The Whole 9 Yards: Year in Review

We associate the number nine with extremes: highs (cloud nine), lows (the ninth Psalm, predicting the coming of the Antichrist), good luck and bad. Considering the spectrum of events we lived through in 2010-2011—from the greatest victories to the worst tragedies—the number nine seems a particularly apt symbol for the past twelve months’ happenings. On the plus side, DADT was repealed; on the minus side, a near-apocalyptic disaster devastated Japan. Last year, we opened our Annual Year in Review with the crisis in Haiti, which proves again that life is fragile.

23. SNOWMAGEDDON

New Yorkers woke up on December 27 to a blizzard that covered the city with a 20-inch blanket of snow. At first we marveled at its beauty, but soon the complaints started pouring in. And there was definitely good reason to rant. All three major airports were shut down for days and virtually every subway line stopped running, leaving an unlucky few hundred people trapped all night on a frozen A train. The streets were gridlocked with dozens of stalled city buses in every borough. And the kicker? Our mayor suggested we all go see a Broadway show and just fuhgeddaboutit.


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