This enables me to once again bemoan how chronically underappreciated Max Headroom continues to be to this day. In all seriousness, if there was ever one television series that proved itself to be more and more precient with each passing year, I’d like to know what it was. Okay, so maybe we all got hooked to our computer monitors instead of our television screens, but how many people are using the same screen for both now? Matt, you are missed as Max Headroom, and I can only hope that the upcoming silver anniversary will draw new attention to one of the great television shows of my youth. On that note, let’s play the friday5.org Friday Five.

1. In 2007, who most made you laugh?
I really don’t laugh that much, but if this can be redefined to mean who brought the most humour to my life, I’d say it was a tossup between Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Keith Olbermann. (It kind of figures that theirs are the only three non-sports shows I make a point of catching on a regular basis.)

2. In 2007, who most inspired you?
Given how stressed a lot of my students were, what with Michigan’s economy continuing to go into the gutter, I’ll give them the nod here.

3. In 2007, who taught you the most?
I’ll go with my students again here. I can only hope that they learned as much from me as I learned from them.

4. In 2007, who encouraged you the most?
I’m not really sure how to quantify this, but my intuition says that any careful examination would yield Mom as the answer, so I’ll go with her.

5. What did you do in 2007 that will have the most positive effect on your 2008?
Apart from that last month when I got so darn sick, I managed to stick to my diet for the whole year, and when I wasn’t swamped with other things I got a lot of exercise in. I hope to continue that trend into the new year.