MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Last year wasn’t a perfect 10”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, January 2, 2011
So the ball dropped. What did you expect? It would rise this year instead?
No chance of that as 2010 finally sighed and said, “Good night.”
Yes, the New Years’ rituals have grown a little tired. But clearly we still crave them. It wasn’t by accident that a million people turned up in Times Square again as Friday night became Saturday morning. It wasn’t by chance that smaller, though equally exuberant, knots of Long Islanders gathered in local ballrooms, restaurants and bars to ring out the old – and ring out the old some more just to make sure that last year was dead and in the ground.
Five, four, three, two, one – Happy Phew Year! Thank God that one’s finally done.
A frustratingly tough economy.
A persistent disappointment with politicians at all levels—from both parties and of all ideological stripes.
The continuing popularity of “Jersey Shore.”
In ways large and small, 2010 disappointed most of us. Unemployment never fell much. The housing market stayed depressed. Consumer confidence wasn’t exactly cheery despite December’s brief willingness to jack up the credit cards some more.
If things don’t improve in the next 12 months, a reassessment is really in order. Maybe instead 
of counting down from 10 next year, we can try counting up instead.
Eight, nine, ten – Happy 2012!
It won’t make much practical difference. But when nothing else seems to be working, you just start changing things.
Sometimes that’s the only answer that remains.
OUT WITH THE OLD
1. “I’m just sayin’”
2. “My BFF”
3. “Tea Partiers demand…”
4. “Is there an App…?”
5. “Double-dip”
ASKED AND UNANSWERED:
Twenty-five for a short driveway? Were some pre-pubescent snow shovelers downright greedy this time around?…If they could have, would LIRR bosses have delayed Friday’s big fare hike? “Huge interruptions, now please pay more” isn’t the ideal slogan, is it?…State-budget cutting’s important, but is this really where the axe should swing first? 
Shutting down the 24/7 lifesavers at the Long Island Regional Poison Center? Working out of Winthrop-University Hospital, they’ve been fielding 50,000 panicked calls a year…Is nothing sacred, Kyle Frisina? Harvesting oysters from the bacteria-laden Nissequogue River – and mislabeling them? That’s just a misdemeanor?…So this is why Jennifer Lopez has taken on a second job? The new “Idol” judge needs to help husband Marc Anthony pay off $3.4 million in tax liens on their Brookville estate? What’s next? Sending out little Max and Emme on toddler-twins casting calls?…Now that it’s illegal to transplant invasive Japanese honeysuckle in Nassau County, can we please outlaw some other green-thumb unpleasantries? Poison ivy? Roses with nasty thorns?…Did NIFA just blink? Or is the Nassau Interim Finance Board only catching its breath before inevitably seizing total control of the county’s underwater budget?…
Email ellis@henican.com. Follow on Twitter @henican.
LONG ISLANDERS OF THE WEEK
Dr. Michael McGuigan and His Poison Fighters
Friday was lights out at the Long Island Regional Poison and Drug Information Center, whose doctors and nurses have been calmly answering 50,000 often panicked calls a year from their busy quarters at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola. “My baby just swallowed a dozen aspirin? What do I do” “I put bleach in my coffee instead of milk.” Director McGuigan and his staff had answers for everyone, ranging from “don’t worry, you’ll be OK” to “an ambulance is on the way.” The center is an early victim of the state’s latest budget crisis. But is this really where the ax should swing first? Protecting Long Islanders from poisoning themselves and their families? Here’s hoping the money is found to revive these front-line lifesavers. Here’s hoping the overworked poison-control center at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital will answers the calls as calmly, compassionately and knowledgably as Dr. McGuigan’s crew has.
E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow him at twitter.com/henican
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