Even with this latest disaster, I’m rooting for that Spider-Man musical.

Along the lines of my previous post:

“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions.  Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”  ~Mark Twain

“And to you. We sure need a good one.”

That’s what a friend just texted me when I texted him to say “Happy New Year.” I’m surprised and not surprised by how many of my friends feel the same way (the sentiment seems to be the status du jour on Facebook).

I haven’t written about it here until now, but on October 20th I was in a pretty big car accident. I don’t want to go into it now, but let’s just say that I was forced to participate in someone else’s accident as he plowed into me at what was probably more than 80 miles per hour as he was desperately trying to get somewhere else far too quickly. I’ve been dealing with that in the nine weeks since, and I’m almost ready to write some more about it here — maybe — but here’s the big takeaway:

I’m glad to be here. Really.

And while I know there’s a lot of struggle going on out there, around the country and certainly around the world, most of us have it better than we know.

From the perspective of someone who gets as many meals a day as he likes, who has a place to live and a life to share with family and friends, who has the pleasure of books and music and the arts, who is engaged in his community and who has, for the most part, his health, 2010 was a pretty good year. Will 2011 be better for many of us? I think so. Will it be worse for others? Absolutely. But whatever the future, that artificially carved into 12 months future, holds for us, we should make the most of it and most of us should recognize our general good fortune.

That Rolling Rock retains the tagline “Same As It Ever Was” even though they changed the formula. It’s four years later and I’m still outraged. The people behind Rolling Rock are frauds and mountebanks and they brew a crummy beer. I contemn them with all my vigor.

(And yes, it’s 8 p.m. and I’m still at my office writing and I’m wishing I had a real Rolling Rock.)

Stan Lee turned 88 yesterday and he’s still going strong. Further proof:  Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized him as one of their “Eight Over 80”:  business people in Los Angeles in their 80’s still leading professional lives. Here’s the piece.

Courtesy of the Huffington Post, herewith a Venn diagram for the three people who get paid to touch your junk.

Recomended reading: Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen deconstructs Jean Shepherd, the storyteller behind the beloved holiday classic “A Christmas Story.”

My youngest’s cold. He couldn’t even bother to wrap it.

So that’s partly what I’ve been up to the last few days.

Earlier, I related some big changes that have come to Archie’s old crowd. (Among them: Moose has both a learning disability and anger-management problems.) Now the old gang gets to learn about mortality, with the demise of a character whose age at time of death I estimate at 135. (So I can’t feel too sad about it.)

Simple plain wisdom from the redoubtable Fred Willard. Plan your future behavior accordingly.