‘SURREAL’ Sean Rossman
2016: As the ride comes to a stop, some of us are feeling woozy
Good riddance, 2016. ❖ It was tragic. ❖ It was bizarre. ❖ And it was surreal, which happened to be the word of the year. Merriam-Webster said the word’s definition was searched more frequently by users in 2016 than in other years. The word, which means “Marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream,” spiked most during President-elect Trump’s victory but also after an attempted coup in Turkey and terrorist attacks in Belgium and France. Terror also touched home in Orlando. ❖ How surreal was 2016? Read on.
EVERYONE DIED Well, not everyone, but it seemed that way.
Celebrity deaths came swiftly with 2016’s arrival, starting with David Bowie in January and followed by pretty much everyone we loved from film, music and even the halls of power.
The most heartbreaking came at the end: Actress Carrie Fisher died, then a day later, her bereft mother, actress and singer Debbie Reynolds, died after she was rushed to a hospital.
Hollywood and music took the biggest hits, losing Prince, Gene Wilder, Florence Henderson, Garry Shandling and Leonard Cohen, among others.
Sports icons weren’t spared. Boxing great Muhammad Ali, Pat Summitt and Arnold Palmer all died. The year’s fallen government leaders included former astronaut and U.S. senator John Glenn, Fidel Castro, Antonin Scalia, Shimon Peres, Nancy Reagan and Janet Reno.
Just when we thought we couldn’t take any more, December took from us singer George Michael, actor Alan Thicke, Fisher and Reynolds. SPICOLI INADVERTENTLY HELPED BUST DRUG LORD Actor Sean Penn’s foray into journalism, in which he stealthily visited and interviewed Mexican drug lord El Chapo, led to the fugitive’s arrest in January.
Beyond Penn’s incidental takedown of a cartel leader, the story proved interesting for what it involved — Penn’s A-list persona, the underground Mexican drug trade and the romance of Mexican telenovelas.
Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said El Chapo’s connection with Penn broke authorities’ search open. El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, sought out producers and actors for a biopic about him. Penn and soap opera star Kate del Castillo visited Guzman, who was on the lam after escaping a Mexican jail a second time.
Penn, in an explosive and controversial article he penned for
Rolling Stone, described the meeting in Mexico, which he conceded was a failure because it didn’t spark a broader conversation about the war on drugs.
Castillo, a noted critic of the Mexican government, came under investigation for her contacts with Guzman. The pen pal bond she built with Guzman led to the interview, and her flirtatious text messages with the drug lord raised eyebrows. There were questions over whether Guzman helped bankroll her tequila business.
Guzman faces charges in the USA, among them murder, weapons possession, organized crime and money laundering. FAKE NEWS BLARED LOUDER THAN THE REAL STUFF Forget sensationalism, or yellow journalism. 2016 went for the jugular with what has become known as “fake news.”
It means exactly what it sounds like, and it played a big role in our presidential search and even sparked an initiative by those at Facebook to get rid of it.
It’s everywhere, for gosh sakes. It perpetuated the rumor that a 6-year-old Sandy Hook shooting victim was a myth and that his mourning father was a paid actor. More dangerously, a man allegedly shot up a Washington pizza shop because he believed — through fake news — that the restaurant hosted a child sex ring run by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel addressed the threat of fake news. As did Clinton, who called it a danger. SEXTING INQUIRY INTRUDED ON PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST FBI Director James Comey’s decision in late October to reopen an investigation into Clinton’s handling of classified information recast attention on the closed investigation, throwing the already divisive election into complete disarray.
The source of the review was very 2016: a separate investigation into allegations former congressman Anthony Weiner was sending sexual messages to a 15year-old girl.
Investigators found the Clinton emails while searching Weiner’s devices, which were accessible by his wife, Clinton aide Huma Abedin.
Ultimately, Comey’s office again decided not to charge Clinton after reviewing the emails. PEOPLE STARTED CHASING POKEMON AGAIN Pokemon’s resurgence hit like a ton of bricks this year. The Japanese characters that captured hearts in the late 1990s returned to our smartphones.
The nostalgia almost was too much for some. Pokemon Go, the game in which players capture Pokemon out in the wild using their cellphones, proved to be downright dangerous, and some people surrendered their human decency.
Police reported several close calls shortly after the game launched, prompting agencies to warn people to stay alert while playing the game.
People wouldn’t stop playing, even at risk of life.
Two men fell off a cliff, a man slammed his vehicle into a Baltimore police car and an Arizona couple were charged with child abuse after they were accused of leaving their 2-year-old son home alone, so they could go play the game.
The fad led to other issues. One woman discovered a body while playing. The Pentagon urged troops and other Defense Department employees not to play on their government cellphones and a Michigan couple filed a class action lawsuit claiming the game had ruined Americans’ quality of life. Nothing was sacred. Players invaded cemeteries and museums to honor Holocaust victims.
All in the name of Pokemon.
SOAP OPERA CAMEO LED INTO LOCKER ROOM Donald Trump’s hot-mic conversation during which he bragged about groping women incited a wave of backlash a month before Election Day.
The infamous conversation, obtained by The Washington Post, was taped on an Access Holly
wood bus before a segment on Trump’s appearance on Days of Our Lives.
Among Trump’s most notorious anecdotes were his comments about a married woman and his encounters with beautiful women.
“I did try and f--- her,” he said of one woman. “I moved on her like a b----, but I couldn’t get there.”
He said he immediately kisses beautiful women.
“I don’t even wait,” he said. “And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything — grab them by the p----.”