BINGO!

2020 is Proving to be a Banner Year for Apocalypse Bingo

By Jon Aldrich

For most of us, 2020 is going to be a year that none of us will soon forget. It just seems like one awful thing after another just keeps occurring in a year that we'll all be happy to put behind us.

Of course we are still experiencing a global pandemic that has caused the shutdown of large parts of the economy, millions to lose their jobs, and many small businesses to close as well as the loss of many lives. We have also endured a stock market crash, exhausted the season’s hurricane names because there have been so many, and seen millions of acres and many homes destroyed by the wildfires in the Western U.S.  There have also been the notable deaths of people such as Kobe Bryant and Eddie Van Halen and most recently my favorite James Bond actor, Sean Connery. Oh, and don’t forget Mr. Peanut.

For years, many of those with a morbid sense of humor play a game called apocalypse bingo. This is a bingo game that lasts for the whole year with a bingo card that is filled with all kinds of crazy, awful, extreme, or unthinkable events. If you score a “Bingo” with your card, I guess that makes you the “winner”. However, you get more notoriety for having the most extreme, far-fetched bingo card. The game is not new and has been an internet thing for many years, but with all the crazy events that have occurred in 2020, the race for the craziest Apocalypse Bingo card is in full swing. I already mentioned some of the wild things that have transpired that we are all aware of, but you would get extra points if you had some of the following 2020 happenings on your card at the beginning of the year:

• A Fire Tornado – The National Weather Service actually issued the first ever warning for a “Fire Tornado” in Lassen County California.

• Murder Hornets arrive in America – Yes, these nearly two-inch long insects that kill around 50 people a year in Japan and China have been found in Washington State this summer.
• Bubonic Plague Squirrels – In July, a squirrel in Colorado tested positive for bubonic plague.
• Large, Non-Native Lizards appearing in South Carolina – In September a number of these large 2 to 3 foot Tegu Lizards have been sighted and officials are concerned because they are highly destructive and aggressively invasive in the wild.
• Pentagon releases UFO videos – In April, the Pentagon released footage showing UFOs that Navy fighter planes were following way back in 2004. They moved in ways that no known objects or technology could.
• Poland Accidentally Invades Czech Republic – Polish soldiers mistakenly deterred Czech citizens from entering a church near the Czech-Poland border. Was all just a misunderstanding. (Cue Polish jokes).
• Radioactive Forest Fire Near Chernobyl – For years, forest fires near the site of the nuclear disaster of the 1980’s in Russia have burned and released radiation into the atmosphere.
• Strange Changes in Earth’s Magnetic Field – Earth’s magnetic field is undergoing some strange changes over the South Atlantic having implications for satellites and spacecraft.
• Mystery Drones Spotted in Colorado & Nebraska – Large fleets of drones have been spotted flying in grid patterns at night in rural areas of the Plains.
• A Star Went Missing – A star that astronomers had studied for nearly two decades suddenly went missing.
• Monkey Steals COVID Blood Samples in India – A monkey in India attacked a lab technician, stole some blood samples, and ate some surgical gloves. There is video of the incident.
• Only 1 Contestant made it to Final Jeopardy – In a very rare occurrence on the game show Jeopardy, only one contestant made it to Final Jeopardy. As you know, there are 3 contestants and it is extremely rare for only one of them to have a positive cash balance while the other 2 players have a negative balance.

So how is your 2020 Apocalypse Bingo card coming along this year. Let us hope that we do not have too many more items to be added to the Bingo card over the remaining 2 months of 2020. But as we know with this year, anything is possible.

Please stay safe, and no matter what happens with the election, lets all try to get along.