Dentally Incorrect

Looking Ahead (or Whatever You Do, Don’t Look Back)

The Chinese zodiac was close—or maybe just contained a typo—in declaring 2020 the year of the rat, because one side of extra-undercooked bat soup may have sent the world onto this pandemic path we’ve all been PPE-ing through. And while the hindsight of 2020 might one day be 20/20 (had to go for the gimme there), 2021 is full of interesting things. Here’s a list of what to look forward to and what to prepare for in this new year.

1. Something about a vaccine. Either it works or we’ll all be microchipped into using Microsoft Edge.
2. We’re launching Tom Cruise into space. (This one has the potential to age like milk.)
3. Speaking of space, an asteroid might hit us in May. Known as “2009 KF1,” it has the punching power of 230 kilotons of TNT or roughly three stubbed toes in a row in a cold house.
4. No presidential elections scheduled.
5. Pantone Color Institute released the colors of the year: Ultimate Grey and Illuminating (yellow). Some say it signifies the light at the end of the tunnel. Where some see hope, others see a train.
6. The United Nations has declared 2021 the “International Year of Peace and Trust.” That should take care of everything.
7. Literally a plague of locusts. Brood X, which already sounds terrifying, is a brood—yes, a brood—of cicadas, the largest in North America … and they’ll be emerging for the first time in 16 years.
8. The European Union will abolish daylight saving time. Yeah, we didn’t know they had it either.
9. And lastly, don’t forget there’s a total solar eclipse in December. Cool spectacle or heralder of doom? You decide.