Unbelievable. Over the top. Incredible. Defying logic.
All of the descriptions and adjectives that, like so many, have been hollowed out by everyday use do not seem strong enough when looking back at 2017.
A year when ISIS was defeated but Puerto Rico still does not have power seems disconnected. It's truly unbelievable.
Maybe the most confounding image of this confounding year, filled with duplicitousness and dual finger-pointing was Al Franken using his final speech from the floor of the U.S. Senate not to discuss a growing problem in our society but to throw stone after stone of insults at his opponents.
Franken is the latest famous name feeling the fallout from sexual assault and harassment allegations. In his departing comments, Franken, who was on the short list of Democrats to potentially run against President Trump, threw shot after shot at Trump.
He called the president a liar before talking about the "war for truth" our country faces and urged his soon-to-be-former congressional colleagues of each party to "stand up for truth."
Uh, Al, maybe the time to ask for a unified force was BEFORE you were forced to resign in shame, because these parting shots really seem like a deflection mechanism. Yes, there will be several of you who email me with something that starts, "What about Trump and " and those points and discussions are worth it.
But until each leader, regardless of the letter after his name, stands up and starts to accept the personal responsibility of the moment, then we are assured of repeating this useless and unproductive spin cycle of finger-pointing.
Unbelievable, right. It was so 2017 then.
And locally
Speaking of calendar flips and reviews, there is no local group of note poised for a bigger and better year come 2018 than the Hamilton County school board.
After picking a new leader - wisely going outside the former regime and selecting Dr. Bryan Johnson - and trying to work through a lot of things, there have to be better times ahead. Have to.
That said, it's completely tone deaf for that group to end a season of change with the same-old misdirected jazz hands that have for far too long become the board's standard operating procedure.
The buzzwords and mumbo-jumbo from the story of Thursday's meeting pointed me to two thoughts: First, here's hoping there's better days ahead; and second, who forgot the talking points of "synergy," "streamline," "paradigm" or even the old fav, "outside the box," were not in the literature.
And yes, the efforts of The Johnson Group are impressive - especially since, according to reports, they apparently are doing a lot of it pro bono - and we concur the Hamilton County school system has an image problem.
But for those of us with kids in public schools, the correction of that image problem is not the words on the website or the name on the stationery.
No parent wants to hear how the branding will make it better.
We want better treatment of and retainment of the qualified teachers here. We want to know plans to better engage the 43,000 students to the point where the numbers do not embarrass us on a state level. We want to know all the steps being taken to try to make sure nightmares like Woodmore or Ooltewah basketball are not recognizable topics.
How about those for changing some buzzwords?
Saturday's stars
In a year of craziness, we want to tip the visor to Corey Green of Green Karate in Ooltewah.
His work, using martial arts to help all sorts of kids, including those kids with autism and other needs, has been truly remarkable. He has more success stories than I have hate mail. (It's a lot. Trust me.)
He said his group of 14 was the largest from Chattanooga to attend nationals earlier this summer.
Also, Ryan Rogers won an international medal in May and became the first American with autism to make the U.S. Karate Team and Para Karate team.
Last summer, Daniel Geer and Joel Westbrook won gold medals to claim national championships. Westbrook is the first of Green's students to train and compete in a wheelchair.
Merry Christmas, and here's hoping your next year is as good as Joel and Daniel's last year.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.