Happy New Year! I start the year by writing about an old, but very timely, book, a science fiction anthology from 1974 titled “2020 Vision,” in Wednesday’s column, my first of 2020. Any predictions for the year ahead or thoughts about the significance, if any, of 2020? Is it a year you’ve ever thought about, like 2000, 2001 or 1984?

I was wondering how I could come up with a fairly simple illustration for the column that would seem appropriately futuristic, or at least retro-futuristic, when La Verne’s giant metal globe came to mind. It’s at a a business park off Fairplex Drive. I blogged about it in 2015. If it hadn’t been that, I don’t know what I’d have done. My second-best idea was to find a business address with 2020 in it, which didn’t seem very promising.