To increase your likelihood of a HAPPY NEW YEAR, here are 365 S.U.N.S. (Smile-Making, Uniting, Neighboring, Spellbinding) ideas from the past 52 weeks:
JANUARY
- Choose joy and optimism
- Listen to “Roger Miller’s Greatest Hits”
- YouTube Victor Borge on “The Ed Sullivan Show”
- Take a hike with your best friend
- Binge on Diane Keaton comedy
- Eat and drink some sunshine citrus
- Read Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God”
- “Do the Clam” with Elvis
- Get mysterious with Edgar Allan Poe
- Give “hygge” a chance
- Give a $10 Hamilton to some American cause
- Soak up the splendor of John Singer Sargent art
- Shell and eat parched peanuts
- Sing “All My Exes Live in Texas”
- Have a dream like MLK, Jr.
- Watch “In the Heights”
- Read “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
- Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
- Listen to Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”
- Jan. 20 is National Cheese Lovers Day
- Read any witty novel by Daniel Wallace
- Re-watch the news coverage of Sullenberger landing on the Hudson River
- YouTube Maria Tallchief dancing
- Turn your pantry into a plant-centric “plantry”
- Play Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”
- YouTube Mikail Baryshnikov dancing
- YouTube Jackson Pollack “automatic painting”
- Connect deeper with someone
- Get lost in something other than yourself
- YouTube “Don’t Rain on My Parade”
- Stretch a smile across your face first thing each day
FEBRUARY
- Eat more popcorn
- Cook Ina Garten’s mac-and-cheese
- Take a real or virtual tour of the Norman Rockwell Museum
- Read about Lindbergh and Earhart
- Lighten up
- Knock it out of the park with Babe Ruth
- Add dimmers to every light switch and use daily
- Read John Grisham’s “A Painted House”
- Play Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend”
- “Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are”
- Be proud of American ingenuity
- Salute comic duos like Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca
- Create a “friends and family” gallery wall
- Have the class to let others have the best laff or best story
- Thank heavens for little girls…and boys
- Revisit “The Reading Rainbow”
- Debate who’s greater: Lebron or Michael Jordan
- Enjoy sunlight through Tiffany glass and no glass
- Buy a cherry red blender and use it
- See America anew with Ansel Adams
- Read Erma Bombeck’s “The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank”
- Eat cherry pie and never tell a lie
- Watch Aziz Ansari and eat curry
- “Think Different” with Steve Jobs
- Do some sillyass fitness with “Go You Chicken Fat Go”
- Own some American denim
- Soar across America with Marion Anderson
- Appreciate things unfolding: origami, Frank Gehry architecture, life
MARCH
- Who are your tribe?
- Read “Cat in the Hat”
- Telephone call someone
- Start/keep a gratitude journal
- Buy this book: “Better with Age” by Dr. Alan D. Castel
- Learn to yodel. 66) Plant a seed and nurture it
- Obsess more on your “particular passion”
- Say more “F-words” like fabulosity and fantabulous
- Change Chuck Norris jokes to Elon Musk jokes
- Dance a Polish American “polka”
- Get your tricks on Route 66
- Intentionally look at “street fashion” today
- LAFF EVRY DAY
- Play “Everyday People”
- Watch “The Nutty Professor”
- Go fly a kite
- Try “participatory journalism”
- YouTube a Moms Mabley comedy act
- Wear a cardigan and watch “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood”
- Play some soulful Solomon Burke
- Sing along with “Everything’s Comin’ Up Roses”
- Get a cuckoo clock, a whistling tea kettle or a parrot
- Learn one Harry Houdini magic trick
- Play some Aretha
- Bake an easy cake or a hard one
- Watch a Quentin Tarantino movie with a rebel
- Pull a chair up to a window for a new perspective
- Thank a philanthropist
- Buy some Laughing Cow cheese
- Thank a picketing demonstrator
APRIL
- Watch “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”
- Purge everything that doesn’t “spark joy”
- The secret to youthfulness is curiosity and lifelong learning
- Connect with “Qi” (Chinese “chee”) the spirit that unites us all
- Watch “Now Voyager”
- Sing “Okie from Muskogee”
- Adopt “joie de jour”—joy of the day
- Help someone address addiction
- Love more—“Where there is love, there is joy.”—Mother Teresa
- YouTube Lucy and Ethel singing Cole Porter’s “Friendship”
- Consider “clown college”
- YouTube “Stupid Pet Tricks”
- Get spiritual with Reverend Al Green
- Watch “Coalminer’s Daughter”
- Make contentment a “joy goal”
- Add teatime to your day, with caffeine or not
- YouTube “Soul Train”
- Watch or read “Superman”
- YouTube comedienne Ali Wong
- Watch “Star Trek”
- Plan a national park trip
- Play “Try a Little Kindness”—Glen Campbell
- Watch and drink a “Shirley Temple”
- Read and quote Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”
- Feel “People, people who need people, are the luckiest people in the world”
- Watch the Carol Burnett “Gone with the Wind” skit
- YouTube Lizzo
- Take a “joy jaunt” to some S.U.N.S. place
- Write a “Thank You” note to a favorite teacher of life lessons
- “I Hope You Dance”
MAY
- YouTube Kate Smith singing “God Bless America”
- Support Hilarity for Charity, the Alzheimer research and care non-profit, hfc.org
- Mentor someone
- Bet on a Kentucky Derby horse. Not too much. Study the horses first.
