The LOL Year in Review

Just check out any newsstand right now and you'll see that 'tis the season — for year-in-review issues. While the annual lookback is an all-too-familiar format, we must confess we love it. We know you're not supposed to admit that to some news snobs, who frown upon recycling old material; it's like admitting you think Dave Barry is funnier than David Sedaris, or that you'd rather watch Dateline than listen to All Things Considered. But in an age of information overload, there's something wonderfully satisfying about having the past 12 months distilled into its highlights, so we couldn't resist joining the thematic pile-on.

But at least we're trying to do something a little different: the year in review, LOLcats style. LOLcats are an Internet phenomenon (named after the instant-messaging shorthand for "laughing out loud") in which people write captions for pictures of kitty cats in a peculiar grammatically challenged syntax. One of the earliest LOLcats famously features a fat gray feline with the caption "I can has cheezburger?" You're not supposed to admit to liking LOLcats, just as you're not supposed to openly champion year-in-review issues. But in the pages ahead, we have combined two of our guiltiest pleasures into one shamelessly superficial summary of an incredibly historic year. We hopez u likee.