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GERMAN: Prost Neujahr. Or something like that. It�����Ƶ�s one of the few things I remember from taking a year of German in college.

At the time, people in my major needed to take a year of a foreign language or a year of philosophy. It seemed that learning a language would be more useful than the mind games of philosophy. �����Ƶ it turned out, taking a year of German was a year of frustration.

I do remember how to count in German, and I remember a few sentences: Der Spiegel is nicht kleine Lekture fur mich. Die Autobahn hab keine Geschwindigkeitbegrenzung. Es ist fünfundfünfzig nach fünf. (I hope I got those close.)

Translations: Der Spiegel is not easy reading material for me. The Autobahn has no speed limit. It is 5:55.

And my favorite: Mein Hund hat keine Nase. Wie riecht er? Furchtbar. (My dog has no nose. How does he smell? Awful.)

The one benefit I got from learning German vocabulary, pronunciation and translation was learning the beauty of the English language, including subtleties in its grammar I had never noticed. That along with attending a 0ne-day writing led by the great John Bremner gave me insights into my native language that I had never noticed. If young reporters wonder why I bug them when they write, �����Ƶ�John Smith was presented with a check by the Huntington Temperance League on Tuesday,�����Ƶ� they can blame Bremner and my German instructors.

LATIN: I took some Latin in high school, too. I wish I had applied myself in that class. The most important sentence I remember from Latin was something like �����Ƶ�America magnas cloacas habet.�����Ƶ� America has great sewers. Considering how many sewer stories I wrote from Ironton, Coal Grove, South Point and eastern Lawrence County, Ohio, in the 1980s, that sentence was in my mind often.

NEW YEAR: One thing that�����Ƶ�s hard to believe is that 2025 is 50 years after 1975. Some of the best moments in my life came in 1975. It was a year of growth, triumphs, disappointments and failures. It was the last time I saw some of my good friends of my youth. I remember walking on a warm May evening that year. �����Ƶ I gazed a building off in the distance, I wondered if I would ever have another year like that one.

Back then, 50 years �����Ƶ� a half century �����Ƶ� seemed so distant. It still does, but in a different way now.

You might read about a couple of 50th anniversaries in this space soon, assuming I�����Ƶ�m still around to write them. At the moment I plan to be, but one thing I�����Ƶ�ve learned in 50 years is that I�����Ƶ�m not always in control of things.

PRESENTED WITH: When a reporter says Smith was presented with a check, I ask her who Smith and the check were presented to. It took me a few minutes to get it, too.

Happy new year, everyone, in whatever language you choose to celebrate it in. Even Klingon: DIS chu�����Ƶ� DatIvjaj.