OK... we're at the last day of the year. Anyone want to pick the top "story" of the year? The economy? Obama winning the election? The continued fighting in Iraq and Pakistan? Thousands of deaths in the Chinese earthquake?

How about sports? The Giants winning the Super Bowl? Michael Phelps winning eight gold medals in the Olympics? Usain Bolt's performance in the Olympics? Tiger Woods' performance in the Open? The Philadelphia Phillies winning?

Entertainment news? Heath Ledger, Paul Newman, George Carlin dying? "The Dark Knight" with it's great box office?

Feel free to add your own categories or winners.

Personally I'll vote for:

General News
Barack Obama wins the presidential election.

Sports News
Michael Phelps eight gold medals in the Olympics

Entertainment News
The death of Paul Newman

Political News - Global:
Barack Obama; first black president of the USA

Political News - my own country:
18 months after the last national election, we're now down to the 4th prime minister. Result so far: biggest political instability since the birth of the country.

Economical News:
Djee...

Sports:
Is Usain Bolt clean?

Personally:
An eventful year, to say the least. I really learned a lot about people, judging people and love.

GBB:
Sad to see the culmination of how age gaps can lead to misunderstandings and disrespect.

General News
1. Barack Obama wins the presidential election.
2. The failing economy and economic bailouts
3. Palin's run at VP

Sports News
1. Phillies win the World Series (my personal bias)
2. Giants win the SB
3. Phelps
4. The Celtics' run

Entertainment News
I'm not exactly in the loop here, but it seems the top story revolves around Britney Spears or Hannah Montana.

I agree with all and add:

1. The economy, I think, takes first place because of it's seriousness and how it is affecting us all on so many levels.

2. BHO becoming President - I think most of us look at it as the end of an "era" (Bush) and the beginning of hope in a nation full of so much turmoil right now. I know I do, in spite of how things suck at the moment...hope springs enternal.

3. Don't know about sports, but entertainment I think was a pretty mediocre year, with most media attention going to Britnney Spears and Hannah Montana. The same ol' Jolie/Pitt, etc. I don't know. Then again, I didn't go "see" many movies, so I don't have a broad knowledge this year.

TIS

Things that come immediately to mind in my own life from the past year, that have probably changed me forever.

- The rise in academic, cultural and intellectual fraudulence.
- My eventual, long-overdue rejection of epistemic relativism.
- My being accused of libel in a Creative Writing assignment - never name a member of staff in a short story wherein he or she is beaten to death with a hammer whilst masturbating a student.
- My heightened perception of careerism; the absence of genuine passion for what people do, sacrificed increasingly for the ladder of life.
- Hierarchical bullshit, everywhere.

Oh, and people's continuing misspellings of its and it's.

Using such words should qualify for an automatic ban.

Political News: Tina Fey runs for VEEP

Sports: Serena Williams is a man

Culture: Britney is back.

Gangster BB: Capo De La Cosa Nostra returns from Mars. Discovers more big words, but did not find God.

A look back at BB '08

We didn't have the BB weekend (Still ticked off about that)

I prefer polysyllabic to big.

Its been a very bad year for me.

2009 is gonna be good for me, but bad for.......

As well as 70's (possessive) and 70s (plural and correct), there and their, and to and too.

And they're, too.

You mean '70s

Along with I/Me, and He/Him|She/Her...

Not necessarily. What if he were referring to someone's age???

Well yeah... I think he was referring to the 1970s ('70s), not someone in their 70s.

But I will admit I misplace the apostrophe all the time (70's for decade and age) and am trying to teach myself not to. But to me that's a minor spelling error compared to shit-poor grammar.

your right

Ahem!

Maybe he meant it's your right to use shit-poor grammar.

WHAT THEN, SMARTIE-PANTS?

Then, YOUR FACE!

you're face

You are face?

Ah. The beat goes on!

I've heard two sparate football telecasters, one of whom was Kirk Herbstreit, this week use the word "re-aggravate." This is an awkward redundancy as the verb "aggravate" already suggests an additional worsening of a condition.

I heard another announcer use the phrase "most unique." Unique means one of a kind, and therefore such qualifiers before it are superfluous and erroneous. It's like saying, "most dead," or "most perfect."

And I won't begin to tell you how my skin crawls when an on-air analyst says, "between he and I."

My mother uses a phrase that drives my husband nuts. She says "make" for "allow", as in, "Why did you make the kids do that?". I'm so used to it that I never even noticed it, but my husband realized that her sister did it as well. I don't know if that means it's generational or familial.

There was a smiley at the end for the precise reason that it was intended as a joke and not an unintended grammar mistake.

I was reading last week the top areas where home values have dropped the most. Riverside County is like number 4 (not to mention the fact that about 4/5 out of the top ten were in California). I believe it too. My house (condo) value is less then half of what I paid for it two years ago. Thank goodness I plan to stay here for a while and that I put an nice down payment on it so I'm not upside down on the mortgage.

I have to believe that what goes down must go back up again. It's gotta bottom out and then rise. I'm speculating that 09 will still be rough, but hopefully by mid/end year it'll start to improve. I hope I'm right.

TIS

TIS, we bought a condo when we first got married for $97,500. We sold it three years later for $120,000. During the early '90s, which was the last housing crisis, they were selling for about $75,000. Now they're selling for about $200-215,000. I don't know if that's of any comfort to you or not, but I hope it gives you an idea of where prices can go. Real estate can either kill you or make you money, and it can simply be a matter of luck and timing.

Geoff - please note the correct use of "'90s".

I'm glad that 2008 is gone, alot of shit happened, one good thing was "The Dark Knight". That was the best thing of 2008.

Man if you think that a simply movie was the best thing of 2008 that's very pathetic.