Wars rage around the the globe. A vast, tragic empire collapses. The economy constricts painfully. But ordinary life -- and extraordinary life -- goes on. People still write novels and environmental treaties, design solar cells and stage sets, orchestrate symphonies and ad campaigns. They still care about tossing a salad or a baseball superbly. From science to show biz, they exert all the passion, wit, ingenuity, game playing -- and, yes, the ego, venality and damn-fool silliness -- that keep the human enterprise steaming along so entertainingly.
And at the end of the year we feel compelled to sort it all...