Why do I get excited about hanging up a new calendar? I guess like all our New year traditions, it symbolizes a new start. But we don't want to forget the past, either. 2007 is a year which will go down in history. Just like every other year. Every December, as soon as Christmas is over, we’re all like “Wow, the year’s almost over. What happened?” That’s what all those year-end lists are for. We can’t remember what happened yesterday if we don’t write it down, or at least type it on the internet. But that’s how history happens... first, it’s news. Then it’s a top-ten-year-end list. Then it goes in a stack of things to be filed. Then a few years from now, someone says, “I remember something about that...” and they look it up. Then it’s history, or at least something interesting to tell the kids you remember, even if you really don’t remember it.



Americans Love Lists (via b3ta)

50 Top 10 Lists of 2007 from TIME.

The Associated Press’ Top News Stories of 2007.

Reuters Pictures of the Year 2007.

Offbeat Stories of 2007, as compilied by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It’s not surprising that three of them involve cats. Of this list, Oscar, the cat who predicts death was probably the most talked-about story on the internet.

The Top Ten Stories You Missed in 2007.

The Beast has ranked the 50 Most Loathsome People in America, 2007. As I went through the list, I kept thinking, “How did he/she rank so far down?” Then I saw why, because there’s always more loathsome people who want to inflict their worldview on the rest of us. Bill O’Reilly came in a #23. You can probably guess who’s #1.

My picks for the biggest assholes of 2007 by Bill Maher. (via Grow-A-Brain)

Top Ten Bushisms of 2007.

Seven things we should pretend never happened in 2007.

The Top Ten Stupid Criminals of 2007.

The Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2007, according to TIME. Planets and dinosaurs are there, but the biggest breakthroughs are inside of us.

National Geographic’s Top Ten News Stories of 2007.

Top Ten Archaeology Stories of 2007. This year's news about the past, as it were.

The Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007, from Bad Astronomy. That was soon followed by Astronomy Pictures of the Year 2007, from the editors of Astronomy Picture of the Day. Each of these impressed us through the year, but together they are thoroughly humbling.

The 100 Best Films of 2007. There are an awful lot of best film lists, but a really useful one is The Best 19 Movies You Didn't See in 2007. It's a list that will help you plan your home theater experience of 2008.

Top Ten Awkward Moments of 2007. (via Fark)

Top Ten Bigfoot Stories of 2007. (via Boing Boing)

The New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2007. Surprisingly, there are no science books on the list.

The 15 Weirdest Work Stories of 2007. This story doesn’t provide any links, so I looked one of them up and found it happened in 2005. So take that as it is.

The Worst Employees of 2007.

Best media corrections of the year.

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year for 2007 is w00t. This recognition signifies the very end of any coolness for the term, and ensures that it will never again be used in internet forums.

The 10 Best and Worst Things to Happen to Men in 2007.

Wired’s Top Ten Gadgets of the Year. And to go along with it, The Top Ten Heartbreaking Gadgets of 2007. Beta testing and listening to consumer feedback could’ve saved some of these gadgets, but you still may have trouble finding a Wii.

Forbes Web Celeb 25, 2007 edition.

Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren't Reading. Personally, I would recommend any blog in my sidebar, plus a lot more in the sidebar at Miss C Recommends.

Jon Swift has a roundup of The Best Blog Posts of 2007. 

Yours Truly got to host the Top 5 Viral Videos of 2007 segment for the ABC World News Webcast. I even got some notice from this.

Those who made predictions at the beginning of 2007 include Wendell Witt, Jon Swift, Wired, Fimoculous, and Hairshirt. The predictions from Hairshirt about Britney Spears and OJ Simpson were eerily accurate.

TOP QUOTES OF 2007

According to Fred R. Shapiro, the editor of the Yale Book of Quotations. (via J-Walk Blog)

1. "Don't Tase me, bro." -- Andrew Meyer

2. "I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us." -- Lauren Upton

3. "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country." -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

4. "That's some nappy-headed hos there." -- Don Imus

5. I don't recall." -- Alberto Gonzales

6. "There's only three things he (Rudy Giuliani) mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11." -- Joseph Biden

7. "I'm not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody (Dick Cheney) who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Harry Reid

8. "(I have) a wide stance when going to the bathroom." -- Larry Craig

9. "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." -- Joe Biden

10. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history." -- Jimmy Carter

Stuff I did this year

In 2007, I became a professional blogger, doing posts I actually had to work on with research and stuff. You know what they say about turning your hobby into a career... that you need to find another hobby! I just don’t have the time anymore. Here are some of the highlights of 2007 for me.

At mental_floss, my post The LOLcat of Death set a record for the most Diggs of any floss article. The article High School Sports Teams got 234 comments, which isn’t a record, but it may be a record for a mental_floss post that didn’t have a prize giveaway!

At Neatorama, my post on the Scrubs engagment got the most publicity, although that was just a video link. For posts I put some work into, The Weirdest Insects in the World came out on top. Doing the Top 5 Viral Videos of 2007 post for the ABC News Webcast (mentioned above) was a highlight for me, too!

At YesButNoButYes, I don’t even have to figure out which articles did the best, since they are all in the post Top Ten Stories by Miss Cellania, which was published for my birthday.

Jon Swift asked me what post I was proudest of on my own site for the year 2007. That’s a hard one. The posts that got the most traffic were nothing to write home about in my opinion, and the ones I worked hardest on got little attention. But one post was an exception. Schroedinger's Cat was one I was particularly proud of, and over time got a lot of attention, too! 

In the real world, my year was pretty much just another year. After a slight upswing in 2006, my lovelife returned to normal, meaning I went the entire year without a date. Maybe 2008 will be better. Maybe.

To Oh-Oh-Seven

by Bruce Goldfarb

The leg’s in the smoker and the Juice is on ice
Gore rests on laurels at Vick’s dog fights
Goodbye Fredo, fade-out Sopranos
Pootie YouTube nappy-headed hos
Bubble bursts, bridge falls down
Six entombed underground
Surges, purges, foot-tapping urges
Castro’s not dead, but Ladybird is
Helmsley’s pooch, Gere’s smooch
Lindsay’s hooch, Britney’s cooch
Blackwater wildfire Dick’s cousin Obama
They don’t have maps! Hey, remember Osama?
Hillary, Rudy, Mitt, and Fred
Tainted toothpaste, toys with lead
Pet food cavemen quagmire in Iraq
Shit meet fan: Turks attack
Phony soldiers man-sized safes
Leave her alone! Scooter’s walk chafes
Monks riot, lawyers in tear gas mist
General Betray Us, Bonds’ asterisk
Bernanke iPhone Iran bombing any day
Don’t tase me bro! I’ve never been gay.
None too soon this year will be through
We’re kicking ass whoop-dee-damn-doo.

The End of the World as We Know It (via Boing Boing)

Previously at Miss Cellania: 2006 and  The Lists of 2005

Thought for today: 2007 is a year which will go down in history.

humor jokes video funny 2007 news lists year top ten