As is required by a civilized society bent on projecting introspection (aka Will made me write this)...I've rounded up 5 things I found curious and captivating about 2012. I could run down a list of bad crap, but we've had enough of that for now, yes? So, here they are, in order of how they dawned on me:

In a world gone mad...
1. I'm surprised by how few surprising things there were. This probably either means I'm clueless, inured, or too quirky myself to see quirky for quirky. But if you take a look at Epicurious' prognostications on 2012 (delivered at the end of 2011) you'll see homemade dairy and cheesemakers sitting proud on their list of things to watch for this year. So I guess the fact that 'new trends' scooched a little closer to my reality in 2012 tamps down the 'surprising' factor.

Every cloud has a silver lining (btw, what exactly does that mean? Clouds don't actually have any lining at all. They're not hollow.)...
2. Despite a miserable, sad, dreamcrushing world economy, the Specialty Food industry continues to experience unfettered growth. And there's more on the way, because the big bump of specialty food buyers is all sitting in the younger than 34 years old range. Geez. What'll happen when they can finally find jobs?!

Things may not be as they appear...
3. And speaking of those younger than 34 year olds, there have been a lot of predictions about their apparent disassociation from reality and inability to stay focused brought on by their constant association with digital communication devices throughout their lives. But I'm here to say, I have been pleasantly surprised with the overall spectacular-ness of 'these kids'. I have actually experienced something quite different this year, as culture has made tiny baby steps toward moving beyond us old fart founders. For us, we have discovered this age group is well read, well-rounded, personally driven, productive, hard working, flexible, and entirely attached to the job commitments they do make. And since they have been ushered into a working world that doesn't have a plentiful array of big salary entry level jobs, they seem to be more inclined to look for careers they care.

Long as I remember, rain's been coming down...
4. This one comes from my catbird seat at the publishing table. Great content is pouring out of nearly every medium, finally unleashed from kibosh-creativity gatekeepers we used to grow in the media. And yet...all the henny penny media focusses on is the latest damn delivery methods. The discussion about which medium the content is delivered on dominates the conversation instead of wonderment at the quantity of solid content that's showing up in those mediums. Sure, you have to exercise discretion, but between the proliferation of blogs (and some of them are REALLY good) and the biggest year of consumer magazine launches since 2007 and even damn good TV programming (getting in a plug for Game of Thrones, Homeland, a super fun football season, and Downtown Abbey, amongst others) there's just a whole world of great content out there. And as to social media, I'm going out on a limb here with my own theory about why it's both good and valuable; if done well, it is (finally) a Curator for the unwieldy infinity of the world wide web. And that IS content...

Break it down...
5. From molecular cocktails (some featuring cheese...really, I'm pretty sure I had one this summer in Raleigh) to moonshine madness to fermentation fondness, we're extending our lets pull everything apart national psyche to our food. Remember, you are what you eat.

So that's it. Sorry I gasbagged. But that's not surprising, eh?