Are you mourning this year’s lack of Carnival’s spiritual cleanse, its satirical sorting of society’s woes to give us perspective? I am. And so I retreat now to past frolics. It’s hard to overstate how rotten the past year has been, in so many ways, or the dim prospects it left us, as we await whatever next escapes Pandora’s Box.

Originally we wrote that these irregular musings aren’t easily described, then realized the high risk of inviting easy descriptions. Let us just note that so far, this grab bag has been totally inept at recruiting the influence of cascading conglomerates, whether owners or advertisers, and does not enjoy largess from being in the pocket of a political party’s well-heeled leadership.