We made it! 2021 was a journey for all of us – even if you stayed in one place, hunkered down, as events of the world swirled around you.
For the final post of the year I dug into the click data for all the TWTW posts and newsletter issues to bring you the annual The Week That Was rundown of the most popular stories of the year.
I started The Week That Was as a distraction, a place to collect the amusing stories that I ran across each week during the course of my work. As the news grew more alarming and dire, I began to look forward to the weekend when I pulled together the best of the week and wrote a sentence or two about each story – it was more than a distraction, it helped level-set me.
In a year that started with an insurrection at the Capitol and ended with 800,000 Americans dead from Covid, doggedly sending out “quirky stories from the week prior” felt defiant. If some of these stories made you smile, we connected, it was worth it.
Here are the most popular stories that you collectively tapped or clicked on during 2021.
- Mayhem ensues after thousands show up for fake Daft Punk concert in Belgium – New York Post
- Mystery tree beast turns out to be croissant – BBC
- Child tweeted from US nuke command Twitter account to send gibberish tweet – American Military News
- We spoke to the New Yorker who found a whole apartment behind her bathroom mirror – Curbed
- Mysterious car parked on same Italian street for 47 years becomes tourist attraction – Mirror
- Wearing socks with sandals is officially cool forever – Vice
- Oakley’s new reusable tactical face mask won’t fog your glasses – Maxim
- A section of Trump border wall in South Texas cost $27 million a mile. It’s being foiled by $5 ladders – Texas Monthly
- ‘Solved’: the mystery of the ‘slut’ scrawled on The Grapes of Wrath manuscript – The Guardian
- Nearly 100 guests forced to leave Florida hotel after being told it was sold – Fox 35 Orlando
Have a wonderful New Year. Take stock of what we’ve all been though with a countdown of your own. See you 2022 with fresh eyes, living for the new now.
Thank you for reading!
Leave a comment