2004 it is

New Year's Eve was another blast from the past, running into old characters from high school, and even this guy I tutored when he was in middle school. Freaky. But yes, it is now 2004. Naturally, we started the new year by roadmapping a guy who passed out drunk on the couch.

Around this time the media is filled with trite recaps of the past year's biggest news, most scandalous stars, most riduculous reality shows, what have you. But only Dave Barry can truly put it into perspective:

It was the Year of the Troubling Question. The most troubling one was: What the heck happened to all those weapons of mass destruction that were supposed to be in Iraq? Apparently there was an intelligence mix-up. As CIA director George Tenet noted recently, ''Our thinking now is that the weapons of mass destruction might actually be in that other one, whaddycallit, Iran. Or Michigan. We're pretty sure the letter ''i'' is involved.''