In keeping with the rest of today’s issue, here’s what Spotify tells me was my top song this year. If true, I stand by it. What’s yours?

Pantone released their color of the year last week, and after years of overly aspirational picks like green (the environment!), pastel-blue-AND-pink (binaries!), and purple (royalty / centrist politics?) they’re continuing their string of missteps with Classic Blue. Yep, just a regular old blue, yaknowwhatimean, who doesn’t like a good old blue! But, Pantone, please. Are you aware that blue is the democratic half of purple, the color you chose in 2018 to embody a super-pretend idea of bipartisanship? Also— CLASSIC blue? The world accepts normativity less now than ever before, and the charge is to dissipate it further, not to assume everybody coheres on an idea of what’s “classic.” But, public, you’re gonna LIKE IT, so this year’s release includes not just a color reveal, but also “a nostalgic song that takes us to a place of comfort and familiarity” (a soundtrack), “a soft, velvety texture to print on” (fabric), “a wellness oriented, elegant and expansive berry melange with subtle citrus notes” (tea) and “a fragrant contemplation of where sky and sea meet” (perfume). Buy ’em up, suckers— after 2020, blue is over.

In a MUCH more decent end-of-year pick, Mirriam-Webster has named the word of the year, “they.” Online searches were apparently up 313% this year after the dictionary added three more definitions to the word in September— and in the real world, everybody’s parents probably uttered a gender-neutral pronoun at least once. That’s in part thanks to a bunch of super visible artists who came out as nonbinary (Amandla Stenberg, Jonathan Van Ness, Asia Kate Dillon…) and the people who started introducing themselves with pronouns attached and adding their pronouns to email signatures. Beyond gender identity and into the realm of sexuality, this was also the year that Schitt’s Creek won awards for its portrayal of queer (and particularly pansexual) characters, and after the Big Mouth guys totally messed up an explanation of bi- and pansexuality, everyone was easily and instantaneously able to correct them. Just a thought: what if Pantone picked a spectrum as the color of the year?

Not to overstate things, but let’s call Food52 the success of the year after selling to the Chernin Group for $83 million. The reason they’ve done so well is their successful blend of food content and thoughtful e-commerce, which bears out in their Five Two line, debuted this year. They’ve been working with their community of cooks to make kitchen items that are maximally useful, and their latest drop is a set of pots and pans that pull double and triple duty. A stockpot is also a strainer. A sauté pan is also a liquid measure. And everything has a big, fat handle and a clear lid. They’re having a sale right now on the full set, FYI, which also puts it in the running for present of the year. Check it out.