How was the festive season for you? Still got the decorations up? Sad it’s all over so quickly? It’s always the way. Everything passes eventually, good times and bad.
And therein lies the most optimistic thought I can think of early in this new year. That all things must pass. And though we’ve had a rude setback up here in the UK, plunged helplessly into yet another lockdown, the odds are that this wretched pandemic and all that it entails will also fade into history.
Because of this, quite a few of my colleagues feel 2021 will yet be more bearable than its immediate predecessor. We published a clutch of hopeful pieces over the holiday period. Take your pick:
Reasons to be hopeful. Five-minute read
21 things to look forward to. Five-minute listicle
Heroes of 2020. Entire series
Could 2021 be the best year for a generation? Three-minute read (with apologies for blatant self-promotion)
Otherwise, over the Christmas period we raised a festive toast to:
The boom in ghostwriting the histories of elderly people, to preserve their memory. Three-minute read
The pop star who discovered reading aged 50. Three-minute read
Waste not, wonton: Canada’s great chopstick recycler. 90-second read
The nations that avoided Covid. Two-minute read
The joy of learning new things. Five-minute read
Oh and this daft piece about a Danish kid’s TV programme featuring an animated character with an unfeasibly long penis. 90-second chuckle
Lucky numbers
Global temperatures would stabilise within a couple of decades of greenhouse gas emissions being reduced to net zero, according to the latest research. Also, US renewable energy consumption outstripped coal usage in 2019 for the first time. And Norway became the first country to see electric car sales overtake petrol, diesel and hybrid models.
More esoterically, 2021 is the first year ever that is both a sequence of consecutive two-digit numbers (20 and 21) and the product of two consecutive primes (43 and 47). Thanks to the inimitable Alex Bellos for pointing this out.
What we liked
Quite a few news outlets covered the news that in one American city, not a single police officer fired a single shot while on duty in 2020.
A BBC environment correspondent said he was more optimistic than at any point for 25 years about humanity’s chances of dealing with climate change.
For anyone who’d like a magazine that showcases these kind of optimistic stories, Positive News’ latest edition is on sale. And for anyone who wants to eat their own Christmas tree (yes, EAT YOUR OWN CHRISTMAS TREE!) this is a cute piece from NPR.
What we heard
Thank you so much for this article - exactly what I needed to lift my spirits this morning!
— Maxine Oliver (@Moli50) January 1, 2021
Where was the Upside?
With the UK’s National Theatre at Home offering – brilliant theatre in your living room for not much. OK, so it’s not live … but great acting, great plays and no queues for the bar at half-time. The perfect investment for Lockdown III?
