Above, the year 2008 A.D. on Earth.

hew! What a loop around the sun! We started off the year, naturally, with our “Best of 2007” wrap-up. In February, Y.P.R. celebrated its five-year anniversary: A Half Decade of Pot Roast (Parts I, II, III, IV, & V.)

Shortly thereafter, Y.P.R. broke its first ever “news” story: “Tales to Admonish,” in which a New Yorker cartoonist plagiarizes our pal John Rau.

And crack investigative reporting turned out to be only the first academic departure for this humble literary journal in 2008, as Y.P.R. soon published oddities, curiosities, and experiments including Alexander Neuscheler’s wonderfully twisted graphic novella of fight, flight, and feathers (“How to (F)Lie”); Kim Townsel’s interview with Hollywood’s preëminent script reader (“Who Is ScriptGirl?”); an excerpt from Bob Woodiwiss’s excellent index of excessive opulence (The Serfitt & Cloye Gift Catalog); and our first (and probably last) foray into live-blogging (or “real-time web-logging,” as the kids call it) (“Live (Sort of) Coverage (Well, Jokes) of the Presidential Town-Hall Debate”).

Even our reliably pessimistic cultural critics, Mr. Will Layman & Mr. Ed Fischer, explored uncharted terrain in ’08, trading in their trademark Disquietude for an inspiring survey of (gasp!) ENCOURAGING Modern Trends.

And to finish off our year of reckless gambles, we handed off the keys to the site to a couple of guest editors we’d never even met for the bulk of December. (“What the Hey?”)

OH, ALSO WE WROTE A BOOK.

Yep, your humble Y.P.R. editors wrote a big orange book, published by the good people of Kensignton Press. We celebrated with a launch party; performed some in-bookstore readings at Borders¹ and at Barnes & Noble; swung by our old pals Indecision 2008 and Cracked; slapped ourselves on a freakin’ racecar; and even appeared on the people’s airwaves at home (on The Joey Reynolds Show) and abroad (Ireland’s Phantom 105).

(In other radio-wave news, Y.P.R. was also read on-air by Click and Clack at Car Talk. )

And our most widely read articles of the year? Mr. Adam Laceky’s
guide to titillating vocabulary and Ms. Mollie Wells’s plumlike poems (delicious so sweet and so cold):

It’s been a hell of a year. Great big thanks to our hundreds of writers, our thousands of readers, our noble guest editors, our ever clever Disquieting Modern Trendsters, and the neighbors whose unprotected wifi freely brings our humble journal to your browsers.

Some Favorite Pieces from 2008

Whew! Exhausting! For complete 2008 archives: clicky-click here.