- Explore the latest James Beard culinary award winners
- Discover great, FREE classical music at YourClassical.org
- Go to “Margaritaville”
- “Jump” with The Pointer Sisters
- Plant something native to your state and zone
- Shall we slow dance?
- Say, “Thanks, Gimme, Oops and Wow,” the four prayers of all the old religions
- What are “The Seven Things You Can’t Say on Television?”
- “That’s What Friends Are For”
- Google search great, non-profit causes and get involved
- Google Images of Jasper Johns “American flags”
- YouTube “Liberace with Minnie Pearl”
- “Soak Up the Sun” with Sheryl Crow
- Binge on Tina Fey
- Read Nora Ephron everything
- Sing “I Got You Babe” to someone
- Listen to the Broadway show album of “Ain’t Misbehavin’”
- Try green tea
- YouTube famous “fandangos”
- Early to bed and early to rise statistically brings more joy
- Listen to “Tap Your Troubles Away” from “Mack and Mabel”
- Invent yourself like Marion Morrison
- Give someone a hand not just a hand-out
- Watch “Patch Adams” and be grateful for the work of Robin Williams
- Choose friends who help you live healthy
- Ask yourself: What makes me get out of bed each day? Then, do that.
- Who is your favorite American hero/heroine and why? How could you be more like them?
JUNE
- Watch American comedienne, Marilyn Monroe, in “Some Like It Hot”
- Study “The Telomere Effect”
- Read “How to Live Forever” by Marc Freedman
- Wink at sex with Dr. Ruth
- Support good law enforcement
- Watch “Hairspray”
- Croon “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”
- Avoid taking too many antibiotics
- Cultivate meaningful, positive, growing relationships
- Play Pharrell’s “Happy”
- Play “Don’t Worry Be Happy”
- Hulu “Gomer Pyle, USMC”
- Admire American fashion designers
- Do 20 minutes of heart-upping movement at least 4 times each week
- Google Images for Saul Steinberg cartoons
- Choose smaller dinner plates
- Don’t retire to an easy chair. Do something.
- Drink a glass of water before every meal, including breakfast
- Knucklehead, watch “The Three Stooges”
- Play “Surfin’ USA”
- Watch “The Solid Gold Cadillac”
- Dance with “jazz hands”
- Reflect on compliments and congratulations that made you smile
- Read “The Devil’s Dictionary” by Ambrose Bierce
- Get a candle with uplifting fragrance—citrus, evergreen, mint…
- Spend time with people younger than you are
- Google Images for Bob Mackie creations
- Binge on Mel Brooks
- Read “Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over” by Nell Painter
- Learn something new. Do something new.
JULY
- What fragrance transports you to a happy time in childhood?
- Don’t think of yourself as old but do be prudent
- YouTube “Yankee Doodle Dandy” starring James Cagney
- Binge on Neil Simon comedies
- Watch “The Greatest Showman” and be grateful for P.T. Barnum
- Read “The Five Stages of the Soul” by Dr. Harry Moody with David Carroll
- Purge. Enjoy caring for less. Purge again.
