Nice Guesswork if You Can Get It
Posted at 6:00 AM on December 30, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(26 Comments)
I've been shuffling through the archive for today's Toast to the Posts, and came upon the entry published one year ago today. Our Trial Balloon participants offered some 2009 predictions. How did we do? About the same as everyone else out there, I'd say.
Here are some examples of the several types of predictions that came in.
Multiple Choice
I'm fairly certain at least one of the following three things will transpire in 2009:1. George W. Bush will clear some brush.
2. Jim Ed Poole will throw his hat in the ring for the governorship of Minnesota.
3. The sun will explode.
Posted by Eric | December 30, 2008 7:31 AM
Mind Boggling
I predict that in 2009 we'll make contact with benign aliens who will ask us why we cancelled Star Trek just when it was getting good.Posted by Bill | December 30, 2008 7:31 AM
Can't Miss
Predictions: A high-level politico will stick his/her foot in his/her mouth and chomp down really hard. A famous Hollywood couple will call it quits. Our taxpayer dollars will go to unnecessary pork projects. There will be a big snowstorm in Buffalo, New York. There will be flooding in the plains. The debate on global warming will continue to rage (as Minnesota freezes!!).Posted by Lindi Waller | December 30, 2008 7:43 AM
Personal
As for me, I predict in 2009:1. 80% of people's New Year's resolutions will be to lose weight and get healthy
2. My teenage sons will continue to get taller and eat enormous amounts of food
3. I will get my brown belt in karate
4. There will be war and strife in the Middle East
5. I will hold peace in my heart and love as many as I can.
Posted by Joanne in Big Lake | December 30, 2008 8:15 AM
Can't Be Verified
I predict 2009 will be a year of innovation. There are lots of bright folks idled by the financial crisis and they will start using their new-found spare time to lay the seeds for some great future ideas.Posted by Mark | December 30, 2008 8:21 AM
You can read all of last year's posts here.
Anyone care to venture out there for 2010? There's no penalty for being wrong, and no reward for being right, but you can earn worthless bonus points for being interesting! And one year from today, we will enjoy looking back at the strange things we thought about as 2010 began.
Here's my 2010 prediction: Somebody who reads Trial Balloon all the way down to the very last paragraph will be rewarded with tickets to hear the legendary Cajun band Beausoleil at the Cedar Cultural Center on Saturday night, January 2nd.
How?
By entering the drawing!
Obey the rules.
Good Luck.
Comments (26)
Good Morning,
There is at least a few things I am sure of for 2010 -
The sun will shine.
The wind will blow.
And, at least I hope, Bob Dylan will not make another Christmas CD.
i predict that
1. we'll discover the identity of guy in the Wintergreen ad
2. TB blogger numbers increase and more lurkers find their voices
3. greater MN will get HD radio and the radios will fall from the heavens - arriving in barns, cars, and offices everywhere.
Jim, we can only hope for that last one - chuckle!
happy day all
Evidence will be found that the Mayans, in fact, chiseled their calendars 4 leap years out from what was previously believed, and Sony pictures will not be bereft of an opportunity to make a sequel to 2012.
See you all next year! I have a couple of days off and a couple of races to run and will try to get some extra sleep in the mornings. Best wishes for 2010 to all!
A new technology will come out, called “Itching.” It will broadcast everyone’s slightest impulse before they are even aware of them.
After now having done coffee, tea, fruit juices, and water, the next over-priced but wildly-popular designer drink will be Kool-Aid.
By June 15 the Twins fans will demand a roof. By September 15 the Twins management will demand a whole new statement.
Joe Mauer will show an emotion. Brett Favre’s every move will finally be ignored. Tiger Woods will . . . oh, who cares.
The 2009 Academy Awards will mostly go to movies which did not come out on 2009.
Dale will admit to using performance-enhancing technoligies. Mike will admit he is really a wraith.
Donna and Carlos will have tumultuous relationship: hot in the winter, cold in the spring, patched up for the summer and fall. But next December Donna will elope with Uwe and Carlos will release a tell-all book and make a fortune.
Joanne will be declared the winner of the Virtual Dance contest because Donna did not accept her challenge.
Contagious ecthyma will spread through TB bloggers.
I will retire.
Barbara, Cynthia, Jim, TGITH, Elinor, Terri, and Anna will start a cruise line on Lake Superior called “Ice Breakers” for shy bloggers.
Dream the Goat will throw her hat in the gubernatorial ring (the ultimate "dream" candidate) and win. She will eat any bill that does not work for the common good and turn the economy around. A few of the bills that seek to continue the years of T-Paw's legislation will cause indigestion.
(Clyde - I think your cruise line is a grand idea. I'm in! If we host Dream's inaugural ball on one of the line's boats, can we call it a Dream Boat...at least for the night?)
2 trends for 2010:
1) Virtual goatherding with Dream et al as the models for the e-goats.
2)Angels bearing fish will be the trendy new download for screensavers, etc. Someone will animate her and make a YouTube video.
and the governor will proclaim Radio Heartland Day in honor of the fine work of Dale, Mike, Jasper and all Heartlanders everywhere (but really as a bid to sway the vote away from Dream-won't work, but the proclamation will stand)
Only after we knock down the contagious ecthyma plague.
