| Just a quick reminder that this great deal ends very soon: Subscribe to The Washington Post for just $0.99 every four weeks. Happy new year! — Kelly Poe, newsletter editor Welcome to 2022, which is actually 2020: 2, the sequel. Think back to the first day of 2021. Things could only go up! And they did, but not in the ways we'd hoped: More cases, more variants, more exasperation with our pandemic purgatory. So, perhaps you're not starting this year with last year's soon-to-be-vaccinated optimism. But at least you're starting it with the List. The List is a grand Post tradition from the Style section, the brainchild of former fashion editor Nina Hyde, who, with my colleague Jura Koncius, issued her first collection of ins and outs as '77 became '78 (Out: Gloria Steinem's wire rims. In: Annie Hall horn-rimmed specs). Since then, it has been authored by a who's-who of star writers: Cathy Horyn, Marc Fisher, Robin Givhan, Monica Hesse and Dan Zak, and Hank Stuever, who is now my editor. It's an honor to inherit it from them, and a privilege to continue this storied lineage of bitchy bon mots. The List is usually anchored by one person, but involves the collaboration of dozens: Staff members bring ideas based on their beats to brainstorming meetings that can sometimes devolve into pop culture rants and nitpicky digressions on whether a given trend is "too out to be out," a phrase that gets used every year (because the List is forward-looking, things that are in right now must be out, in anticipation of their 2022 replacements). It's always cheeky, based as much in actual trends as it is in wordplay. A year in preview, not review. The references have gotten more obscure over time, sometimes to readers' consternation, but sometimes to their delight — it's like a little puzzle to solve. There's a certain poetry to the order of the items. Looking back on last year's List, which I co-authored with pop culture reporter Sonia Rao, I'm pleased to see that many of our predictions came true. Mask Karens were indeed, unfortunately, replaced by Vaccine Karens. Expensive sweatpants maker Entireworld, one of our outs, went out of business, and Dionne Warwick, an in, became the queen of Twitter. Alas, maskne has stuck around. Back then, we thought that the "pandemic list" would be a one-off. Until I found myself writing another one this year. Anyway, happy 2022. Vibes are omens now, and outdoors is in, but indoors is out. Long live the List.  (Oleg Buyevsky for The Post) Out: Meme stocks, mullets and Ted Lasso! In: Freckle tattoos, Korean hot dogs and dresses over jeans! Plus a lot more where those came from. Perspective ● By Maura Judkis ● Read more » |    | | | The veteran newsman and "CBS Sunday Morning" contributor explains how a seeming puff piece about "The Andy Griffith Show" turned into an unsettling snapshot of an angry America. By Emily Yahr ● Read more » | | | | In the context of the pandemic, things are somehow both worse and never better. Get boosted, live your life, get the virus. Feel crappy, feel grateful, feel everything, feel nothing. By Dan Zak ● Read more » | | | | |  (Kevin Tudball for The Post) This past year was not massively better than 2020, but at least it was different. A variant, so to speak. And like any year, it had both highs and lows. No, we take that back. It was pretty much all lows. Perspective ● By Dave Barry ● Read more » | | | | | | Some men say they want to take a greater role in family planning, especially at a time when they say women are shouldering so much of the reproductive-rights fight. By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux ● Read more » | | | | | He started calling his wife from the hospital bathroom, crying, when he lost a patient. "We can't save them. All we do is bag 'em and tag 'em," he told a friend. By Annie Gowen ● Read more » | | | | The Swedish activist discusses being catapulted to the world stage, and how Asperger's has helped her stay so focused. From the Magazine ● By KK Ottesen ● Read more » | | | | | | Tracking the main coronavirus variants in the U.S. and around the world: omicron, delta, gamma, alpha and beta. By Dan Keating and Madison Dong ● Read more » | | | | | Old-growth trees in Tongass National Forest, which holds nearly twice as much carbon dioxide as the United States releases each year by burning fossil fuels, are embroiled in the politics of timber and climate change. By Juliet Eilperin ● Read more » | | | Cartoonists sketched their takes on the Afghanistan withdrawal, Southern border crisis, climate change and more. Opinion ● By Post Opinions staff ● Read more » | | | |
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