Merry Christmas, We're Closed

I don't feel like writing anything for Christmas (not even anything mushy and sentimental, believe it or not), so let's use this quiet day off as an opportunity to look back at some of the few less-than-embarrassing blog posts that were published this year. There is much coal, and few gifts, but it's Christmas, and we've been good this year.

• I started the year trying to be humble instead of being right... it was a tough year for that.
• Also a terrible year to try to plot out bar crawls based on SEPTA maps, but maybe after the vaccine is distributed to everyone, we can finally get it together.
• Okay, I'm including the Minnie Mouse coloring book on this list, even though it's one of the weirder things I've done.
• Writing about Pam is easy.
• I took every opportunity I could to dismiss memes this year, especially political memes.
• I actually saw a few other people take a swipe at "Who would characters from The Office vote for?" after I wrote my piece on it, and I'm sorry to report that I am the only person on the internet who understands The Office.
• If you're wondering how a PoYB blog post is created, then I wrote a how-to guide.
• Defund the police, please.
• Defund the police and defund teenagers and defund me too.
  
• I am thankful for 2008 Joe for sending me a blog post via time capsule, all about my freshman year history class.
• I wrote a weird story about an ice cream sandwich, finally clearing it from my "Blog Ideas" phone memo after like five years.
• We moved to Fox Chase, and I had some bitching and moaning to do about it.
• Hmm, any other Top Five lists worth mentioning? I guess you could check out Top Five Always Sunny...
• ...or Top Five The Wire...
• ...of Top Five Silver Linings, I guess? This last one was written at the very beginning of the pandemic, and man, it sure seems past its expiration date already, doesn't it? Still, it's a fun little document of a time that seems like happened a thousand years ago.
• I've been kind of avoiding linking to anything music-related at first. I dunno, a lot of music stuff seems more "in the moment" then I would've thought. Like, are there are "Song of the Week" columns that would make sense to link to here? "Slow Ride Argument," maybe?
• The ones that touch on race—"Don't Die" and "Boomer"—are uncomfortable to read, but I still stand by most of what I wrote.
• I guess it would be worth linking to some of the Record Club reviews that I stand by. I'll limit myself to seven. 1000 gecs brought out the best/worst.
• I tried to capture the essences of my favorite writers in the review for Future Nostalgia.
• Wrote my favorite non-review for Set My Heart on Fire Immediately.
• Had someone on Reddit draw me riding a cat for $10 and put it in the review for Sorry for the Delay.
• All kinds of looking back this autumn at albums adjacent to my youth, including Wild like Children.
• Opened up the time capsule to listen to Kick.
• Promised myself that I would chill with the unfunny shtick of making up a fake stage play after I wrote the review for Plastic Hearts.
• I suppose it's time to weed through 350+ beer posts to see if there are any worth salvaging. We could start with the Amstel Light I used back in January to drown some specific sorrows.
• Wrote an ode to McGillin's.
• Tried to remember what it felt like to be celebrating the Eagles.
• Tried to remember what it felt like to drink on the subway.
• I had a great time remembering all the great times that didn't happen because we were sober.
• I dunno, those are all blog posts plucked from the "Nostalgia" tag. Are there any blog posts about beer that talk about, ya know, the actual beer? Plenty, but I'm not sure what would fit here. Maybe Shiner Prickly Pear? But even that takes a while to get to talk about the beer, you gotta wade through early-pandemic anxieties first.
• Of course, I wrote about Frozen. Had to write about the movie I saw the most this year.
• In terms of Never Seen It entries that I feel like I completed competently, I can comfortable list Bee Movie, Ben-Hur, maybe Avatar, maybe Breakfast at Tiffany's? The rest will depend on whether you've seen the movie, I guess.
• All the Your Favorite Movie interviews were great fun. I was probably the most proud of the Rudy and Life as a House interviews (and, sure, Olaf's Frozen Adventure). I wish I could've done more of these this year, but then again, maybe the idea is officially played out.
  
• Here's how I'll end this list: you should know that the most worthy entries on Puke on Your Birthday are and always will be the ones that aren't written by me. My friends are better writers than I am. You can click on the Contributors tag, which will group all non-Joe writings together, or you can look on the sidebar and click on individual names to see how each person shaped PoYB this year. I am so thankful to all those who take time out of their lives to write stuff for this dinky little hobby of mine. For real, I am indebted forever.

Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope you holiday is as wonderful as possible, under the present conditions.