My son is adopting a malnourished dog from the San Diego pound and is looking for a name. I think I will suggest "Dream" because you can play off that name in so many ways.Anyone else got a name to offer? I suggested Occam, but I stole that from Richard Russo.
Catherine, after e-goats, you are both the publicity agent and activities director on the cruise liner.
I am usually not interested in going on a cruise, but I would be interested in the one Clyde has proposed. Of course, Clyde should be on the cruise and we could help him celibrate his retirement.
Also, I hope Barb's predication of HD broadcasts of RH for the whole state will come true, but I'm not sure that HD radios will fall out of the sky.
Anna et al. - as Dream's coaxer (i can't say manager because make them do anything they don't want to do) i can say that if it involves eating, she's there. if it involves eating only after heated interaction, Dream is out and Dodger is your Girl.. but being most political offices seem to involve eating and sex, then Majority is THERE BABY!!
Clyde - "Lucky"
good luck, Elinor!
Wow, Barb!! The name "Lucky" is a mhthic name in my family. About 1948 my father was at a friend's house, and he was going to shoot his dog because it was a Collie, therefore smelly and energetic. My father did not like the dog's name; so he changed it to Lucky. My son thus thought about it and rejected it. I suggested Thurber and Hobson as well. He thinks they are going with "Archimedes/Archie."
Thanks for the job offer, Clyde. If one of the ports of call is Madeline Island, I am there!
So are they thinking it will be easier to give Archie a bath with a name like Archimedes?
Catherine: Bayfield would have to be the port of call, regular tours of all the Apostles.
Bill Cosby says never give a child a name you cannot holler in anger. My son was thinking of that advice when he thought of the "Archie" version.
For 17 years he had a cat named "Freight Train." This is one of the few places that name would not have to be explained.
whats wrong with dylans christmas album? clyde how about fubar
predictions:
health care will pass but be so watered down we won't care much
50% of the teams involved in twin cities sports will lose their games
rt will be governor
jasper will learn how to do the requests so dale and mike can work remotely
clyde will not become a walmart greeter
the guy in the hat will get a new hat.
barb will figure out how to wire the barn
brett favre will be back
goats will become the minnesota state animal
happy new year blog buddies. enjoy hte countdown and lets have a great 2010
Greetings! Well, I'm happy to see my predictions from last year came true -- although I need to improve on #5. My boys ate and grew far more than I expected, too!
1. The Star Trek franchise will be re-ignited with more movies starring the hot, young actors we saw this year. But they can't quite touch the chemistry of the original Bones, Kirk and Spock.
2. The TSA will breed thousands of special dogs to sniff the butts and underwear of all passengers to detect underwear bombs.
OR
3. Americans will travel sans underwear in the name of "national security."
4. Health Care Reform will still be expensive, mismanaged, unhealthy and still ruled by pharmaceutical companies.
I'll stop there ...
I predict…..
1. That RH Bloggers will continue to make me chuckle and make me wish I were cleverer; so I will continue to lurk most of the time.
But that’s ok….I can’t sing or play an instrument but I still Love to listen.
2. That Bob Dylan will continue to do whatever he likes and I will be glad. (Love the Christmas CD)
3. That Dale, Mike & Jasper will play more great music that I had never heard before so my music collection will grow.
4. That there will be more great shows at the Cedar that I hope to go to.
Happy New Year All.....Kate
Clyde's poetry is published to great acclaim but all the money he makes is spent on legal fees when Bob Dylan sues him for royalties.
Tim will tough it out and spend Christmas in Minnesota.
The monsters in Where the Wild Things Are will take meds for their various manic depressive states.
Public enemas will be banned in the free world.
Kate, you are the pilot of the cruise liner.
We Trial Balloon bloggers do not seem to have a lot of faith that the trial will succeed. But Happy New Year anyway, from Clyde, Nate, and Archie.
May be I should listen more closely to Dylan's Christmas music. It just seemed wrong, to me, for Dylan to sing Christmas music., but you never know what he will do and how it will turn out.
clyde
it never entered my mind that the trial would continue forever. dale will set it up so we can do it from our beds in the nursing home in the years to come. dale included.
jim
thanks for staying open minded. his christmas album reminds me of jimmy durante singing frosty the snowman and him singing this old man for a childrens album about 15 years ago. priceless
donna,
christmas in minnesota is the way it should be. i hope your prediction is right.(about me not clyde)
My reference to the possible failure of the trial was not to RH but to the general cynacism of this group about larger-picture things.
Fun Internet moment: my son just facebooked from his phone in San Diego that he just felt an earthquake (first he has really felt in 3 years there). So I looked on the quake site I have bookmarked and told him where and how strng it was.
where was it and how strong?
5.9, just south of Mexacali, Mexico, abvout 150 east of them in the Imperial Valley. He was in San Diego now but he moved to San Jose three months ago, right on the SA falut. Strange he has not felt one there yet. But he does not seem to feel them very well. He was at the Vet's getting Archimedes "tutored" (if you know that Far Side cartoon). Says it swung the blinds a bit. San Diego has not fault near it.
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