All My Best: Recalling 2025

Around this time, many businesses recapitulate their accomplishments over the past year with year-end reviews. As a writer, I crave recognition, but as an independent entrepreneur, I haven’t a boss or supervisor to critique my output.

Therefore, this year-end post recognizes my best efforts in a number of different subject areas. The selections may seem arbitrary or biased (check my December newsletter issue for that). To counteeracst that, here are some guidelines for my selections:

Selection Criteria

1. First, all selections are original. No Internet downloads of photos, even from Wikipedia. Of course, that restriction eliminates extended quotes or copy taken from other sources.
2. Second, all selections reflect what represents the attitudes, values, and aspirations that motivate my blog posts and my sebsite.
3. Third, the selection reflects the best qualities inherent each medium: balance, clarity, lyricism, and emotion.

With those preliminaries in place, the following are my best efforts in recalling 2025 in each category. Let’s go!

All My Best: Best Article

That honor goes to “Shelley’s Unsung Poem & Anti-Trump Protest” from April 2025. True, “Writings as Bait: Author Phishing” (November 2025) addressed a trending topic of current interest. Another runnerup, July’s “Hidden Secrets of Coloial Foodways Revealed” contained a great deal of of original historical research.  And March’s “Special Perks of Grandparenting” held a sentimental grip on my decision-making ( after all, I am a grandfather twice-over).

However, the best acolade has to go to my Shelley post. It contained a plethora of romantic scholarship and poetry devoted to a topic that is decidedly unromantic and as subsequent events have shown, despotic.  The post checks all the requirements while at the same time being an enjoyable read.

Next:

All My Best: Best Photo

The choice here was a tough one. Not because of inadequate quality, but because my content had become too reliant on outside (read downloaded) media sources.  No excuses, but providing content and comment on written works tends to reduce the number of opportunities to insert original photographic copy into my written pieces. Still, remaining current, trending, and relevant demands less reliance on ready-made media material.

So, in honor of that regard, my best photo from 2025 appears in my October post, “Reflections: Post No-Kings-II“:

Runnerup? That honor goes to my “Special Perks of Grandparenting” post:

This photo was taken at my youngest grandson’s fifth birthday party. Sentimental, yes. But as noted above, I could hardly overlook a milestone birthday now, could I?

All My Best: Best Accomplishment

Participating at local pro-democracy ralies  and helping initiate our own PK-Indivisible group in Poughkeepsie exemplify heeding the call of duty to our nation. They embody accomplishments on the public level.

All My Best: Best Offer

This one’s easy. The current offer which runs to the end of the year provides the maximum opportunity to combine price with value. Here it is again, taken from the website Home page:

And Finally . . .

This throw-in is one of the finalists in my best of William Fietzer newsletter competition. My bias may be showing, but how could anyone resist showing a photo of these two tricksters?

With that said, may I add “All My Best” to you and yours in 2026!

What do you think, either of my last inclusion or the rankings in general? Let me know in the Comment section below.