Opinion 
We asked the Times Opinion staff to share with us what's permanently etched in our minds from this year. From the things our columnists really loved to the habits we'll stick with; Culture that was sophisticated, normal, or just made us laugh; From things that made news this year to what was new just for us this year – we'll take that with us into 2024.
Animation by Talia Cotton; Illustrations by Vinnie Neuberg
Things our columnists really loved. Things our columnists really loved
Really loved it
I loved the Indigo Girls song “More okay” since the moment I first heard it. I thought it couldn't be improved. But Brandi and Catherine Carlile's cover turns an anthem into a kind of dirge, and it feels so true to our national moment.
David French, columnist
Emily Wilson became the first woman to translate Homer's The Odyssey into English in 2017, and now she's given it to us “The Iliad” an exciting new perspective on the war between Trojans and Greeks, on the “swift-footed Achilles”, the “warmongering” Athena and Hector with “his shining helmet”. In the age of TikTok, pixels and apps, Wilson has followed Homer's dictate to “tell the ancient story for our modern times.”
Maureen Dowd, columnist
We are downsizing our apartment from a large one to a smaller one, and it turns out that giving things away is really difficult. But on mine Buy Nothing group.I will post, say, a backpack and it will be taken immediately. I love having the opportunity to give it to a person who will actually use it and appreciate it and have that person-to-person connection. I would like to take this energy of giving and sharing – and perhaps also consuming less – with me into 2024.
Lydia Polgreen, columnist
Two beautiful, bittersweet Broadway musicals about aging and growing up, “Kimberly Akimbo” And “We roll on happily.” Both completely original reinterpretations of previous productions.
Two beautiful, bittersweet Broadway musicals about aging and growing up, “Kimberly Akimbo” And “We roll on happily.” Both completely original reinterpretations of previous productions.
Pamela Paul, columnist
“Three Sacks Full: A Sheep Detective Story” in which a flock of sheep solves the murder of their beloved shepherd. It may sound absurd, but our online book discussion has traced themes of anomie, social solidarity and care in this strange little delightful book. I still think of sheep jumping off cliffs to become “cloud sheep” as a metaphor for secular religion. A tonic for my political despair.
Tressie McMillan Cottom, columnist
My wife and I have complicated lives, so I cook a lot for one of them. It was pretty boring until I started using some oil and spices – and so on Air fryer. Now I prefer my 10 minute meals to go.
Paul Krugman, columnist
Attitude My phone screen switches to black and white made real life much more vivid.
Meher Ahmad, editor and aspiring former screen junkie
When I started working at The Times in February, I was surprised to find subway service near our Washington bureau good pizza. I usually eat mine with vegetables and a sprinkle of parmesan on top. I challenge anyone to find a better lunch in DC for $7.
Efim Shapiro, sound engineer
letter loop, which lets you create a collaborative newsletter that's more meditative than a group chat and more intimate than a Substack. It's my favorite way to stay in touch with my high school friends who are now scattered all over the world.
Kristin Lin, audio production coordinator
Buy almost no clothes in 2023.
Lauren Kelley, editor who wore the same black pants to work a million times this year and it was fine
Bakeries and restaurants sell their leftover food through the Too good to take away App for a third of the cost. Part of the fun is the surprise: you get whatever is left over that day. I once scored a chocolate babka from Breads Bakery for $4.99.
Liriel Higa, audience leader, who will walk five miles for a culinary offering
I saw “Y Tu Mamá También” in August. The next day I made one “Fun” bucket list.
I saw “Y Tu Mamá También” in August. The next day,
I made one “Fun” bucket list.
Tenzin D. Tsagong, editorial assistant
The “dead beetle” – a funny name for a killer ab workout that my physical therapist prescribed for me.
The “dead beetle” – A funny one
Name for a murderer
Abdominal training that my physiotherapist prescribed to me.
Katie O'Brien, editor with a bad back
Noor Nagas “Wash, pray” is a book I wish had existed when I was growing up. This novel in verse takes you into the turbulent interior of a young Muslim woman navigating her faith and identity in the midst of a risky love affair. It's breathtaking.
Romaissaa Benzizoune, editorial staff member
I adore Sophie Calleis funny humor. On the 50th anniversary of Picasso's death, she took over his museum in Paris, removing almost all but one Picasso from the galleries and filling the space with her own artwork and belongings. Best exhibition of the year.
Jackie Bates, cinematographer
The poignant confrontation in the film “Past Life” how to live with the past – both the choices you have made and those that have been made
for you – left me sobbing in my seat.
Gus Wezerek, graphics editor
The Pecan Trees by Charles Gaines at the Hauser & Wirth gallery in New York, systematically layered and deconstructed into blocks of color, made me think about how people love to fetishize and memorialize the nature we allow to disappear.
Carmel McCoubrey, editor
The production of the Vienna State Opera “Salome” spoke of the enduring power of megalomania and greed to destroy the family and even the state. The biblical epic became an indictment of our own time and 21st century thinking.
