Wrapping up a decade of mean-spiritedness

The most important development of the decade that ends this week wasn't the election or impeachment of Donald Trump.

It wasn't the Giants winning three World Series titles.

It wasn't climate change or technological advances or the coming of age of the millennial generation.

The most important development of the concluding decade was that we got meaner.

That's it.

If you compare the world of 2010 to the world of 2020, the Earth – or at least America – is a meaner place.

We are harsher, less gracious and less civil. We have less respect for people who disagree with us or who are different from us.

I blame social media.

But not really, because social media is just the delivery method for our meanness.

I actually love social media. I'm active on Facebook and I visit Twitter many times every day.

But social media made us meaner. Rather than fulfilling its original promise of drawing us together as a community and creating better communication, social media turned us into warring tribes, convinced that the other side is wrong. More than that, it's convinced us that the other side is evil.

It happens in politics. It happens in sports. It happens with music. My tribe is better than your tribe. Your tribe is not only wrong, it's stupid. Or racist. Or snowflakes.

We've gotten meaner not because social media made us mean, but because social media gave us a megaphone to shout our meanness.

Social media is the delivery system for our meanness and like anything, meanness grows when it's fed.

Put it this way: Twenty (or 30 or 60 or 100) years ago, plenty of people were mean. Plenty of people held graceless views of others and made straw man arguments they could destroy to point out the idiocy of anyone who disagreed. I grew up in a world filled with people whose opinions would now be considered extreme. (Heck, most of them were extreme then.)

But those opinions were shared in their living room or in the car on the way to school or in the bar with the guy on the next stool. They were relatively private.

That wasn't perfect, but it didn't normalize meanness.

This decade, social media matured to the point where we can shout our mean views in public. We then cluster with people who agree with us and talk about how dumb or ignorant or hateful or  soft others are. We are mean. We're comfortable being mean.

I'm not sure we're any meaner in person. When we talk to a co-worker or neighbor, we probably don't drip the kind of venom that's easy to share on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.

Here's a goal for the 2020s: Let's have more grace. Let's consider others important. Let's not assume that those who disagree with us are bad. Let's see what we have in common with others, not how others are different (and misdirected).

How? For starters, avoid angry posts on social media (block, unfriend or unfollow people who thrive on rage). Avoid others who amplify the rage. Appreciate people who are different, even while disagreeing. Fight hate with tolerance.

Thirty years ago, Don Henley's "Heart of the Matter," asked a question that seems even more relevant now: How can love survive in such a graceless age?

In the 2020s, let's help love survive. Or at least turn down the anger.

That's a worthy decade-long goal.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.

Time to for the annual test of your knowledge of Solano County

It's the most wonderful time of the year: Time for the annual Solano County quiz!

As has been done in this space annually since the turn of the century (!), we spend one morning a year – the final Sunday before Christmas – testing your knowledge of the county where you live.

It's the hap-happiest season of all!

The rules are simple. Each question is worth one point. Write down your answers (guesses?) and compare them to the correct* answers at the bottom. Then vow to do better next year.

* Most years, I get at least one wrong. So sue me!

And away we go . . .

QUESTIONS

1. Name the seven cities in Solano County.

2. What is the largest high school in Solano County by student population?

3. What is the largest private employer in the county, as measured by number of employees?

4. What was the largest cash crop in Solano County in 2018, the most recent year for which we have numbers? (If you get one of the top three, it's a correct guess.)

5. Who is older: Tony Wade or Kelvin Wade?

6. If you drive 1,000 miles east on Interstate 80 from Fairfield, in what state will you be?

7. Name the five counties that border Solano County.

8. Within 1,000, how many inmates are housed at the Correctional Medical Facility and California State Prison Solano combined?

9. Name at least three of the five Solano County supervisors.

10. How many interstate freeways are in Solano County?

11. Within five degrees, what is the average high temperature in Vacaville for the year?

12. What is the name of the former heavyweight kickboxing champion who attended Vacaville High School?

13. Name one of the two Solano County cities that have served as the capital of California.

14. Name the two people who represent Solano County in the House of Representatives.

15. True or false: Country music star Tim McGraw is from Vallejo.

16. Within 15,000, what was the estimated population of Solano County in 2018?

17. At 2,822 feet, what point is the highest elevation in the county?

18. Within two years, when was the Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base renamed Travis Air Force Base?

19. Since 1932, Solano County has voted Republican in presidential elections only three times. What years were they?

20. Name the two airports in the county open to the general population.

ANSWERS

1. Benicia, Dixon, Fairfield, Rio Vista, Suisun City, Vacaville, Vallejo.

2. Armijo High School, with slightly more than 2,200 students. Vacaville High is second, with about 1,900 students.

3. Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo, with nearly 4,000 employees. That's twice as large as the runner-up (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom).

