***The Goldilocks List: What I Want In 2012

Last year about this time, I compiled a list of gift-giving suggestions for other people. This year, I say to heck with that. This is what I want in 2012.

* A Stanford quarterback almost as good as Andrew Luck (asking for one that’s better tha
Luck is just insanity)
* A Goldilocks winter, with not too much rain, and not too little
* Equity (both kinds: social and real estate)
* The highest-scoring Super Bowl ever with Aaron Rodgers or Drew Brees and Tom Brady firing rockets back and forth (I love the 49ers, but not defensive games)
* A Republican party that remembers its heritage in Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Rockefeller
* A Democratic party that realizes you can’t draft an unenforceable law governing every idiotic human behavior
* A Goldilocks car – one that’s not too big and not too small, with dual climate controls so it really can be too hot on one side and too cool on the other
* A grain, a speck, a smidgen of the Facebook IPO
* Something along the lines of the kinder, gentler nation the Bushes promised but never, ever delivered
* A Goldilocks presidential election – one that’s not too exciting and not too boring, with the outcome never, ever in doubt
* For the next person who talks about the sanctity of heterosexual marriage be forced to watch every episode of Keeping Up With the Kardashians back to back
* A London Olympics that makes my wife smile for the rest of the summer
* A practical reason to buy an iPad (there are already scads of impractical ones)
* Another busy year for my career (anything that gets me closer to retirement is okay with me) with clients who pay on time and don’t schedule 9 a.m. Eastern meetings
* Fewer nose hairs (or at least fewer ticklish ones)
* Fewer aggravating airline charges (hey, United – why are you charging me a $240 “administrative fee” to change my travel dates when I’m doing it online?)
* Goldilocks interest rates – ones that won’t kill the rebounding economy but will actually give retirees some return on their savings
* Laughter, preferably involving familiar stories of youthful foibles with longtime friends
* Happiness to my friends and confusion to my enemies (and for whoever said that first not to read this)
* Continued inspiration to keep my blog readers happy throughout the year