Betty White passes away just 18 days short of her 100th birthday. Fans flocked to Twitter to see if this was another hoax, which did happen in 2014. Lifetime had planned a Betty White Christmas movie but her declining health caused them to reconsider months ago. There was a movie about her life set to open on January 17th featuring White herself and an all-star cast. It is unclear whether that will go on as planned or perhaps be retooled as more of a tribute to the late star. A lot of people are making a big deal about how 2021 couldn’t just go in peace.

John Madden gone at 85. In his own words he never worked a day in his life. “I went from player, to coach to announcer.” He also pitched Tenachtin, Ace Hardware and perhaps his enduring legacy is the Madden NFL series of video games created by EA Sports.

The Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl games yesterday turned out the way most people expected, with Alabama over Cincinnati and UGA over Michigan. I was excited to see those two teams rise up in the rankings throughout the season and glad that the committee recognized their achievements with slots in the CFB Playoff Bracket. While no one expected them to beat the established powerhouse SEC teams (that may hyperbole) the margins were expected to be a little closer. Alabama did not give up a single touchdown to Cincinnati and Georgia allowed only one late in the game. There is still more college football today, at the Rose Bowl for instance, but most eyes now turn to Indianapolis for the final game next Monday, January 10th.

All stats and calculations these days are prefaced with their relation to the pandemic. Spider-Man No Way Home, however, just became Sony’s most successful venture to date, outperforming the pre-pandemic Spider-Man Far From Home. No Way Home has made $1.16 billion in the worldwide box office and those numbers do not include this long holiday weekend’s take. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was the first time I ventured into the theater in over two years. No Way Home may be the first Spider-Man film I’ve gone to the theater for and it was well worth it. Certainly the best Spider-Man movie and I would argue one of the best MCU movies period.

Well I’m sorry this looks like the sports and entertainment report. Let’s see what else we have.

This ad appeared in my Facebook newsfeed… on December 27th. It’s not LifeWay’s fault. They probably put up a certain amount of ad money with a guarantee that at least x number of Facebook users would see their ad in a given time period. Ads can be very well tailored toward an intended audience based on geography, age demographic, even those profiles that have interacted with specific pages or types of users. But still, even though I’m an SBC pastor, in the southern United States, between the ages of 35 and 50 that orders material from LifeWay… it’s a little late for celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas.

Computer logic is only as the good as the person programming it.

I can be pedantic sometimes but come on. If I had seen this in 1990 I might have lost my mind. This must surely have been intended for sales rep people or their own internal training purposes. I know that retail outlets did not order Nintendo products; Nintendo reps came into Walmart for instance, looked at their inventory, and they did the ordering. It stands to reason that you want your reps to be loyal to your brand. Coca-Cola trademarked the word “Coke” after quickly realizing all carbonated beverages might be referred to as Cokes by the general public. Maybe Nintendo missed a golden opportunity had all video game products become referred to as “Nintendos.”

I realize there was no iMonk Radio this week. I’ve been under the weather and took Thursday as a sick day. And when I take a sick day, which is rare, that means hibernation. It looks like, and I will double check, that I do not have an episode #166 in my collection but do have #167. If so that’s the last one. I have some other material that Michael did such as personal interviews and panel discussions. And then we will go back to the beginning, or as near to the beginning as possible, with some early podcasts with episode #’s in the single digits. You know when you start a new project and aren’t quite sure what it’s going to be yet? We’ll listen to a few of those while the format finds its feet. Something to look forward to in 2022.