4. Nursery products, tomatoes, alfalfa.

5. Tony is older. Much older. Maybe 30 or 40 years older.

6. Wyoming. Specifically, about 20 miles east of Rawlins, Wyo.

7. Contra Costa, Sonoma, Napa, Sacramento, Yolo.

8. As of the Dec. 11 count, there were 6,939 (2,524 in CMF, 4,415 in CSPS).

9. Erin Hannigan, Monica Brown, Jim Spering, John Vasquez, Skip Thomson.

10. Four: Interstates 80, 780, 680 and 505.

11. 76 degrees.

12. Dennis Alexio.

13. Vallejo (1852-53) and Benicia (1853-54).

14. John Garamendi, Mike Thompson.

15. False. His father, former major league pitcher Tug McGraw was, though.

16. 446,610.

17. Mount Vaca.

18. April 20, 1951.

19. 1972 (Richard Nixon), 1980 (Ronald Reagan), 1984 (Ronald Reagan).

20. Nut Tree Airport (Vacaville), Rio Vista Municipal Airport.

SCORING

15 or more points:

10-14 points:

5 to 9 points:

4 or fewer points:

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.

Women's complaints about cold offices are right

In what will come as no surprise to most of us, women are right again.

It's cold.

For my entire work career, female co-workers have complained about the temperature in the office. Occasionally, it's too hot. Far more often, it's too cold.

Walk through offices where I've worked on any winter day – and I suspect this is true nearly everywhere in America – and you see women with jackets on or women wrapped in blankets. They'll have space heaters on and maybe ski caps.

My experience isn't necessarily representative of everyone's. But in my career I've worked in six offices and in every single one, there were women who were perpetually cold during the winter. Mrs. Brad worked in multiple offices and was cold in all of them.

When women complain that it's too cold, they're right.

Not necessarily that the offices are too cold, although that's likely true. But they are right when they say it makes it harder to work when it's cold.

A study published last spring (when it was getting warm!) in the journal PLOS One showed that women improve their performance on basic tests as rooms got warmer. Specifically, the scientists said that women's math score went up two points and their verbal score went up one point for every degree the room increased.

(Of course, the study was in Germany, so "one degree" means "one degree Celsius." So to translate, you subtract 32 from umm . . . no, you add 32 and divide by . . . umm . . . IT'S TOO COLD IN HERE! OR MAYBE TOO HOT!)

Men, meanwhile, somehow improved in cooler rooms. But here's why women are right: Men's scores didn't really decrease much as it got warmer. In other words, cooler rooms hurt women and narrowly help men. Warmer rooms help women and really don't affect men.

Still . . . most offices stay cool. And women suffer.

As the researchers concluded, “Our results suggest that in gender-balanced workplaces, temperatures should be set significantly higher than current standards.”

Sure, employers may consider that a cost. After all, when you consider the cost of electricity (or gas) from PG&E, combined with all the extra fees they'll sneak on there to get the rest of us to cover the cost of the lawsuits they'll lose due to recent wildfires they caused, the bill can get expensive.

But employers should consider the other side of this argument. Keeping the office at 68 degrees (or 70 or 72) when half the employees are cold not only makes it a tough place to work, it hurts productivity.

Don't believe me? Just ask your female co-worker who is wearing her parka while slaving away at the cubicle next to yours.

I asked Sayeda, a friend who works in my office and was recently wrapped in a blanket while working. She agreed with the study's findings and attributed it to men having more hemoglobin.

"That sounds right," I told her. "Although I have no idea what hemoglobin is."

If the office were a little cooler, maybe I'd know. But Sayeda's performance would suffer.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.

Greatest Christmas songs (including 'Last Christmas')

And so this is Christmas . . . so let's start off with a controversial, correct opinion: "Jingle Bells" is not a Christmas song.

At no point are Jesus Christ, Santa Claus or Christmas mentioned. "Jingle Bells" is a winter song. How it got cast as a Christmas song (along with "Winter Wonderland," "Let it Snow" and even "Frosty the Snowman") is a mystery.

But there are great Christmas songs. Many of them. And because of public demand*, today I rank the 10 best. As you listen to a Christmas radio station while driving to work, you can now know whether you're listening to an elite Christmas song.

(* "Public demand" = me thinking of this while driving home from a Thanksgiving trip.)

All Christmas songs are eligible, from pop secular tunes to sacred hymns. The reasons vary, as you'll see.

Starting with No. 10:

10. All I Want for Christmas is You. Based on my musical tastes (it sounds like Motown!), this should be No. 1, but my dislike of Mariah Carey makes it impossible for me to fully enjoy this song. It is the most popular pop Christmas song ever, though, so it's on the list.