Parker Richards, editor
Henry Taylor's “The Dress, I'm Not” at the Whitney Museum. The awkward hands, the look that says everything it can without hurting the older woman's feelings: such a tender, tangible reminder of the age when you become your own person, but are still committed. I was transported immediately.
Ariel Kaminer, editor
“Anatomy of one Falling”: A captivating cinematic portrayal of women as artists, artists as parents, relationships as crime scenes, and autofiction as evidence.
Mary Marge Locker, editor
Janet Malcolm's memoirs “Stills: On Photography and Memory.” Warm and a little sad.
Janet Malcolm's memoirs “Stills: About Photography
and memory.” Warm and
a bit sad.
Katherine Miller, author and editor
At the MoMA retrospective “Ed Ruscha/Now then“,” I indulged in clever pieces about American consumerism, then confronted the exhibition's most enduring work: gift shop goods. Oh, the compromises we make to be remembered!
Anna Marks, editor
OK, maybe there is a little
Leave Funny on the Internet OK, maybe there is a little bit of that
Funny leftists on the internet
Tom Fell's TikToks mock the emptiness and alienation of “grind culture” influencers
so perfect.
Tom Fell's TikToks mock the emptiness and alienation of “Grind Culture” influencers so perfectly.
Jessica Grose, writer who also wants to throw her calendar into the sea. Writer who also wants to throw her calendar into the sea
into the sea
These days you have to find laughs where you can – even if you have to reach back to 2022 to do it “Would it kill you to laugh?”
Adam Sternbergh, editor and new streamer
A woman asks her husband to go shopping and buy a carton of milk, and if there are avocados, he should buy six. He comes back with six cartons of milk and says, “There were avocados.” In 2023, the clueless husband the milk meme has been replaced by clueless ChatGPT. We wanted and needed the AI to be dumber than us.
Peter Coy, writer
In her series “House rules“,” The folks at YouTube channel No Rolls Barred are hilariously reinventing everyday board games (think Monopoly, but communist).
Madi Winfield, Audience Editorial Assistant
When we feel like we're living in a distorted reality is the brilliant social commentary of @ryan_ken_actswhich expertly dismantles political and media duplicity, is a much-needed reminder that great satire has the power to ground us.
Travis Mannon, video journalist
We can't escape the news either
The photo I will remember forever is Donald Trump's bathroom at Mar-a-Lago, packed with important federal documents. Trump is accused of violating the Espionage Act for misusing defense secrets, which is terrible. But it's the toilet image that goes down in history.
Gail Collins, columnist
From Elizabeth Kolbert's New Yorker essay “How plastic is poisoning us“,” I learned that thanks to the ubiquity of plastic, you would have to use a cotton bag 7,100 times for it to have a lower environmental impact than a plastic bag. Depressing and motivating.
Jessie Wender, photo editor with an extensive bag collection
A Speech by UAW President Shawn Fain: Shortly before the autoworkers' strike, he brandished his grandmother's Bible on a YouTube livestream and asked, “Do you have faith?” With Christianity in decline in America and long associated with conservatism, Fain flips the script and connects his faith with the labor movement.
Rollin Hu, researcher
Since moving to New York City, I haven't been as enthusiastic about fruits and vegetables. The “Odd Lots” podcast episode. “This is how New York City gets its products“,” The book, which traces the region's “cold chain” and delves into the history of Hunts Point Produce Market, gave me a new understanding – and respect – for my corner market's spotted bananas.
Alison Bruzek, audio producer
How do you care for someone you love who doesn't always recognize you? The documentation “The Eternal Memory” captures the raw, pure moments of love between a couple, one of whom suffers from Alzheimer's. It is anything but a classic love story.
Adam Ellick, CEO of Opinion Video
“The retrievals” (published by Serial Productions, part of The Times) is a gripping story of women who underwent in vitro fertilization without painkillers because a nurse stole them for her own use. The podcast challenges your expectations about whose pain counts at almost every turn.
Eliza Barclay, editor
“The work is done; We can go home now.” With these words after winning his first NBA championship, the Denver Nuggets center and two-time MVP Nikola Jokic also became a 1.80 meter tall figurehead for his radical rejection of work. Even millionaire athletes sometimes want to log out and go home early. In 2023 we could all relate.
Neel Patel, editor
This photo The number of premature babies who had to be removed from their incubators in a hospital in Gaza felt to me like a turning point in defining the most vulnerable among us in the Israel-Gaza war and the resources that needed to be saved , they were shaken and moved out of reach.
Krista Mahr, international editor
In “Light and Faith: Life Sketches from the Vietnam War” When I made a documentary about Ho Chi Minh's use of artists with the North Vietnamese Army, I was struck by how eager the soldiers were to have their likenesses made before battle in the hopes of surviving in a way that would was previously reserved primarily for the rich.
Binyamin Appelbaum, member of the editorial team
“You hurt my feelings,” a witty little gem about the neurosis of the creative class.
