Today and tonight, we will all of us be thinking of New Year's resolutions and wishing one another a happy and prosperous 2005.
And, chances are, we will all raise a toast before the day is done, even if some of us raise only a glass of cranberry juice to clink with our neighbours.
Here are some toasts we may want to consider in celebration of the New Year [from "Here's to Hoisting"]:
What to say? Pithy, modern toasts are hard to come by. A lot of old proverbs along the lines of, "If the sea were wine, everyone would be a sailor," are just too funky. The tendency to over-philosophize is an ever-present danger, and attempts at poetry are best left for the late hours of the evening. You can always try for a bit of wit, e.g., "Here's champagne to my real friends, and real pain to my sham friends." Or this quote attributed to Groucho Marx: "I drink to your charm, your beauty and your brains — which gives you an idea of how desperate I am for a drink." Then there is the old standby, which dates from the days when the sun never set on the British Empire: "Here's to wives and sweethearts. May they never meet!"
And may I offer a special toast to AWADtalk as we all look forward to a healthier, happier and even more fruitable, word-flavorful New Year:
May our best come alive
In two thousand and five
