And so the Earth completes another ellipse around the Sun, and New Year’s Day arrives along with its traditions: the concert from Vienna with its polkas and waltzes, the wondering which shops will be open, and the results of last year’s predictions.
Here they are again, with my comments in bold in square brackets.
Predictions
- Chef: Still Boris Johnson this time next year?
- Chef: yes
- Melanie: nope, he’ll be gone by March
- David: no, July
- [I believe Chris was too far gone to submit an opinion for this one. Melanie and I were both right – and Johnson did announce his resignation in July, although he stayed PM until September. None of us foresaw the ensuing chaos of Truss]
- Chris wanted it on record for some reason that the four of us “will go out to eat at a vegan restaurant in 2022”
- [Yes, we did]
- David: Will the dear old queen make it to 2023?
- Chris: yes
- Melanie: yes
- David: yes
- Chef: no, she’ll pop off in October
- [Chef was almost spot on! She died in September]
- Chef thinks the James Webb Space Telescope deployment will fail in some way and it’ll be toast
- [Chef was wrong. It’s fine, and producing amazing images]
- Chris: Will ARM be bought by Nvidia?
- Chris: yes, September
- Melanie: yes, August
- David: yes, July
- Chef: yes, June
- [None of us got this right. The takeover was abandoned]
- Chris: Will WH Smith still exist on the high street?
- Chris: no
- Melanie: no
- David: yes
- Chef: yes
- [No idea why we cared about WH Smith enough to predict its future. It still exists, so Chef and I are both right]
- Melanie: Will Adrian have a job?
- Consensus: nope
- [Correct]
- Melanie: Will Prince Andrew lose that civil case against him?
- Chris: yes
- Melanie: no
- David: no
- Chef: yes
- [Technically he settled, deciding to pay millions to someone he claimed he’d never met. Seems legit]
- David: What will be the name of the most recent major Covid variant?
- Chris: Ting-tong
- Melanie: Mut (Egyptian hieroglyph, Vulture)
- David: Psi
- Chef: Alpha-gamma
- [It still seems to be Omicron]
In a bit: our predictions for 2023.
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