Insert Steely Dan Song Title Here

So we hoped you enjoyed the Story of the Secret Magi. We felt it was so damn good we left it as the top post on YAB for the last week. (Or the holiday season kicked our butt and nothing was written during the Second through Eighth Days of Christmas. We blame the swans.)

Well-rested and un-deterred by a forty day backlog, we press on in the year of our Lord 2007. This new year might bring forth the need for resolutions, but we took that a little too literally last year. And besides, since all of you have probably vowed to do things like “go to the gym more” and “spend more time outdoors,” this blog doesn’t translate well to such pursuits. Of course, we’re in talks to have James Earl Jones record audio versions of the funny for podcasting, but iYAB is still a few months off.

(And we kind of get a kick out of you trying to balance a laptop on an elliptical machine.)

Cardiovascular hilarity aside, we consider the year 2006 a blogging success. According to our records, we wrote to you all 233 times this past calendar year. Sure, that means the backlog slipped by 27 days, but that still means we put over 150,000 words of the funny out here on these Internets. And just because the backlog slipped, it doesn’t mean that our ambition has in turn. The reason in simple. 2007 doesn’t appear to be any less hilarious of a world to live in. Famous people will still do stupid things. The lighter side of sports will continue to be more than outfielders running into walls. Movies will still require astute commentary that critics and industry folk will overlook. The English language is still fit to mock, and Stephen Colbert is improving it, one word at a time. And yes, people just like to laugh.

About half of what we put up here comes to us from events and places that I’ve never been a part of or have never been to. However, the other half comes from within the walls of the Fortress of Condon. After 600 posts or so, I’m still amazed when I come up with a personal story from the past that I’ve yet to relay to you all (hell, the Lamppost story was used only three months in!), and there are probably even some of those stories that don’t end with Joe Brescia on the ground in considerable pain. New funny stuff happens to me every day, but that by no means makes me unique. It’s the ability to remember daily comedy and translate it to the blogworld that has given YAB countless material out of nothing. Good God, I swear I’ve written 20-25 posts about the cafeteria downstairs. If this were Hollywood, I might have a green-lighted pilot on my hands.

2006 was a great year, personally. We bid adieu to learning. Forever.

Ok, maybe not forever, and maybe not learning altogether. But it did signify the end of formal education, as I graduated with my MBA from GW in May, and in turn, we said goodbye to an avenue of good writing material. That will probably be the most time I ever spend in a city the rest of my life, so I hope I got all of those public transportation jokes out while I had the chance. And yes, Katie and I completed our first year of marriage in 2006. And for the record, I’ve only slept on the couch once. And who can forget a stellar Oscar Party III – which has been re-lived over 20,000 times on YouTube and Google. Yeah, it’s been a good year.

So what will 2007 bring YAB Nation? Well, our Oscar coverage will continue in late January for the nominations and a re-cap of OP IV in February. And hell, maybe we’ll get to change the colors to Eagle Green then as well. We think we’ll bring back the Fall TV-NFL preview next August, and with more than a few trips plan, we’ll be blogging from all parts of the country in 2007. And of course, we’ll be hiring someone new to the staff, who will no doubt be a constant source of amusement and laughter and stories and the funny – our baby girl, Clara. Yes, we’ll be sure to have an array of baby-arrival posts this month, and then after the delivery, a new segment called the Condad Chronicles.

Happy New Year, YAB Nation.