2011 -- Year of the ...

The promises of a tranquil Year of the Rabbit are nice, but unlikely in our household. The Lovely and Gracious and I learned yesterday that it will be a little girl that we will be welcoming this summer. In the spirit of celebrating the Chinese New Year, we recite to ourselves the marriage advice from the Chinese Zodiac that you marry someone 4 years younger or older than yourself, but never someone 6 years apart. (We happen to be 6 years apart and very happy together.)

But 2011 is not only the year of the rabbit. FAO has declared 2011 the Year of the Forest. The UN has also inaugurated the Year of Chemistry and the Year of Youth. Combining them would suggest we are celebrating the use of chemical fire retardant to fight youthful arsonists. Or maybe we're using homeopathic chemistry to make ourselves look younger.

Conservation groups declared last year the year of the shark. This time we get the Year of the Bat under the banner "Together with bats."

CNN has called for Latin America to celebrate the Year of the Female Politician with Brazil's first female President and several other notable state leaders from Costa Rica to Peru and beyond.

The Center for Consumer Freedom opines we may see The Year of the Nanny. "(Qualities: irritating, finger-wagging, spiteful, incapable of having a good time. Partners best with regulators. Incompatible with freedom and common sense.)" Then again, nearly every year is the year of the nanny to freedom-lovers because some dimension of freedom is constantly on the defensive. This year the theme seems to be food and obesity-related nannying.

The year 2011 will see the "M1C problem," similar to the Y2K bug, but only in Taiwan which dates this as year 100. The Australian of the Year for 2011 is a social entrepreneur who encourages philanthropy for international development.

All of this is assuming that 2011 is not, in fact, the Year of the Zombie Apocalypse. My favorite post on Zombie Politics.