- Explore Philip Johnson’s “Glass House”
- See “Forrest Gump” again
- Nurture a friendship like Charlotte and Wilbur in “Charlotte’s Web”
- Give an aspiring writer “The Elements of Style”
- Go somewhere deliberately to be alone and think positively
- Watch “Loony Tunes” cartoons
- Play “Count on Me” by Bruno Mars
- Read “Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age” by Sanjay Gupta
- Binge on Will Ferrell comedies and “SNL” skits
- YouTube Phyllis Diller
- YouTube Red Skelton
- Try a new coffee, tea, some beverage
- Play “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” for UNITING with your dear departed
- Play “Fix You” by Coldplay
- Listen to Alison Kraus and Robert Plant duets
- Read “Aging Thoughtfully” by Martha C. Nussbaum and Saul Levmore
- Don’t deny yourself any real joy
- Binge on “The Andy Griffith Show”
- Google Images of “Garfield” cartoons
- Inventory everything you own and consider not owning some of it
- Dig into Americana with Ken Burns docs
- Borrow some binoculars and try birding
- Go to a skate park and skate or watch
AUGUST
- Eat Cherry Garcia ice cream
- Craft something. Consider “crafternoons.”
- Play Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga duets
- Read “Smile Anyway” by Richelle Goodrich
- Re-watch Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk
- Binge-watch “I Love Lucy”
- Listen to “The News from Lake Woebegon”
- Synchronize swim with someone
- Discover “laddie novelist” Nick Hornby
- Read all by Nick Hornby’s favorite contemporary novelist, the prolific Anne Tyler
- Occasionally indulge, start with dessert
- Get some positive discipline from Admiral William H. McRaven’s “Make Your Bed”
- YouTube “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better”
- Binge on Steve Martin
- Cook with Julia Child
- Get “100% Happier” by Dan Harris
- Teach children a “can-do” spirit with Babar stories
- Add the charming, quick-read novella “The Uncommon Reader” by Alan Bennett to your New Year resolutions
- Read Ogden Nash giggle-inducing poetry aloud with someone
- Understand others better with Enneagrams
- YouTube The Harlem Globetrotters
- Read “The Best Things Ever Said” aphorisms
- Splash in puddles like “Singin’ in the Rain”
- Laugh and think with Dave Chapelle
- YouTube a “Young Person’s Concert” with Leonard Bernstein
- Work some crossword puzzles
- Binge on “PeeWee’s Playhouse”
- Get lots and lots of SMILE-MAKING ideas from “Little Pieces of Hope” by Todd Doughty
- Bliss-out with the Dalai Lama’s “The Art of Happiness”
- Be authentic and kind
SEPTEMBER
- YouTube Lily Tomlin “The Search for Intelligent Life”
- Make a Romare Bearden-inspired collage
- Insist on some solitude each week
- Sing “All the Single Ladies” and “Put a Ring on It”
- YouTube “The Bob Newhart Show”
- “You Might Be a Redneck If”
- Delight in the charm-a-thon of Grandma Moses paintings
- Go a-walkin’ with Patsy Cline
- Try Adam Sandler humor, again
- Fight for your right to daydream
- Read “Queen of the Turtle Derby” by Julia Reed
- Watch Jesse Owens win the race against Hitler
- Play “Tiny Bubbles” with Don Ho
- Play some video game
- Keep a chilled bottle of Champagne in your refrigerator and celebrate more
- YouTube “positive psychology” with Dr. Carol Ryff
- Sing “Hey, Good Lookin’” with Hank Williams
- Re-read “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl
- Watch “Batman” the campy t.v. show
- Get lost in Dale Chihuly glass sculptures
- Go camping alone
- Record ideas for future gift-giving and SMILE-MAKING
- Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful”
- Re-read “The Great Gatsby”
- Get ideas from Reader’s Digest’s “The Nicest Places in America” series
- Workout with Jack Lalanne
- Listen to “Rhapsody in Blue”
- Google Images of “Lil’ Abner” cartoons
- YouTube “Great Balls of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis
- Read Truman Capote short stories
OCTOBER
- Create your own “cartoon bank”
- Host a Marx Brothers comedy costume party
- Dance “The Twist”
- Do “deadpan” mug in the mirror like Buster Keaton
- Stargaze. Just for laffs, check out your astrology for the year
- Swoon over “Gable and Lombard”
- Play Yo-Yo Ma playing Bach
- Put hands to heaven with Black gospel
- Chill out with “Hootenanny” folk tunes
- Go to a Native American “pow wow”
- Watch your most SMILE-MAKING moments of the decades of “SNL”
- Discover or re-discover comic/activist Dick Gregory
- Rebel hilariously with Lenny Bruce
- Honor a best friend, the Lucy to your Ethel
- YouTube “Vogue Magazine” and Andre Leon Talley
- Enjoy Evel Knievel SPELLBINDING stunts
