Sideswipe for the weekend: The end-of-year picks

Recipe book awfulness. Photo / Supplied

Best of 2011: Like the inevitable seasonal stories about hangover cures (there is none!) there is the plethora of 'Best Of' lists and Year In Review guff. Here are my picks:

Awful Library Book's Best of 2011 is worth a look, as is The Atlantic's The Ten Days That Defined 2011. The BBC featured women who'd made headlines this year in Faces of the year 2011 - the women (one inclusion caused some major miffage). Here's Faces of the year 2011 - the men *NB all are homosapiens. Reuters has a comprehensive selection of 100 photos from around the world in 2011 (Warning: Some pictures are graphic and some have nudity) ... And for something lighter, check out The Most Important GIF's of 2011 (possibly NSFW). Plus The Year In Mostly Annoying Quotes and Catchphrases and a collection of this year's funniest headlines.

TV: If you are quick you can watch a new episode of TVs Absolutely Fabulous, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary. Somehow it has ended up on the interweb after airing overseas. As expected there are plenty of popular culture references - to Twitter and the iPad, and the royal wedding (Bubble enthuses, "Pippa! Swish, swish, swish down the aisle, great big fat ass, no knickers, rear of the year!")

Silliness: Need some life advice? Ask a bro at Brotips; the ultimate combo of cat videos and awesome soundtracks and crime stats by star sign ...

Bad form: Complaining about your Christmas gifts on Twitter.

Badvertising: Crazy Russian Burger King ad.

Movies: I wonder if Peter Jackson is including Leonard Nimoy singing The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins, in his soundtrack for The Hobbit? (Here's The Hobbit trailer if you haven't seen it yet.)

Video: Best news bloopers of 2011.