Christopher Orr, editor, married to a writer
Lana Del Rey's album is by turns funny and existential “Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd?” got me in the mood before a party and comforted me on the way to my grandfather's funeral. It's about almost everything that matters. Listening lets the light in.
Adrian Rivera, editorial assistant
As a Detroit Lions Fan, I'm used to disappointment on football Sundays. But this year is fortunately different. Who knew how therapeutic a winning home team could be?
Andrew Trunsky, editorial assistant
When I saw “Spring Awakening” In 2007, I was able to empathize with the teenage characters who are confused about sex and sexuality and dealing with depression. But when I listen to the musical now, as a parent of a teenager, I see it for what it is: a cautionary tale about the dire consequences when adults don't tell children the truth and accept them as they are.
Joanna Pearlstein, editor
While rugged apocalypse survivors Joel and Ellie are the focus of the HBO series “The last of us,” The unexpected, completely perfect love story between prepper Bill (Nick Offerman) and intruder Frank (Murray Bartlett) captured my heart. I re-watch episode 3 regularly so that humanity will survive even when the world ends.
Patrick Healy, editor and Pedro Pascal Stan
The reality TV show “Alone,” in which participants are dropped into the wilderness and filmed trying to survive, I was both impressed by the participants' often overwhelming competence and incredibly grateful for my own meals. What these people wouldn't give for a carrot!
Alicia PQ Wittmeyer, editor who thinks she might be able to last a week and a half alone in the woods (if it were summer)
Hilary Leichter's novel “Terrace story” begins with a couple discovering extra square footage in their cramped apartment—a dream I've had countless times—and offers a devastating meditation on how making space for something means taking it away from someone else.
Lauren Leibowitz, editor
“Beef”: one of the most original pieces of art I've seen in a long time.
“Beef”: one of
the most original
Artworks I have
seen for a long time.
Sara Chodosh, graphics editor, who burst into tears at least ten times while watching one of the final scenes
I raced through it “I'm glad my mother died” by Jennette McCurdy when she was going through a difficult phase in a relationship and found it validating: The book perfectly encapsulates the experience of a difficult mother-daughter dynamic.
Taylor Maggiacomo, graphics editor
While some (many?) found “The Banshees of Inisher“,” about the absurd, nonsensical, unbearable gap between two Irish friends. For me, it was a brutal yet poetic reflection of the irreparable detachment that can turn friends into enemies, and the potential of art as an antidote to despair.
Nana Asfour, editor
Our modern “discourse” can give the impression that people’s relationships with each other are unique or that class struggle is particularly bad. George Eliot “Middle March” The 152-year-old reassures: Politicians have always gone with the wind. People have always gossiped and sabotaged themselves. And dating has always been terrible.
Annie-Rose Strasser, Head of Opinion Audio
“The Golden Bachelor” captured baby boomers' uncomfortable relationship with aging: The actors were determined to show how youthful and lustful they still were, even as they talked (excessively) about their bad knees, bladder problems, and hard-won life lessons.
Michelle Cottle, writer, married to an editor
Luke Combs' cover of “Fast car” reimagines the characters, location and even the car from Tracy Chapman's original. While I didn't like that this cover challenged my idea of the song's meaning, I did appreciate that it found an audience that did was so different from what it was originally written for.
Quoctrung Bui, graphics editor
What if there is no disaster? Octavia Butler “Parable of the Sower” Written in 1993, the novel imagines the United States in 2024. There is no virus, no war, no right-wing coup, and yet society has all but collapsed. Read it as a guide to surviving with your humanity intact.
Jyoti Thottam, editor who shares a birthday with Lauren Oya Olamina
Cheryl Wheeler's strange, delightful song “Unworthy” is like a Nora Ephron essay set to music.
Cornelia Channing, editorial assistant
“Let me tell you something about the very rich. They are different than you and me…” Short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald “The Rich Boy” has so much resonance now that the power of our richest has reached monstrous proportions.
Suein Hwang, editor
Maybe it was David Byrne's cartoonishly large shoulder pads, maybe it was the whole theater spontaneously breaking into dance, but it was the concert film “Stop making sense.” filled me with pure, unbridled joy, almost four decades after its initial release.
Adrienne Shih, editor
In “The emigrants” WG Sebald, a non-Jewish German born in the final days of World War II, reflects on how current and future generations should take responsibility for the crimes of their ancestors.
Jillian Weinberger, senior audio producer
Rose Adams, editorial assistant
Produced by Jessia Ma and Shoshana Schultz.
Photographs by Matthew Murphy/Polk & Co., via Associated Press (“Merrily We Roll Along”); IFC Films (“Y Tu Mamá También”); Karsten Moran for The New York Times (Whitney Museum); U.S. Department of Justice (Mar-a-Lago); Andrew Cooper/Netflix, via Associated Press (“Beef”); Chris Pizzello/Associated Press (Luke Combs)
A special project from
Times opinion