- “Duckwalk” with Chuck Berry
- Explore “American Pop” art with Peter Max
- YouTube a Lewis Grizzard monologue
- YouTube a Carrie Fisher monologue
- Make a “Bucket List” collage
- Recall the wit and iffy wisdom of “Carnac the Magnificent”
- Walking is natural Wellbutrin
- Join or start a “Big Sing” in your community
- Give some smiles, it’s contagious
- Add Fran Lebowitz “Metropolitan Diary” to your reading list
- Praise plague scientists like Jonas Salk (polio)
- Giggle with original “Funny Girl,” Fanny Brice
- Strike a pose with Madonna and Charles Atlas
NOVEMBER
- Mess with Texas and elect Kinky Friedman
- Walk around a massive Richard Serra sculpture
- Walk around a SMILE-MAKING Calder mobile
- Remember, or try to forget, Roseanne Barr’s “Star Spangled Banner”
- Join a kick line like “Will Roger’s Follies”
- Start a Congo line through some café
- “Happy Trails” with Roy, Dale and Trigger
- March with John Philip Sousa
- Pray with Billy Graham and Bishop Sheen and…
- “Give ‘em something to talk about”
- Do some “Diddly Squats” for strength and balance
- Hang out with happy people who accentuate the positive
- Re-discover Jonathan Winters
- Swoon over Grace Kelly, “America’s princess”
- Whoop it up with Whoopi Goldberg
- Sip One Hope Wine and support a worthy cause
- See things anew with Georgia O’Keefe
- Say “YES” to a few things by eliminating many things with “NO”
- Re-invent with RuPaul
- Join “The Mickey Mouse Club”
- Plan a “Friendsgiving”
- Go walkin’ to NOLA with Fats Domino and Dr. John
- Add nature and sunlight every day
- Give Rodney Dangerfield some respect
- Win friends with Dale Carnegie
- Let’s hear it for Charles Schultz and the “Peanuts” gallery
- Everybody is Kung Fu fighting with Bruce Lee
- Mail someone something SMILE-MAKING
- Help elect a comedian for President
- Jump up and down like a crazy person
- YouTube “Mark Twain Tonight”
DECEMBER
- America’s most-American funny man, Richard Pryor
- Share a joke
- Sing “Moon River, wider than a mile”
- Appreciate why Jay-Z is rich and famous
- Walt Disney, America’s favorite anti-depressant
- YouTube Steven Wright’s wit and one-liner wisdom
- Kick a can
- Google Images for James Thurber cartoons
- YouTube American clowns Emmett Kelly and Bill Irwin
- See America aslant with Emily Dickinson
- Interview a friend with “The Proust Questionnaire”
- Sing “My Way” with Frank Sinatra
- Bang something with Spike Jones and His City Slickers
- Binge on Tim Conway
- Sponsor a musical busker
- Give $2 bills to joy-makers of all ages
- The SPELLBINDING of Steven Spielberg
- “Log off” tech and give your “full attention” to someone
- Get to know, American in Paris, interior designer Elsie de Wolfe
- “Everybody Loves Raymond” and you should too
- Thank Lady Bird Johnson for “Beautifying America”
- “Hope in a jar” with beauty maven, Madame C. J. Walker
- Reflect on happy holiday memories and write them down
- Mail a “thinking of you” note to someone who doesn’t get out much
- Start a vocabulary building “word a day” with a buddy
- Swoon over the icy elegance of Marlene Dietrich
- She can turn the world on with her smile—Mary Tyler Moore
- Genuinely compliment someone
- Genuinely complement someone
- Make someone belly laugh
- “Country roads take me home”
- Help others be self-reliant at modestneeds.org
- Join or “cheer on” a community band
- Remember that a laugh is the shortest distance between two people
- Disco forever
NEW YEAR’S MILK PUNCH—WISCONSIN MILK
(Source: marthastewart.com)
Each week, “The JOYrontologist” shares a recipe saluting a healthy food produced in America. The delicious and nutritious collection is called “The S.U.N.S. Longevity Cookbook” and highlights vitamin B-3 (niacin) which many gerontologists believe holds the promise for a long, healthy, joyful life.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 cup bourbon
- Freshly grated nutmeg, for serving
DIRECTIONS
- Combine sugar and 1/2 cup water in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat, let cool.
- Combine milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, bourbon, 1 cup ice and 2/3 cup simple syrup (reserve remaining for another use) in a blender. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute.
- Serve up in a chilled coupe or over ice in a rocks glass, spooning foam over the top. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve immediately.
JOY TO THE WORLD and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Read all the installments in this series at www.cullmantribune.com/tag/odes-to-joy-2022.