9. O Come All Ye Faithful. A joyous carol to belt out. "O come let us adore him . . ." is a great chorus that is easy to sing. (I've often wondered how the "joyful" and "triumphant" feel being left out of the title, though).

8. Sleigh Bells. A  good song that became great when the Ronettes did their version with Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" behind them in the early 1960s. It gets ranked because of that version only.

7. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Maybe the only song on this list in a minor key (thinks to check, decides it's too hard), this haunting hymn is beautiful and lyrically rich.

6. The Christmas Song. Nat King Cole sings the definitive version, but any version is great. I don't know anyone who has roasted chestnuts on an open fire, but I also don't know anyone who dislikes this song.

5. Last Christmas. The peak of 1980s pop music, but charming. This was George Michael and Wham! at the top, which I loved. I'm pretty sure this is the most controversial choice on this list.

4. Silent Night. Baseball relief pitchers have walk-in music. Christmas church services have walk-out music: Silent Night. Everyone likes it.

3. Do They Know It's Christmas. More evidence that I watched a lot of MTV in the early to mid-1980s. This anthem is not only a really good song, it raised money for African famine relief–paving the way for "We Are The World," which was released four months later. It had Paul Young. George Michael. Boy George. Simon Le Bon. Bono. What else could you want?

2. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas. The most soulful song on the list, this is sentimental, sweet and sad. Whether it's the original by Judy Garland or one of the myriad remakes (my favorite is by The Pretenders), this always tugs at your heartstrings.

1. O Holy Night. The undisputed  greatest Christmas song of all time – with elite lyrics ("Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'til He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new glorious morn") and a tune that gives great singers a chance to shine. When this song comes on – or when it's performed live – it is always worth your time.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.

Nerf gets squished out of Hall of Fame again

Nerf continues to get squished by the National Toy Hall of Fame and we should be angry.

No offense to Matchbox Cars and coloring book, but 2019 is another year, another snub for Nerf.

The National Toy Hall of Fame announced its inductions last month, adding Matchbox Cards, the coloring book and what it called "the popular collectible card game," Magic: The Gathering from a field of 12 nominees.

No Nerf.

Again.

It's outrageous and voters for the Toy Hall of Fame should be embarrassed.  This is worse than Pete Rose and Barry Bonds being left out of the Baseball Hall of Fame, because Nerf didn't bet on games nor (allegedly) use performance-enhancing drugs. All Nerf has done is be one of the greatest toys for 50 consecutive years.

Yet there it is, sitting on the outside looking in while other toys waltz into the national toy shrine.

Nerf was introduced in 1970 as "the world's first official indoor ball" and immediately became a favorite due to the fact that you could throw a Nerf ball in the house (perhaps – and this is purely speculation – you could throw it at any of your three sisters, causing them to flinch).

I owned an original Nerf ball as well as early advancements– the Nerf basketball (with a hoop that hangs on a door) and the Nerf football (you could use it outside, too). Through the decades, Nerf continued to add new products, including the Nerf blaster, which was a nominee for this year's hall of fame.

Somehow the basic Nerf ball hasn't made it into the Toy Hall of Fame.

We thought Nerf was likely to be nominated after its hard-plastic cousin, the Wiffle Ball, earned a spot in 2017, but no luck. The 2018 class (Magic 8 Ball, Pinball and Uno) excluded it and so did this year's class.

Let's discuss that quickly. Two of this year's inductees are obviously worthy.

Matchbox cars are the lower-price rival to 2011 Toy Hall of Fame inductee Hot Wheels and should be enshrined.

The coloring book should have been inducted long ago  with other non-brand-specific toys (perhaps with stick in 2008, blanket in 2011 or bubbles in 2014). That coloring books can be used to teach – and are increasingly used by adults – makes them more versatile. They're a worthy inductee.

I'm not sure about Magic: The Gathering, which is something that I was unaware of until the Hall of Fame announcement. It's apparently a fantasy collector game, which is nowhere near as cool as a Nerf ball.

It's unclear why Nerf has been left out in the cold for the Toy Hall of Fame. Perhaps the voters don't appreciate what an advance Nerf was in toy technology. Perhaps people don't realize there was nothing like Nerf balls before they were introduced. Perhaps the voters take for granted that you can toss around a foamy ball and not break anything.

Or perhaps – and this just came to me – my sisters are among the voters for the Toy Hall of Fame and punishing me for things that happened early in the Nerf world.

Regardless, 2020 is the year to make things right.

Let's make 2020 the year Nerf finally makes it into the Hall of Fame.

Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.