The BeeBest of 2010

Time to take account of the best of 2010 from my perch on the BeeLine.

Best Book I Read 
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.  Runner-ups to Outliers by Malcom Gladwell and The Big Short by Michael Lewis. As I said in an earlier post, I do not read fiction very often.

Best Movie I Saw
The Social Network.  I did not see many movies in the theatre in 2010.  I liked the story, the casting and the script even if it may not have been 100% accurate.  It still is incredible that Facebook did not even exist on this date 7 years ago.   If Facebook was a country, it would now be the third largest in the world!  More interesting trivia...The actress who play Mark Zuckerberg's girfriend in the opening scenes in the movie is Rooney Mara, granddaughter of Wellington Mara, former owner of the NY Giants.  Shis is also the great-granddaughter of Art Rooney, the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Best TV Show
Friday Night Lights.  If you have not seen it you should give it a try.  Nothing better than Coach Eric Taylor helping shape the lives of high school football players in small town Dillon, Texas.  Last season is due up on NBC this spring.  Mrs. BeeLine also never misses an episode.

Best New Place I Visited  
Sun Valley, Idaho.  It is not easy to get to.  I don't ski.  No wonder it took me awhile to get there.  It is a beautiful spot.

Best Old Place I Visited
Florence, Italy.  I had not been there since college but it had not changed much.  If DaVinci was visiting today he could probably say the same thing.  Great atmosphere and great art surround you everywhere.

Best Golf Experience
Outdriving former PGA champion Dave Stockton while playing with him for a couple holes at a golf outing.  One highlight from a poor year on the links. Considered by many to be the best putter of all time, he parred with a one putt.  I three putted for a bogey. Drive for show, putt for dough.

Best Prediction
Predicted right after passage of the health care reform law that if Republicans gained more than 60 seats in the House that a repeal would be introduced and would pass in early 2011.   Not done yet but this prediction looks pretty good.  I was smart enough to not make any predictions about the Senate.  However, if the repeal vote passes the House I do believe there is a reasonable chance that there will be at least 50 senators for repeal evan though there are only 47 Republicans in the Senate.  I say that because 23 of the 33 Senate seats that up for election in 2012 are held by Democrats.  These include more conservative and swing states like Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia that all have Democrat incumbents.

Worst Prediction
My beloved Miami RedHawks football team would not be better than 6-6 for the year.  They ended up 9-4, won the MAC Championship and play in the GoDaddy.com Bowl tonight.  If they win it will represent the first time in the history of major college football that a team has gone from double digit losses (1-11) to double digit wins (10-4 if they win) in one year.  Go RedHawks!

Best New Term
Crowdsourcing.  I knew about outsourcing.  Insourcing was also not foreign to me.  I was not familiar with this term that Wikipedia defines as "the act of outsourcing tasks, traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, to an undefined, large group of people or community (a crowd), through an open call."  The growth of the internet and social media has given us access to experts and contributors in every part of the world.  There may be a better idea.  Crowdsourcing is the way to get access to it.

Best Way to Get Away From It All
8 day transatlantic cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Gibraltar.  That is 4,500 miles of ocean without seeing a speck of land.  Plenty of time to read, relax, recharge and eat.  Greece was falling apart and the stock market was tanking but there is not much you can do about it in the middle of the Atlantic.  A great perspective on what is really important in life.