Tim Engstrom, Pothole Prairie

There&8217;s a song by Todd Snyder that has lyrics that go:

&8220;Happy New Year, everybody. Happy birthday, Country Joe. I resolve to do what I always do, and I only ever make it a day or two.&8221;

The new year is a good time to make resolutions, but I don&8217;t blame some folks for not making them. They often don&8217;t last. For singer Todd Snyder, even if he resolves to do what he always does, that doesn&8217;t last either. It makes me laugh.

I don&8217;t really have resolutions, either, but I do have a few things in life I&8217;m working on that I&8217;d like to continue in 2008.

You might think I exercise a lot from my biking stories last summer, but since my son was born 10 months ago, I really haven&8217;t exercised as much as I used to. Now I am out of shape. I&8217;ve decided to get back into playing basketball, and all that running up and down the court will help get me into condition. I need to build my stamina again. I also plan to incorporate some other forms of exercise, such as pushups, sit-ups, weights and weight machines for upper-body strength.

My wife and I get along great, but we &8212; like all couples &8212; don&8217;t communicate as well as we would like to, and so we are going to make an effort to communicate better and more often, instead of assuming the other spouse is a mind-reader. I&8217;m sure, if you are married, you might chuckle because you can relate. Why do married people do that to each other? Does telepathy come with the marriage license? No. So what prompts us all to expect it?

Lisa and I have been eating better by snacking less and eating meals. We want to continue that. The meals we eat are less processed and lean toward whole foods. I have a sticker in our kitchen that says: &8220;Healthy food tastes better.&8221; It&8217;s true. If you know how to cook, you find that healthier food tastes better than the junky stuff. Quality counts.

You&8217;ve probably read some of my columns about the food we eat, so I won&8217;t go on a bender today, but I will add that my brother gave me a book I am eager to read. It is &8220;Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food&8221; by Felipe Fern‡ndez-Armesto, a history professor at Oxford University.

I can&8217;t wait to read it, and I&8217;m sure it will inspire a few columns. For instance, I know that cuisine &8212; various styles of food such as Mongolian, Mexican, Chinese, French and Italian that we take for granted today &8212; actually developed over hundreds if not thousands of years, so I&8217;m sure that will be part of the book. What was Italian food like before the discovery of the New World? After all, Christopher Columbus brought them back from our side of the ocean.

I do not drink bad coffee. In 2008, I will continue to not drink bad coffee. In fact, Santa Claus gave me a Stanley vacuum bottle (aka Thermos), so I can tote good coffee with me. Santa works long hours at night and appreciates a good cup of coffee.

OK, here&8217;s a fun item. In December I have been drinking the occasional beer out of a glass more than I used to, and so in 2008 I am going to continue doing that. In fact, I will go one step farther. I will not drink beer out of a can, and, when possible, avoid drinking out of a bottle.

Before, I sometimes had been drinking winter beers &8212; stouts, porters, dark lagers &8212; out of a glass, but still I&8217;d often just drink out of the bottle and in the summer I&8217;d hardly use a glass for any of the summer beers. But I have a collection of glasses I enjoy using and I find I do like the taste of beer after it has been poured &8212; like with wine, something about the way air affects the taste.

Thinking about &8220;glass versus container&8221; was prompted by a clipping Grandma Gladie O&8217;Tool sent me. Though she is from Jolley, Iowa, these days she resides in Donna, Texas. She sent me a Christmas gift, a note and a few newspaper clippings from The Monitor, the newspaper for the Rio Grande Valley.

Michael Stephenson, a columnist who lives in Canada but winters down there, wrote Nov. 25 about things he no longer understands. One item read:

&8220;I&8217;m sorry, I don&8217;t understand drinking beer out of bottles in public bars or restaurants. Or worse, slurping it out of cans. Worse still, ladies slugging beer out of a bottle or can. Yes, I know, I&8217;m getting old. Read: old-fashioned.&8221;

He made me think: Yeah, you know, I do like the taste of my beer better when it is in a glass. And, of course, I have an appreciation for the ways of old that some folks my age don&8217;t have. Though I like new, too, ways of old often have sound reasons behind them that should be considered.

For instance, I have been trying to get my mother to hold a wine glass properly &8212; that is, by the stem, not the cup. When she asked why she should change, I told her that when I was a boy she made me learn to hold my fork properly. If I have to learn how to hold silverware right, then she should be willing to hold glasses right. The ways-of-old reason holds true today: The warmth of your hand can affect the temperature of the wine, and thus the taste. If nothing else, it&8217;s valuable to know the right way in case you need to schmooze and don&8217;t want to look like a dumb hick. I think she bought it, and I have seen her grip the stem more often.

Often, ways of old, manners and class all go hand in hand. And goodness knows, nothing is wrong with a touch of class.

That said, it&8217;s good to know the rules so you can break them.

Cheers, no matter how you hold your beverage. Happy New Year, Albert Lea.

Tribune Managing Editor Tim Engstrom lives in Albert Lea. His column appears every Tuesday.