The Good and the Bad of 2006

By Anita Hamilton

2006 was a good year for ...

BRATZ With their spunky attitude and streetwise style, the cat-eyed dolls had their best year ever, tallying $2.5 billion-plus in sales and relegating Barbie to the uncool girls' table

ARGENTINE WINE Don't cry for Argentina. The popularity of its wine is soaring. Varieties like Malbec (grown in the Mendoza region) are winning over U.S. oenophiles with their bold flavors

DISNEY Smile, Mickey. The High School Musical album got to No. 1, Hannah Montana became tweens' top TV show, and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel triumphed at cinemas

TINY CARS Sales of fuel-efficient models like the Honda Fit, Toyota Yaris and Nissan Versa rose more than 40% over '05, in step (for a while) with gas prices

CELL PHONES Turns out they don't cause cancer after all, according to a new Danish study

MOVIE PENGUINS March of the Penguins won an Oscar, and Mumble, the star of the huge hit Happy Feet, won our hearts

2006 was a bad year for ...

CELEB MARRIAGES Jessica and Nick, Whitney and Bobby, Reese and Ryan, Pam and Kid Rock ... Thanks for the memories

CHECKED LUGGAGE Bans on carrying liquids led flyers to check--and airlines to lose--more bags than ever. Nearly twice as many bags were lost in October 2006 as in October 2002

MAILBOXES Like phone booths before them, public mailboxes are on their way out. With fewer people mailing letters and bills, 10% of the boxes were removed because of lack of use

FRESH PRODUCE Another order of onion rings, please. E. coli outbreaks sickened hundreds of Americans who ate spinach, lettuce and tomatoes contaminated by the bacteria

HURRICANE WATCHERS Exhausted after a busy '05, storm chasers got to rest up in a season that saw no Atlantic hurricanes hitting the U.S. But 2007 is expected to be another record setter

TRANS FATS Shunned by Wendy's in June, the bad fat is also on its way out at Denny's, Loews and New York City eateries