‘Twas the Night Before Christmas 2024…
A Visit From St. Nicholas was the original name of the poem but since this version has no mention of St. Nick, or any saint for that matter, I have simply titled it ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas 2024’.
With full apologies to Clement C. Moore…
‘Twas the Night Before Christmas 2024
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The elections were over, and the ballots were summed,
Even in California, where many were numbed.
I nestled in the couch, reflecting on the year,
And carefully wondered, can we all be in good cheer?
So I looked at my phone and asked of Ms. Siri,
Please recite the news that will make me quite cheery.
When out of the phone, her reply was quite bland;
I was surprised; she said, “I don’t understand.”
So, to my desktop I went, I needed to know,
And I asked Chat GPT to give it a go.
The curser, it blinked and blinked, then answered empiric,
“Not enough information, can you be more specific?”
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
A number of pop-ups and they would not disappear.
They kept multiplying with news both bad and good,
I knew in a moment I had been misunderstood.
More rapid than eagles, the bad news came first,
High interest expenses were the cause of the curse.
Now 99 Cents Only, Party City and Rue21,
Red Lobster and Big Lots, and True Value - done!
From the top of the heap, they all dropped the ball,
Now go away, go away, go away all!
Just like a virus, when you click on a link,
Or a juicy rumor that drives the group-think;
So Chat GPT kept scrolling, the news, it kept coming,
The biggest, of course, was the interest rate cutting.
Three in total, the first in September,
Then one in November, and soon after, December.
All through the year, the market reached new highs,
Though hitting 40,000 in May was a surprise.
The Olympics in Paris brought good news to many,
Simone Biles, Noah Lyles, and Katie Ledecky.
Then Biden and Trump were in a debate,
Confusion abounded, and the result for Joe? Not great.
And Shohei, without an Angels agreement
Walked to L.A. to bargain future achievement,
Set the Dodgers on fire and won the world title,
With the help of a Freeman, whose bat was quite vital.
The Swedes joined NATO after seeing Ukraine
They had nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Economic news was plenty, though not really outstanding,
But it appears we have piloted to a soft landing.
The jobs kept on coming, the confidence kept growing,
And inflation had dropped to a manageable showing.
With the election all done and indeed not contrived,
And with the winner declared, the Dow hit 45.
As the year winds down with a welcome exhale,
We focus on Christmas, a spirit that won’t fail.
The season of laughter, presents, kindness, and such,
Is something that Chat GPT and AI just can’t touch.
Changes will come, as they inevitably do,
Just roll with the punches and stay with your crew.
And I say to you all, as I write with much cheer,
Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year!
Like many people, Christmas is my favorite time of year. We stop to wish people “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” and send notes and make phone calls to let people know how much we appreciate them. A good portion of the business workforce has a week or two off to spend with family and friends, and office workers often participate in Secret Santa exchanges.
I am always introspective at Christmas time; I think it’s an opportunity to look back and see what went right and continue that. I also look for opportunities for self-improvement with a vow to redouble my efforts, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. The wonderful thing about a new year is that it provides a clean slate upon which you can build and measure your degree of success 12 months later. If you want to take that one step further, we are a quarter century into the 21st century, so it’s probably a good time to look back and see what you have done since Y2K.
Thank you for being one of my readers and I hope to connect with more of you in 2025! Merry Christmas!
