Morning Reads for January 31, 2018 {New Years Eve Edition}

2018. What a year! Some of it was great. Some of it wasn’t. It felt defined by campaign commercials and mailers and a whole lot of chicken dinners. It was a year of parades, bus tours, phone banking, sign waving, and meet and greets.

For our family, in addition to a whole lotta miles on the campaign trail, it was a year that brought us a new niece and three new nephews, it was a year of profound loss, and it was a year of high adventure that broadened our horizons. I thought renovating our house and living in dust and dirt for weeks on end challenged our marriage. HA. If you want to know if your marriage will last for the ages, try volunteering your entire life-past, present, and future- for public consumption via a campaign. We are in it to win it, folks.

The year also brought about headlines that were bizarre, hilarious, and caused eye-rolls for days. Here are some highlights for your last Morning Reads of 2018:

• U.S. Olympic gymnast doctor Larry Nassar was confronted in court.
• This lady sued a restaurant over really hot lasagna that she says caused mental anguish.
• This was the year of the beginning of expansion for MARTA.
• Hawaii Kilauea volcano went active and destroyed Leilana Estates, a neighborhood on the big island.
• This guy was bit by a snake, a bear, and a shark in a 4 year period. He needs to live in a padded room.
• If you thought I was going to make a list of 2018 highlights and not include the royal wedding, you really need to get to know me a little better.
• It feels too soon to talk about what 2018 did to Georgia farmers. And the impact will last for years to come. Hurricane Michael spared no one.
• iHop pulled the publicity stunt of the decade and “changed it’s name to iHob” for about a month.
• This won’t be a read that will interest all our readers, but if you want to someone’s opinion of the worst New York Times headlines of 2018, this is for you.
• We lost Zell Miller.
• Families being separated from each other at the boarder was a major story for a good part of the summer.
• This aquarium apologized for “fat shaming” one of it’s own otters…
• Distracted driving made big time headlines in Georgia with the new hands free law.
• We gained another Supreme Court Justice. I know my office couldn’t have been the only office in the Country that lost at least a day’s worth of productivity listening to the confirmation hearing and later the testimony and defense of both Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blassey Ford.
• A shark was stolen from a Texas aquarium disguised as a baby in a stroller. I cannot make this stuff up.
• We lost George H. W. Bush. And there were SO. MANY. ARTICLES. and tributes to choose from. But this one, this one was one of my favorites.
• Again, I cannot make this stuff up. “Nun caught smuggling cocaine in shoe heels was misled by online boyfriend, attorney says“. THIS IS A REAL HEADLINE.
• Lindsay Lohan decided to “rescue” a migrant family, tried to take the kids, and was knocked down by the mother. Oh, Lindsay. ::face palm::
• Politically speaking, there are lots of lists with varying opinions of what was the biggest story of 2018. You can read some of them here, here, and here.
• While I have pulled some of the highlights from this list, honestly, you need to read these ridiculous headlines for yourself.

And, if you are throwing a fun soiree at home this evening and need to stream the ball drop (or planning on snuggling up on the couch BECAUSE NO SHAME) here is some easy access for your viewing pleasure.

From all of us at GeorgiaPol, Happy New Year!