Lesbian Pop Culture Reviews

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 On the plus side, DADT was repealed; on the minus side, a near-apocalyptic disaster devastated Japan.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.

4. A MIDTERM “SHELLACKING”

In November’s midterm elections, unlikely Tea Party candidates snatched primaries from established Republican candidates, despite their markedly eccentric views and thin political resumes. Delaware’s Christine O’Donnell, for one, had lost three previous runs for office and admitted “dabbling” in Wicca. But some dark horses actually prevailed against Democratic opponents, giving Republicans a thin majority in the Senate and increasing their ranks in the House. President Obama referred to this moment of reckoning as a “shellacking.” We couldn’t have said it any better.

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