2016 - Ode to a BatSh-t Crazy Year

Ah, 2016. What can I say about it? While it actually hasn't been a terrible year for me personally, it certainly has been a tumultuous one for both America and the world at large. One of the few upsides was the Chicago Cubs finally winning a World Series. America sorely needed that, because 2016 was also the year that, after an exhausting, bitter and divisive election, we elected Donald Trump as the next President of the United States. Well, some of us did. Without getting too political here, I will just say that both the tone of the election and the results (just in terms of a business man with no political experience winning) were unpresidented. Yeah, I had to go there.

Things weren't any less tumultuous on the world stage, with Great Britain voting to leave the European Union, terrorism abroad and the refuge crisis in Syria, among other things. The news was hard to take sometimes, leaving people turning to lighter topics like celebrities.


Oh, right. One of the most notable things about 2016 was that it was also the year of what seemed to be a thousand celebrity deaths. Some of the most shocking had been David Bowie, Alan Rickman, and Price in rapid succession...and then George Michael was taken from us, on Christmas Day. As I write this on 12/27, I'm just praying that there are no more*. Grim Reaper of the rich and famous, I think we've had enough.
It's been hard for me to take all the famous-person deaths straight, so I've resorted to trying to categorize them, and this list is far from comprehensive:


Music
George Michael

Prince

David Bowie

Leonard Cohen

Natalie Cole

Merle Haggard

Phife Dawg
Christina Grimmie


Acting

Alan Rickman

Gene Wilder
Garry Shandling
Florence Henderson
Alan Thicke
Gary Marshall


Athletics
Muhammad Ali
Pat Summitt
Arnold Palmer


Public Figures and Miscellaneous

John Glenn

Antonin Scalia

Phyllis Schlafly

Gwen Ifill

Jack Chick
Elie Wiesel

Yikes.

Time Magazine called 2016 the #yearofthereaper, and a CNN article quoted a celebrity obituary author who stated that "As of September 30, the total number of celebrity deaths so far in 2016 is 71.That's more than the total number of celebrity deaths for the full year in any of the other years I looked at."

She must have had an exhausting year this year. It's certainly been an exhausting year for many on social media, as hash tags like the above attest to.  With all the memes though, John Oliver perhaps did it best, with a sketch of comedians and regular citizens literally flipping off 2016 (it starts around the 24-minute mark here, and in case you couldn't figure it out already, warning: language).

At least the comedians had lots of material this year? I dunno, it's been heavy with mourning and civil unrest, but maybe that's exactly where we need to find humor where we can.

What do I want in 2017? To quote the Goo Goo Dolls, "just a chance that maybe we'll find better days."


*Edit: Ricky Harris, the actor most known for his role on "Everybody Hates Chris," passed yesterday, December 26. Aaargh.

Edit 2: It looks like it is official that Carrie Fisher has passed away after her December 23 heart attack. I just have no words. I would ask 2016 to please not make me update this anymore (c'mon, 1 week left!), but 2016 shows no mercy.

Edit 3: And Carrie Fisher's mother, Debbie Reynolds died the day afterwards. So sad, but at least they're together again. Also, I included Natalie Cole in the list above, but she actually died on New Year's Eve of 2015. 2016 was getting a head start?