide, Skepticality, New Humanist, Non-prophets, and just. can't. take. anymore!

OK, one more.

Happy pre-emptive New Year's Eve, Pharyngula (10:54 in the Midwest)!

Around the world, the stroke of midnight seems to cause a riot.
In Cuttlehouse, this year at least, it passes all too quiet.
The Cuttlekids are off with friends, the Cuttlespouse online,
And me? I'm mostly lost in thought (a wee bit lost in wine).
Remembering the year gone by, my best in years (by far!),
And wishing you... the best of years... where e're it is you are.

Six minutes to go in Ohio.

My beer is empty so excuse me while I fetch a fresh one.

T' Cchhhh

gulp

Aaahh. As good as my first sip long ago.

About three minutes now, and I'd like this to his the tubes very close to midnight EST.

To all of you who have broadened my horizons, challenged my humor, stopped and restarted my chain of thought, bespoke wondrously, held forth valiantly and to those who have brought laughter to a small room . . .

Thank you. Thank you very much. PZ most of all, but what would he be without you (us) to compliment him? He needs us so much.

Really though, we need each other a lot. I am glad you're all here, but for the life of me I forget why I called you.

Happy New Year.

"Alas, all I will do is sleep..."

me too
g'night

oh errr HAPPY NEW YEAR :)

It's almost 2009 in the Chicago area. I'd turn on the tv but since the US apparently has only one time zone that matters, there's nothing on. Oh well...
;^)

cheers everyone

At my house (EST), my Lovely Bride and I celebrated with a gaggle of older teens (our daughter's friends), eating some wild-animal summer sausages I'd gotten as joke stocking stuffers and drinking fake champagne (all of the attendees were under 21 and several are still in high school). All in all, an excellent way to say goodbye to a year that offered the seeds of solutions to its worst problems, and to greet the year in which those seeds will surely germinate.

All the best to Pharyngulaland, and to the founder of this most excellent feast, Professor Myers!

I still have and hour and 15 minutes to go but am probably off to bed soon. Thank you PZ and Pharyngulites for teaching me about science and skepticism. I have learned more from lurking on this board than I ever did while attending school. Thank you all. Happy New Year and Happy Monkey!

Oh, forgot to mention: While I was shopping for jokey stocking stuffers, I ran across this ingenious gadget, which would've been lost on my giftees (mostly because none of them eat hotdogs), but which immediately made me think of this crowd.

Rootbeer floats!
Those are good PZ, but on New Years?

Hell no.

May Pomona, the goddess of vineyards, and Priapus the god of huge erections, bless us perverse heathens, and may Siduri the goddess of brewing bless you beer swillers.

It is 11:59 here in Dumbfuckastan - so happy new year!

Happy new year Cuttlefish, ye olde darlin.

I was just watching some educational biology webcasts(ahem),and it seems some people,e.g. in say,California,still havent had their NYE !

So Happy New Year to everyone,again !

I am,after some ethanol-based remedies,ready to hit the street again,on this pleasant January 1 evening...:-)

Happy new year PZ! I discovered your blog in 2008, and I am very happy to see this interesting community of American atheists!

Ah well. I had enough of a hangover last year to last me for this year, too.

Spent the night online - sober. First year alone, actually.

Did go out to look at the fireworks from a little afar around Midnight. Utterly crazy how much people waste that way. Didn't look much like a recession to me. And I couldn't even see the citycentre - only hear the constant rumble.

I think I should write my MP about introducing a charitytax on fireworks - benefitting landmineremoval for instance. Might as well do it while suggesting that the ridiculous 'citizenshiptests' the fascists have introduced get expanded to include all Danes - not just the new ones. I happen to think that that'd greatly the reduce the number of qualified voters for the fascists.

How can an atheist celebrate New Year? Don't you realise that if God weren't around to create the new year it WOULD STILL BE LAST YEAR. God is the reason for the season! Thank you Lord for creating 2009 today.

Happy new year!
Wish you all the best and joy and wonderful things to become true this year!
It's 2009!

How do people here say "2009"? I've been hoping throughout the last decade that the "Two thousand (and) one/two/...nine" form will disappear in favour of "Twenty-oh-one/two...nine", but it has not done so. The former is more sensible in the US, where the "and" is omitted, than in the UK, where it is included (what do Canada and the Antipodes do?), but once we get to 2010, even the US form will be long and clumsy compared to "Twenty-ten". Is this all down to Arthur C. Clarke?

