Rusty Saber: Columnist puts final bow on 2002 holiday season

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Joe McAdoo is former chairman of the communication department at Drury University.|ret||ret||tab|

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The holiday season has come and gone. Some of you may be thankful it's gone, others sad. Regardless which camp you reside, the 2003 holiday season will be here in 11 months or so.|ret||ret||tab|

Christmas decorations are tucked away in the attic: no more holly, mistletoe, twinkling lights and brightly wrapped presents under the tree. |ret||ret||tab|

After the skies opened up and dumped a foot of snow on us two days before Christmas, those dreaming of a white Christmas finally got one. |ret||ret||tab|

Santa is back at the North Pole nursing a sore back from carrying a sack large enough to hold toys for all the world's children. |ret||ret||tab|

"Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" wishes have been expunged from our vocabularies. Stores are filled with shoppers cashing in gift certificates and bargain hunters taking advantage of after-Christmas sales.|ret||ret||tab|

Before life returns to the typical day-to-day way it is lived between New Year's Day and Thanksgiving, the Rusty Saber takes one last peek at the year just past. |ret||ret||tab|

As I wrote in an earlier column; 2002 is a palindrome; it reads the same forward and backward; 1991 was the last one. The next will come in 2112. Relax, you have plenty of time to prepare for it.|ret||ret||tab|

As you look back at 2002, was it a good year? The means by which I judge the goodness of a year is that if I am still alive at the end of the year, it indeed has been a good one. For those needing more helpful signs to assess the year, the Rusty Saber to the rescue. |ret||ret||tab|

With apologies to David Letterman, Rusty Saber's Top Ten Ways to Know If 2002 Was a Good Year. You had a good year if ...|ret||ret||tab|

10. You have finally made the conversion to the 21st century because when writing the date in 2002, you did not once begin with "19".|ret||ret||tab|

9. You survived the endless parade of annoying election campaign commercials without taking a shotgun to your television set.|ret||ret||tab|

8. You have always wished for a white Christmas; now that it happened, you will be more careful about what you wish for.|ret||ret||tab|

7. You did good deeds for others just because it seemed to be the right thing to do.|ret||ret||tab|

6. You weren't forced to watch the value of your stocks go south as the market went down because you didn't own any stocks. |ret||ret||tab|

5. Or you had a good year because your stocks had a poor sense of direction and went north while most went south.|ret||ret||tab|

4. You were not a victim of corporate downsizing, a hostile takeover or a suddenly worthless retirement plan.|ret||ret||tab|

3. Whatever you do for a living can't be done by a Third World worker paid less than our minimum wage. Hence, your job didn't leave the country.|ret||ret||tab|

2. You made certain you spent plenty of quality time with family and friends.|ret||ret||tab|

And now, drum roll, please!|ret||ret||tab|

The No. 1 way to know if you had a good year: Your health insurance carrier made a big profit on you and your family because no medical claims were incurred by you and your healthy clan.|ret||ret||tab|

Well, did you have a good year? I hope so. Now, get on with having another good one.|ret||ret||tab|

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