50 things we know now — that we hadn’t a clue about on Jan. 1, 2022

Each new year begins with feelings of newness, that this will be the year good things happen. Or bad, if you’re a pessimist or hung over from too much celebratory Champagne.

But no matter what we believe or think we know, there are always surprises. Here are the biggest from 2022: 50 things we didn’t know when the year started.

1. While we knew the midterm elections would be … interesting, we didn’t know how crazy the campaigning would get, and that a promised Red tsunami wouldn’t quite reach the shore.
2. Speaking of tsunamis, who knew Taylor Swift would create a much bigger wave with the release of her album, “Midnights,” and that it would break records on its very first day and eventually claim all 10 spots simultaneously on the U.S. Top Ten.
3. So many of us would discover we couldn’t start our day without Wordle.
4. After some tearful and sincere goodbyes to 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in January, we’d be welcoming him back in September after off-season shoulder surgery, failure to work out a trade and the loss of QB of the future, Trey Lance.
5. Jimmy G’s Cinderella story would be ended by injury, and Mr. Irrelevant, Brock Purdy, would take over the starring role, surpassing all expectations and taking the 49ers into the postseason.
6. We probably didn’t guess that the latest food trend to sweep the nation would be the butter board, a smearing of softened, herbed butter, spread on a cutting board and dressed with edible flowers and veggies — an artery-clogging concoction that threatened to replace the charcuterie board in the hearts of hosts across the world.
7. After dealing with the Tide Pods challenge, people stacking and climbing milk crates to predictable ends, and folks eating Benadryl like candies, we would have yet another inane and dangerous stunt: Nyquil chicken.
8. Madonna, barely recognizable as herself  in 2022, would confess her anti-aging routine includes having her face massaged with dinner forks.
9. Those bell-bottom, flared jeans we’ve been hanging on to for years would once again be fashionable.
10. Alec Baldwin and his influencer wife, Hilaria, would welcome baby No. 7 while a cloud of culpability continued to swirl around him over the death of Halyna Hutchins.
11. Months after we seemed to get some control over COVID, we’d still be fighting over toilet paper and a variety of other items thanks to the old supply chain problems — and new virus mutations.
12. Russia invading Ukraine might not have been so unexpected, but that Ukraine would continue to defy the invaders and push them back certainly has been.
13. As 2021 closed, many thought we’d be heading back to work in offices, but we didn’t anticipate that we’d still be working from home throughout much of the year.
14. Who knew we’d be facing another pandemic threat? Fortunately, dreaded monkey pox wasn’t the horror we were warned about. RSV and flu, however, …
15. No one could have predicted Will Smith striding onto the stage and slapping the words right out of Chris Rock’s mouth at the Oscars.
16. We also didn’t expect that Florida would pass legislation that makes being gay or transgender way more difficult than it should be, leading thousands to protest the “Don’t say gay” bill.
17. For 50 years, we were confident that the Roe v Wade decision that made abortion a matter of personal choice. Who knew that would suddenly not be the case as the Supreme Court took away that option, triggering many states to impose harsh restrictions.
18. Tom Brady, who retired early in the year, would unretire and return to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Even more unexpected was his less than stellar performance.
19. Elon Musk would buy Twitter, promising total free speech before clamping down on Tweets that mocked him, threatening to charge for access, laying off half of his employees, rehiring some and saying he would put the entire website behind a pay-for-play firewall, all in the first week.
20. Parents across the nation would be Googling alternatives when the supply of baby formula got tight.
21. None save true-believers would have predicted the Golden State Warriors would take another championship.
22. We would be privy to all the personal and often disturbing details of the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard marriage and divorce, played out in gavel-to-gavel televised coverage of Depp’s libel suit against Heard, and that the biggest star to emerge would be one of Depp’s attorneys, Camille Vasquez.
23. Gas prices would go over $6 a gallon and higher in some places, making us long for the good old days of $5 at the pump.
24. Inflation would settle across the world, led by the after effects of COVID, the war in Ukraine and corporate greed.
25. President Joe Biden would fall off his bike, but his approval rating would take a worse tumble.
26. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, would be attacked in their San Francisco home by a hammer-wielding intruder who was allegedly aiming to force some sort of confession from Nancy or break her kneecaps.
27. The Jan. 6. Committee investigating the insurrection and former President Donald Trump’s role, would produce a series of polished televised hearings that revealed a series of jaw-dropping moments, including a subpoena for Trump himself.
28. Disgraced R&B star R. Kelly, convicted in 2021 on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child, racketeering, bribery and sex trafficking would be sentenced to 30 years in prison.
29. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson becomes first Black woman to serve as a justice on the Supreme Court.
30. Mar-a-lago, former President Trump’s Florida home would become a crime scene as the FBI searched it and recovered top secret files that shouldn’t have been there.
31. The New York attorney general would deliver the first in a series of crippling blows, filing civil fraud charges in an attempt to stop Trump from doing business in her state
32. Queen Elizabeth II would die, bouncing Charles into the role he spent his whole life preparing for … but all anybody really wanted to know is what happens to the corgis.
33. Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge would break an American League home run record, then turn down a more than $213 million contract with the Yanks to tempt San Francisco Giants fans with a possible move … and then say yes to a $360 million contract with those pinstriped guys after all..
34. USC and UCLA would announce they’d be abandoning their century-long relationship with the Pac-12 to join the Big 10.
35. In a shocking and perhaps meaningless decision, the Congressional committee seated to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol would recommend criminal charges be filed against former President Trump.
36. A cold wave would sweep across the nation at Christmas, leading to deaths and stranding travelers at airports. Most of the canceled flights would be on Southwest. Want to get away? Well, thousands couldn’t.
37. We weren’t expecting “Top Gun: Maverick” to be much more than a vanity project for its star, Tom Cruise, but dang, it would turn out to be a very entertaining movie.
38. Joni Mitchell would still have it.
39. Mauna Loa would remind us that even in paradise, there is danger.
40. It would be a tough year for football romances, with Tom and Gisele Brady headed to the divorce court and Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley splitting up.
41. When Elon Musk wasn’t busy being Elon Musk, he’d be procreating, bringing another child into the world by yet another different woman.
42. Oakland’s own Amy Schneider would break “Jeopardy!” records to become a transgender icon and America’s brainy sweetheart, rounding off the year by winning the game’s Tournament of Champions.
43. Bruce Springsteen, the working guy and gal’s middle class hero, would start charging upwards of almost $1,100 a ticket for his concert.
44. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes would be convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors.
    
