I hate end-of-the-year lists.

“I hate those biggest story of the year lists,” he said over pizza last night.

“Yes. Me too,” I said.

There was a pause as we both took another bite out of a slice. “But, what do you think was the biggest story?”

“Hard to say,” I said evasively, knowing that the answer to these questions always reveals more about you than about anything else. “Are we talking worldwide or just education?”

“Ah,” he responded.

“Ah,” I agreed.

“Probably the Arab Spring. But who knows how that will play out. Or maybe, in hindsight, it will turn out to be the protests in Russia.”

“Hmmm. Good point. But what about Occupy?”

“Again. Depends. Maybe it will turn out that Madison, having started it all, will be the biggest story. All the things around the Occupy Movement have obviously changed the political conversation.”

“Is there more pizza?”

“Yes, I’ll go get some.”