One fine new year’s eve many moons ago, a handful of friends descended upon The Deer Mountain Inn in upstate New York, to ring in the new year.  It was a beautiful snowy night, and given the mountainous terrain, this “evening out” was to be quite an adventure.  Evening attire was required, so we got all dolled up before leaving our cabin in the woods.  It being a best friends’ new year’s eve gathering, a mini pre-party celebration was also requisite.

After catching a little buzz, we headed for the Inn, which was already in full swing.  As we bellied up to the bar, an assortment of revelers made way — Eastern Europeans with heavy accents who greeted us strangers most warmly.  When the barkeep asked, “What’ll you have?”  For some strange reason, I was compelled to say, “What he’s having,” as I pointed to a friendly stranger on my right, who laughed, and said, “ah, The White Blur.”

Needless to say, this particular eve turned out to be a most festive occasion, full of crazy memories.  Here now, is the concoction for anyone looking for a white blur (not to be confused with a white-out, which should be experienced on skis and makes for a whole other story).

In a champagne flute:  pour equal parts organic vodka and peppermint schnappes; top with organic champagne.  Enjoy the buzzles (bubbles, buzz and fizz); drink til you drop, responsibly.  Cheers!  May your new year be more than a blur.

I guess it’s officially time to reflect on the past, and consider plans for the coming year or decade.

How are you doing?  For some reason, I awoke with thoughts of life being like operating a car.  Weird.  But here goes.  Can’t drive too slowly, it causes congestion.  Can’t drive too quickly, it’s reckless and could cause lots of hurt. Can’t idle, it’s very wasteful.  Coasting’s okay — feels great, and it’s easy on the environment.  Guess 2010 is the year of coasting.  I’ll have to meditate on that.

Was 2009 a good or bad year for green?  On balance I’d say it was a net positive: we got rid of G.W. Bush and his oilman cronies, saw the Obama administration throw some significant seed money at alternative energy R&D, and got the EPA back doing what it was created to do.  On the down side — the economy makes changing anything that costs money a tough sell; Congressional Republicans are stuck voting “Nay” on everything and won’t be changing that approach anytime soon; and big money still runs Washington.

What follows is a list of some observations on the year past, some green – some not, some funny – some not.

• The Copenhagen Climate Summit ended up looking like a typical Congressional vote on healthcare reform. The gap between the climate “haves” and the “have nots” isn’t going to get much smaller in the next year.
• Some purloined emails, a few warm days and Senator James “Junkscience” Inhofe and his global warming naybobs have new momentum in their fight against science and reality.
• Charlie Sheen and Tiger Woods continued their efforts to fight zero population growth, the sanctity of marriage and net worth of their corporate sponsors.
• I nominate Lady Gaga for my “Biggest Affront to Nature 2009″ award.  Her costumes are the most appalling waste of natural resources since the 1971 Yugo and her singing has driven at least 3 endangered species to extinction.
• 2009 saw the gray wolf taken off the endangered species list and gleefully hunted by folks in states like Idaho and Montana.  This ain’t over yet…
• The blundering performance of Congressional Democrats energized Fox News blowhards Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity in their shrill effort to promote fear of healthcare reform, climate change legislation and black Presidents.
• Also in entertainment…Stephen Colbert and John Stewart countered the Fox blather with intelligent humor and insightful truthiness…
• Finally, the one thing we learned in 2009 – change is one tough nut.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!