A Hearty Review of 2008

It's great to look back, a valuable way to get a little perspective on where you've been and what you might have learned along the way. Unfortunately for the casual consumer, the art of looking back has become yet another model of consumption -- over the past several weeks you couldn't turn around without another niche "Best of 2008" list hitting your best side.

Which is why the folks at Tobacco Avenue cut through all the noise with their month-by-month review of Richmond's journey through 2008. Now, if they'd only provide their Reader's Digest condensed version. Here's a snapshot of some of May's celebrated events:

May 2: Richmond’s NBC12 takes weather-forecasting food technology to the next step, after its Arby’s WeatherNet radar begins beaming hot roast beef sandwiches into homes across the region.

May 5: Mayor L. Douglas Wilder defends his expensive eight-person security detail, saying their presence is required to protect him from the region’s swarm of deadly assassin teams.

May 15: Following the fourth toking of a marijuana pipe, two stoners ponder how funny it would be if popular North Side restaurant Kitchen 64 were called Kitchen 64 Plus 5.

May 16: Police Chief Rodney D. Monroe takes the same position in Charlotte, NC, declining Richmond’s offer of a year’s supply of Chipotle burritos should he decide to stay.