Happy New Year to PZ, Trophy Wife, the rest of the Myers clan, and all Pharyngulites. I was in bed before the drop of the apple, (THE event here on the east coast of the US) since my husband has to work today. Eldest child is in Miami for the Orange Bowl, Youngest child had under-21 friends over, so no drunken party here.

How do people here say "2009"?

"2009"

Youre welcome.

Glad to hear 2008 was so good for some of you but I cannot say the same, it was a shitty year from beginning to end with family deaths, bad accidents and the end of my nine year relationship after discovering my partner and someone I thought was a friend had been closer than I previously imagined.
All in all a bad year, one of my worst.
I do take comfort in the small things, like discovering this site and the rise in free thinkers speaking out in public and denouncing false gods and quackery in general.

So here's to 2009, may it bring you all good things and good cheer.

Fuck the begrudgers!

Happy New Year, since the world has now done a complete turn since the first time zone started celebrating. (What time zone is Tonga in, anyway? The map looks like it is in a little box of its own.)

I celebrated with a can of Coke and a bolillo and clearing through all the headlines in my feed reader. My daughter woke me up from a nap at 12:30 am to tell me I had missed the ball-dropping and Robby Knievel's "daring jump." I've always thought that starting out the new year with a queasy stomache and throbbing temples was a lousy thing to do.

I reserve my heavy beer consumption for other days.

If only I could get root beer in Argentina. My son and I lust after a good creamy Henry Weinhard's. Interestingly, a good friend's grandfather is the "Dad" of "Dad's Root Beer."

Anyways, we went to a great family style garden dinner party in Palermo with guests from as far away as Rome, Dublin and Istanbul. Out of the corner of my eye I could catch glimpses of my 13 year old son teasing and flirting with a cute 12 year old who was enjoying the attention... and so it begins. And so it drives home the relative perception of the acceleration of time passage, life and our brief self-conscious appearance in this unbelievably amazing humbling ever evolving universe.

Yes, I know it's kind of sappy, but being an atheist does mean giving up the hopelessly romantic side of my nature. The religious just can't comprehend how we can have rich fulfilling lives without the belief in a skygod or gods, but to me they are the ones who are truly missing out on the myriad pleasures and never ending discoveries and experiences life offers us.

Happy New Year to PZ and all Paryngulytes!

*Scribbles on his pad*,mayhempix for Molly !

"...being an atheist does NOT mean..."

"... all PHARYNGULYTES."
I'll just blame the spelling errors on "punch" and champagne.

@clinteas: back at you

@Bill Dauphin: my dachshund was not amused.

Our celebration: A couple of small glasses of Merlot for me, one Cape Codder for the spousal unit, a simple, improvised vegetarian dinner that turned out surprisingly well, an unapologetic dive into our stash of Christmas chocolate, and a few episodes of Home Movies and Arrested Development on DVD. As far as I'm concerned, it was perfect.

And we didn't have to skid around on the snowy roads. Man, it was nasty outside!

Happy New Year to everyone :)

And especially to Cruithne. I'll eat an extra helping of black-eyed-peas for luck (a charming Southern tradition) on your behalf and wish you well, neither of which have any effect really except to remind you that another member of the human family is on your side.

Why root beer? Why not 'stem beer' or 'leaf beer'? Why does it always have to be roots?

Sorry, *hic* too much stem beer.

Well, as far as non-alcoholic plant-based sodas are concerned, there's also Birch Beer, Ginger Beer, Dandelion and Burdock beer, and a couple of others.

The normal "grain (with flower flavor) beer" is

Actually, the amount of fermentable sugars is pretty low in most stems and leaves, so producing beer from them would be a challenge. Grains (as in our normal "grain with flower flavor beer) and roots (apparantly there are alcoholic versions of Root Beer, thanks wikipedia!) have more.

You can ferment a mash made from the stems of sugarcane, of course, but that's usually done as a step towards "rum".

...pushed the button before I finished editing, dammit. Please ignore that orphaned sentence fragment.

S E E Quine at #42

If you knew what the word "root" means colloquially here in Australia you'd find the term "root beer" a lot more amusing.

You can't forget that this is the Year of Darwin, PZ.

Belated Happy New Year PZ and all!!

It's 02 Jan here by the way. I previewed this and saw that it got my date wrong... I'm in NZ. :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL !