Happy New Year to my readers. If you were all in one place, I’d throw a party. But since you’re scattered all over the globe, I’m just going to have to drink this big bottle of champagne all by myself. I hope 2011 brings you plenty of sweetness and only a little sour. Perhaps this will be the year I finally achieve fame or infamy. Either would be fine with me as long as it doesn’t involve an untimely death or excessive prison time.

Here are the things that got me all hot and bothered in 2010:

Best Book–Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood: Atwood tends to shy away from genre labels, but this novel is some fine science fiction. Set before and after a cataclysmic plague that sweeps an already troubled planet, the book focuses on the complicated friendship between two young men who each bear some responsibility for the coming apocalypse. Atwood understands that the end of the world isn’t very interesting if the characters bearing witness to the events are empty vessels and she takes care to imbue her protagonists with deeply human flaws. Perhaps science fiction wouldn’t have persistent credibility issues if it had more writers like Atwood who can meld the best elements of character and plot.

Best TV–Mad Men: This was a tough category for me. I really enjoyed The Walking Dead (yet another thematic variation on the ending of the world), but six episodes isn’t enough to judge a series on its merits. Community is a brilliant sitcom rife with pop culture references (see the recent Christmas episode for its spot-on riffing on decades of holiday specials). But Mad Men was simply stellar this year. We finally saw the unflappable Don Draper begin to lose his shit as his world unraveled around him. Both the writers and actors are on intimate terms with their characters, which made each episode a pleasure to watch. Even the season’s final episode, which could have been an eye-rolling cliché, somehow managed to be fresh and surprising.

Best Album–The ArchAndroid by Janelle Monáe: This supremely talented woman can do it all. Her album effortlessly transitions between playful hip-hop, earnest soul, and cinematic orchestrations without seeming showy. She also has the heart of a geek. Just look at the album cover, which is a straight-up tribute to silent film classic Metropolis. Her songs about lonely and lovelorn robots are rich with human emotion, elevating them above gimmickry to high art.

Best Film–The Social Network: Hollywood, for all its dependence on computer wizardry, has difficulty portraying technology in a realistic light in its movies. Technology is either magic or devilry, depending on the movie’s point of view. The Social Network may be the first major studio film that trusts its audience’s intelligence enough to tell a story about the messy process of writing software. Of course, Aaron Sorkin’s sharp ear for dialog helps keep us interested. The fact that events portrayed in the film may not have actually happened is beside the point. It doesn’t really matter whether the founder of Facebook got a blow job in the bathroom from a hot college co-ed. What matters is whether the movie is true to the spirit of a time and place when everything changed. The Social Network does that with with the help of a great cast and a compelling script.

My family and friends were much too generous to me this holiday season. Among the gifts I received:

• A new leather jacket to replace my battered and tattered leather jacket that I’ve owned since college. The new one is black, so I guess I’ll have to start riding a motorcycle and smoking cigarettes.
• Books! Like, real books with actual paper and covers and stuff. I almost forgot that they still made them like that. 
• Several sweaters and shirts that will make me look very respectable at the office. I think I’m going to need a new dresser just to hold my vast sweater collection.
• The 25th anniversary Blu-Ray edition of The Goonies. I can report that while this bit of 80s cheese still has its charms, it’s not quite as awesome as it was upon my first viewing at age 12.

It’s occurred to me that I haven’t posted my annual holiday wish list. That’s probably because I’m entering that phase of middle-aged adulthood where I can simply buy the things that I really want. Of course, if some anonymous benefactor wanted to give me a European vacation or new van, I wouldn’t turn either down. But it feels silly to ask for a book or sweater when I can easily purchase them myself. Nobody can spoil me like I do.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of this. Law and the Multiverse is a blog focusing on legal issues that could arise in the alternate worlds of comic books. For example, how does Tony Stark get around federal arms control laws? How does insurance function in a world where frequent battles between superpowered humans results in massive property damage? One post even addresses whether the Americans with Disabilities Act could apply to those with certain mutant abilities.

The blog is authored by a couple attorneys and has been in existence for only a few weeks, but it’s already been featured in the Times and geek überblog Slashdot. The Times article suggests that the site demonstrates that “in the grand Venn diagram of life, there appears to be substantial overlap between lawyers and the people Mr. Daily [one of the site’s creators] lovingly refers to as ‘comic book nerds.'” It also demonstrates that a legal education has some practical applications.

Best of luck to these new bloggers. If they can inspire at least one law school professor to formulate an exam question that includes Cyclops and Magneto rather than Whiteacre and Blackacre, they will have made the world a better place.