new year's resolutions

Do people still make them? At my old gym, the first weekday after the holiday was always the most crowded of the year -- as the resolvers returned to try to shed holiday calories. This year, at the university gym, there were fewer people than normal. Who knows?

Among my personal archives is a revealing list of new year's resolutions prepared when I was seven years old. Here are some of my pledges:

• "I will not tease my sister."
• "I will not talk smart to my parents."
• "I will come home when my parents call me."
• "I will not smirk or look funny when posing for pictures."
• "I will put my good clothes away nicely."
• "I will try not to cry if I can't listen to the radio."
• "I will dry dishes when asked and will not break any."

On the theory that rules are established mainly to deal with already evident behaviors, I guess I was a bit of a twerp at age 7. Or maybe I was normal.