If ever there was an indulgent time of year, late December would be it — and not just in the washing-down-fistfuls-of-sugar-cookies-with-flagons-of-eggnog sense, either. This is a time for nostalgia gluttony and navel gazing. In that spirit, we offer up to you our list of most-read news stories of 2010.
1. "THE DEVIL BEHIND THE DEVIL IN MISS JONES" | AUGUST 26| During the dog days of summer, we unearthed a terrifying revelation: back in the '70s, Fox News blowhard Bill O'Reilly graced this humble rag with a profile of Deep Throat director Gerard Damiano.
2. "NEW AND IMPROVED ROMNEY" | FEBRUARY 12| David S. Bernstein's profile of our ex-gov dropped two weeks before Romney's new book hit shelves, and dissected Slick Mitt's methodical efforts to rebrand himself for a 2012 presidential run.
3. "DEMOCRATS AGAINST OBAMA" | NOVEMBER 3| Unapologetic bomb-thrower Steven Stark gazed into his speculative crystal ball, and prognosticated that Barack Obama's greatest threat to re-election might not be from across the aisle after all.
4. "IS GENIUS IMMORTAL?" | MAY 3| Staff writer Chris Faraone emerged from the lair of futurist and "modern-day Edison" Ray Kurzweil with an arsenal of info on immortal life, the universe, and everything singularity-related.
5. "THE QUEST FOR THE ULTIMATE FEMALE ORGASM" | MARCH 22| Yes, we know — you're shocked, shocked, that this was one of our most-read stories this year. Staff writer Deirdre Fulton probed modern science's quest to find the clitoris build a better female orgasm.
6. "GAY TEA PARTY WITCH SEX: THREE TALES OF EROTIC POLITICAL FICTION" | OCTOBER 29| For our Halloween/election-issue spectacular, we gave you a few toe-curling yarns starring our favorite pols and pundits. And you totally clicked on it.
7. "PARAPHERNALIA PARANOIA: ALLSTON HEAD SHOPS SHUT DOWN" | JULY 2| Score another one for The Man. Valerie Vande Panne reported on police raids on Wildside Gallery, the Joint, and Green Side Up Gallery.
8. "KEN MILLER JUST CAN'T WIN" | MARCH 3| David Scharfenberg examined the kerfuffle stirred up by Brown University biology professor Kenneth R. Miller, "the nation's most important Darwinist."
9. "TROUBLED OVER BRIDGEWATER" | SEPTEMBER 13| What lies behind the razor wire at the Old Colony Correctional Center? Suicide, overcrowding, and brutality — and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Chris Faraone brought us this chilling investigative piece on the Bridgewater prison.
10. "RAPPER SAM ADAMS NOW ON TAP" | MARCH 12| Many Boston acts got big this year, but perhaps none blew up more virally than Cambridge rapper Sam Adams. (And the same goes for our dispatches on his meteoric rise to fame.)
