One more rock

Boy standing atop a cairn
on the summit of
Ben Nevis, Scotland 

Something's magical about the Last Day of the Year.  I know, it's just another day.  If we still used the ancient Roman calendar, 2019 would have begun on March 1, and we would be still trudging along for another couple of months until it came to an end.

But, here we are, locked into to our Gregorian calendar.  December 31.  Today, we wind things up.  Money earned after today gets taxed in 2021, not 2020.  We ring out the old, and ring in the new -- hoping despite all experience to the contrary that the new year will be better.

And so it is with this, my blog.  This post is the final addition to my 2019 sum of posts.  Google's magic counters flip back to zero after midnight, and start counting for 2020.

I can't speak for quality, but not a bad year for quantity.  As of Saturday, I had published 111 posts during 2019, a new record.  One post more than the 110 I published in 2010.  Today's post is unnecessary when it comes to setting records.  It's overkill.

Back before surveying was less precise than it is now, people argued about whose area had the higher mountain.  For example, Rainier or Whitney?  Climbers even built cairns, piles of rocks, at the summit to boost their mountain's claims.  "Look, my mountain's now higher than yours!"

Similarly, I shamefacedly confess that in 2010, I published a recipe for a Tom & Jerry on December 31, just to add some heft to that year's total number of posts.  No such phony padding is necessary this year.  I've already set a new record, fair and square.

But why not raise the bar a bit?  Make beating the 2019 record a bigger challenge?  Why not just pile one more rock on the top of Whitney's cairn, even after surveys have proved that it's beat Rainier by a hundred feet? One more post to increase the quantity of this year's posts, even at the expense of decreasing their average quality?

Hence this lame post.  Post No. 112 for 2019.

Happy New Year!