Hlas: One vote for Detroit over Tampa?

My guess is people have short attentions when it comes to reading as Christmas draws close, but that's mainly because I have short-attention about almost everything.

In fact, I had to reread the previous paragraph to remember where I was going with this.

Oh yeah. Rather than burden you with yet another year-in-review essay about a year you may prefer to forget, here are 10 random declarations:

1. If sensational Arizona Cardinals running back David Johnson had played at Iowa instead of Northern Iowa, we'd have already changed the name of this newspaper to the Daily David.

2. I've told my colleagues this for years: Just once, I'd like to cover that bowl game in Detroit. It would be richer in sportswriting material than all the Outback Bowls combined. Two 6-6 teams meeting in Detroit on the day after Christmas to decide which won't end the season with one last indignity. Spectacular.

3. In fact, I'll give an Outback Bowl trinket to the first person in the Tampa Bay area this week who approaches me and says 'I'd rather be in Detroit.'

4. I watch every episode of 'The Goldbergs.' It has the same basic plot every week and will never get nominated for an Emmy or Golden Globe or anything else. But 'Big Tasty' is hilarious. JTP!

5. Covering an NCAA basketball tournament in Brooklyn and an NCAA wrestling tournament in Manhattan on the same day in March of this year was fun. However, it prevented me from finding the time to enjoy high tea at the Plaza.

6. Last spring, Cedar Rapids factory worker Jen Loeb of Marengo became the first female from Iowa to climb Mount Everest. She didn't ask for publicity, went into debt to fund her trip, and did it for the simple reason of wanting very much to do it.

What Loeb did is so much more remarkable than anyone else I wrote about this year, but her story got only a sliver of the attention that many others received. If we gave an Eastern Iowa Sportsperson of the Year Award, I would have voted for her and bit anyone who disagreed.

7. Speaking of dealing with altitude and snow, last week I saw three young kids sledding. They looked like they were having so much fun. It isn't on YouTube, but it really did happen.

8. Speaking of the online world, I'm looking for a podcast co-host/sidekick for 2017. You have to be smart, funny, able to form and articulate thoughts from time to time, and have a flexible schedule. Oh, there's no money in it unless you bring the money in yourself. But it might be your launchpad to stardom.

9. This is where many would offer a maudlin, pandering holiday-related sentiment. So choose your own favorite and attribute it to me.

10. I said there were 10 things, didn't I? Hmmm. Well, in the words of one of Martin Short's characters, dot-dot-dot, dee-dee-dee, and whatever else you want to put at the end of it. I hope you get a sled for Christmas if you want one and don't if you don't.