Trauss holds up the first completed costume. Shapeless, oversized and mismatched, it epitomizes the Space 1026 DIY aesthetic, but it is also a tangible contrast to the sparkling, professional outfits expected of a traditional Mummer. Aryon Hoselton, the 1026 brigade's co-captain, sums up the sewing group's reaction: "They're going to laugh at us! We're the Bad News Bears of the Mummers!"

And people ask me where I get my story ideas.

by Duane Swierczynski

A response to a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial.

by Michael Washburn

Will voters see strength in a skinny guy with a polite demeanor?

by Bruce Schimmel

What You Say

You can't spell "new year" without "ew." And I can't go darkly into the dusk and musk (and, oh, there'll be a musk) of 2008 without tripping over the dead bodies of 2007.

24 Number of table tennis players who will compete to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing during the United States Olympic & National Team Trials, hosted by Drexel University Jan. 10-13. Actually, if all goes to plan, it will be 25 players. Stay tuned, pong fans.

If there's something good to be said about an online-media culture that lets anybody with fingers wax philosophical about the day's "news," it's that people like us can regularly update stories we've already written about.

Shot putters from Germantown High track team save elderly woman from house fire. The only way they know how. Plus 5

Oh, no, Babette: Another candidate enters the scrum for Josephs' job.

by Mary F. Patel

These jokes didn't quite make our best-of-the-year column, but they're still pretty damn funny.

Our critics pick their favorite books of 2007.

Favorite Short Fiction

by Patrick Rapa

Holiday Showcase: Stockings and brooches are usually as cookie-cutter as suburban real estate, but Philadelphia artists kitsch the holiday staples up a notch. | Cast of One: When Carrie Bradshaw laments over farting in bed on Sex and the City, it seems reasonable. But when artist Oriana Fox re-enacts the scene, the dialogue is stripped down to its absurd shallowness. | Frozen Architecture: Using a low-temperature-scanning electron microscope, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gathered images of snowflakes magnified 250 to 1,000 times their actual size.

Extremities

by Mark Cofta

You Prefer Slams to Slammers

by Rachel Frankford

Galleries are usually open Tuesdays through Saturdays; please call the gallery for exact days and hours. Receptions are denoted with Reception 3RD STREET GALLERY ,

Museums and exhibits have varying schedules;please call for exact days, hours and prices. ABINGTON ART CENTER , 515 Meetinghouse Rd., Jenkintown, 215-887-4882. ANNUAL JURIED SHOW,

Please call the phone number listed with the venue for specific dates, times and ticket information. dance FLAMENCO DEL ENCUENTRO This traditional flamenco cuadro is

RENEE BESS The author reads from her new novel, "Breaking Jaie," the story of 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate Jaie Baxter on her search for professional success

Blood oozed down the aisles in 2007, mingling with rancid butter and trampled ashes.

This year's best films are structured as quests. While they rarely achieve their stated aims — truth, justice, a sense of moral order — they find in their seeming failures more remarkable ends.

Send repertory film listings to tami.fertig@citypaper.net.

Oh man. Look at that list. Not a single purebred hip-hop album on there. You may choose to blame it on the sheer volume of Spoon humpin' indie rockers in our ranks and that's fine, but I'm pretty sure it's because Ghostface and Wu Tang both dropped their albums like two weeks ago. See, the LPs in this year's Top 21 have all had sufficient opportunity to cook. Feist, it may be argued, has been left on the stove too long.

So we looked everything over again, did some tweaking, moved Grinderman further and further down in the rankings until we weren't embarrassed, and finally came up with a definitive list based on science and facts.

It's a data explosion!

In a recent New York Times article, chefs debated the future of the entrée. With so many places opting for many different, smaller-portioned flavors in a meal, some argued that big plates now seem boring. Here in Philly, the new restaurant Sonam speaks to this polyamorous approach to dining.

Spring Garden Market 400 Spring Garden St., 215-928-1288 | Peppercorns 1401 E. Moyamensing Ave., 267-322-3000

I share their frustration whenever I encounter, say, a perfectly simple mountain trout priced at $26. On the other, there are probably more $11 entrées today than at any other time in America's history.

Herr's Snack Factory Tour and Holiday Light Display | Death Bi Chocolate | Big Chefs, Little Chefs | Eat Sushi in Bed — in Public

Kings Crimson

by Kelly White

It's Where We Drink: 232 S. 45th St., 215-243-9389

by Will Dean

Ringing it in with Datarock

by A.D. Amorosi

You Don't Know What to Do with the Tiny Fork

by Amy Strauss

Show Some Love

by Ptah Gabrie

Flederhaus Earrings

by Monica Weymouth