It's the annual Best Of post, the one post in the year where I get to use the first person singular! Hooray!

From the Starbucks (not really a) bomber in January to the opening of the Daiso in December, it was certainly one heck of a year, wasn't it?

There was BUSH TER DOWN; the Chron's series about police brutality getting upstaged by their misidentification of the cop in question; Kimberly Guilfoyle's new boyfriend, remarriage, pregnancy, and baby; Tom Cruise's visit to Yahoo!; and the wildlife conservation group that made some money off an x-ray of a duck that looked like it had eaten an alien. And I haven't even gotten to the Gavin Newsom and Chris Daly stuff yet! (the lists for those two are after the jump.)

So here's my random list of things I posted about this year. Happy New Year, everyone. (And if you're interested, here's my lists from last year too.)

One serious entry, before we get to the fun ones:
The Two Stories That Upset Me The Most This Year: Hit-and-run driver Ohmeed Popal, and stranded father James Kim. Here's hoping everyone finds peace.

Okay, onto the frivolous:

My favorite Blotter item this year: It's still that guy named Penisimani Schneider, arrested on a DV charge. I subsequently learned that "Penisimani" is "Benjamin" in Samoan.

Favorite Animal Roundup: Oh, it's gotta be that attack squirrel in the park in Mountain View. So good (though we hope the child it attacked is doing okay).

Best Your Commute: That guy on YouTube who was so nonplussed by San Francisco's lack of reaction to his sitting on the ceiling of a BART train kind of cracked me up, I must admit.

My Favorite Swells By The Numbers category: I started Swells By The Numbers just to do the Minority Count, and then I got really into Getty v. Traina -- but now my favorite is the hats, capes, tiaras category. Every time I type it, I think, "Gosh, I hope someone's wearing a tiara this week!" My favorite society gossip moment of the year was that W Magazine piece.

SFist on SFist: There's some sad and some good here -- it's not the same around here without my former co-editor Eve around (though she's certainly done well by her bloggery!), but it's been a lot of fun working with the site's first full-time editor SFist Jon too. And also -- thanks again for sticking by us through all those server problems this summer.

Okay! Are you ready for..... some Gavin and Chris????? Head on over after the jump.

My favorite Photoshopped picture of the year!

Who are we kidding? This whole year (for me as your local political junkie, anyways) was all about mayor Gavin Newsom and District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly: the gifts that keep on giving. We can't wait for Mayoral Race 2007!!!!

Favorite Gavin girlfriend of the year: Well, the polls have spoken -- it's underage Republican cutie Brittanie Mountz by a landslide! We don't care if she never even kissed him. The trips to the mall, underage drinking scandale; the Facebook page -- it was all awesome. Our overall favorite Brittanie moment, though? The short haircut post. Thanks again for forwarding the pictures to us, Drew!

Favorite Gavin moment: Oh, don't get me wrong -- Hairgate was amaaaaaaazing and you know we plan to flog this blue tie thing as long as we humanly can -- but our favorite is still that weird press conference on public transportation that Gavin gave where he rambled about double parking, solar-powered parking meters, and ugly poles on the street. We want a drink of whatever Gavin's having!

Our favorite Gavin Newsom and Chris Daly moment: This one's a close one -- Gavin's sore-loserman post-election statement that "the only person who thought Rob Black could win was Rob Black" almost -- but not quite -- beat out SFist's slash fiction fantasy love affair between Mayor McDreamy and Supervisor McHottyHead. (I can give the award to myself -- it's my Best-Of column! Ha!)

Our favorite Chris Daly moment (non-campaign-related): I had a really good time at Chris Daly's office happy hour back in February. I still love those pictures Eve took of Chris mixing drinks.

Our favorite Chris Daly moment (in the campaign): For me, the defining moment of the District 6 race for the Daly campaign was that YouTube clip his campaign released of him biking through SoMa, to a catchy 30-second Sharky Laguana tune. It was positive, fun, and optimistic -- and motivated other Daly supporters to start posting videos of their own. (And for the record, DiggaSlidwell's video of Chris on the campaign trail wins our best overall video award.)

Worst Chris Daly moment: In the campaign -- I'm torn between when Daly told the Chron he was going to win by 20 points, and when Daly rose to the SFSOS bait and started frothing at the mouth at the LWV debate. Also -- Sarah Daly's speech certainly seems to have caused a stir as well. Non-campaign related: That mustache.

Best Rob Black moment: You know, Rob Black ran a pretty good race, and I hope he'll continue to be in San Francisco politics in the future. That race could have been a lot, lot worse. Black had integrity and principles, and if his message hadn't inadvertently been derailed by the special interest groups, it could have been a really tight contest. Thanks for doing our SFist interview, Rob!

Worst Rob Black moment: That SFSOS human feces flyer was a bad move. As was the paying for volunteers thing. But what really did Rob Black in was releasing that poll showing Black ahead -- it mobilized progressives all over town and pushed Daly (almost) over the 50% top.

and.... What I'm looking forward to in 2007!: Will Chris Daly mellow out in his lame-duck term -- or will he go even more crazy?? Will Ross Mirkarimi start that blog he offhandedly promised us he might? And where's Bevan Dufty going to end up?

And of course I'm backing a Newsom in the 2007 mayoral race.... Joanna Newsom. Vote YS for Joanna!