45. Ken Jennings would take over regular hosting duties on “Jeopardy!,” but we’d still expect the announcer to introduce Alex Trebek.
46. We’d learn that maybe investing our dollars in crypto currency wouldn’t be our best idea of 2022.
47. A string of scandals would finally unseat British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but his successor, Liz Truss, would swiftly seal her doom by sparking a financial-markets crisis with her announced plan for big tax cuts.
48. Infowars host Alex Jones would be ordered by a jury to pay $965 million in damages for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook School massacre a hoax. Another $473 million would later be added in punitive damages
49. Ukrainan President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would make a surprise visit to the United States, meeting with President Biden and addressing a joint session of Congress.
50. We’d say goodbye to so many, including Brazilian soccer legend Pele, football great Franco Harris, dancer and choreographer Stephen “tWitch” Boss, actor Kirstie Alley, “Sesame Street” founding cast member Bob McGrath, San Francisco Giants great Gaylord Perry, actor Irene Cara, comedian Gallagher, singer Aaron Carter, rocker Jerry Lee Lewis, actor Leslie Jordan, actor Robbie Coltrane, actor Angela Lansbury, country music legend Loretta Lynn, rapper Coolio, actor Louise Fletcher, R&B and jazz great Pharoah Sanders, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, actor Anne Heche, singer-actor Olivia Newton-John, basketball legend Bill Russell, actor Nichelle Nichols, actor Paul Sorvino, socialite Ivana Trump, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, Shinzo Abe, actor James Caan, actor Ray Liotta, country singer Naomi Judd, actor Robert Morse, drummer Taylor Hawkins, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, actor William Hurt, actor Sally Kellerman, actor Howard Hesseman, comedian Louie Anderson, singer Meat Loaf, comedian and actor Bob Saget, director Peter Bogdanovich and actor Sidney Poitier.