BRIAN LAUVRAY braves an evening with history’s greatest monster, a case of Four Loko
LELAND CHEUK has cause to be optimistic about the new decade
BY KATE DANDIZETTE: An interview with the people preserving web fandom for the ages
Finding cultural bright spots in this long winter of economic collapse
Our contributors cut through the doublespeak of the year with succinct year-ending equations
On the most soul-crushing program on broadcast TV
One year ago, I made my last post on my now-defunct personal blog. The last post was sports-related – I was lamenting my beloved and favorite sports franchise, the Boston Celtics, who had just finished 24-58 and traded for an $18 million 31 year-old shooting guard Ray Allen in a desperate attempt to become relevant in Beantown a.k.a Championship City. I posted this photo of GM Danny Ainge and Head Coach Doc Rivers after they failed to get the first pick in the draft, looking generally befuddled, like a pair of incompetent detectives from The Wire. 
I don’t mind mentioning that the state of the Celtics last year was not unlike the state of my blog – generally ignored and more work than it was worth.
Today, the Celtics are Eastern Conference Champions, a few days away from playing the LA Lakers for all the marbles. There’s a life lesson in this, I believe. As I sit and post to IsGreaterThan for the first time in several weeks in my tiny role as a contributing blogger to this eclectic, cerebral and all-around fabulous journal exploring the intersections of culture, politics and art, I realize that we can all be too hopeless in these times of recessions that no one can confirm but everyone can feel, endless wars, the continuing decline of the American empire, the simultaneous bad karma of a 1 billion people according to karmic Ph.D. Sharon Stone, and the non-existence of global warming (Myanmar, China, Philippines? I see no evidence of global warming either!). Quagmires can turn into paradises in short order. You may not expect it, you’ll never know when, but like the Boston Celtics and LA Lakers, meeting in the NBA Finals for the first time in 22 years, good things can happen. 
There are many things I’m looking forward to in the next few months. Here are a few:
Embracing the trashy yet worthwhile
The man behind The Smoking Gun recounts his first experiences online
After a week like this–adventurous presidents, bullish bailouts and National Guard power ballads–maybe a reality check is what America’s yearning for
The man behind Channel 101 speaks about becoming Internet famous
Our contributors, acquaintances and associates present the year that was in succinct equation form.
Are there signs of life in the moribund sitcom format?
Paul M Davis