2002 Year

Dazed and confused. That's how many California public schools felt by the end of 2002 -- a difficult year despite some promising moments for the state's 6 million schoolchildren. Schools struggled to produce better academic results and obey a bevy of new rules from Washington even as they were forced to consider layoffs and other desperate measures because of the state's gaping budget shortfall.

Ventura County's 2002 was memorable for its battles to save the land and the condors, for the start of a new era in law enforcement and for the end of a 30-year wait for a public university. The year was marked by a fiery crash at the Point Mugu Air Show and the slow burn of a national Hells Angels leader, first convicted of drug sales and then denied entry to the county fair.

And the worst singles of 2002? Where do we begin? The raw truth about pop music is that most of the hit sounds on the radio, regardless of genre, are simply reworkings of a formula. It's the work of industry pros cranking out music aimed at fitting into the commercial radio formats of the day. The so-called "golden ages" of pop (whether we're speaking of hip-hop, rock or country) are when innovative forces take over momentarily and redirect the mainstream into more adventurous paths.

Wall Street closed out 2002 much like it began -- mired in a bear market that currently shows few signs of abating. On the last trading day of the year, investors on Tuesday bid good riddance to a year marked by accounting scandals, a lackluster economy, paltry corporate profits and steep declines in stock prices. "It's been a lousy year," said Todd Leone, head of listed trading at S.G. Cowen in New York. How lousy?

We don't keep too many lists here in the Food section, but there's one that takes shape as the new year approaches, a natural expression of all the work that goes on in our Test Kitchen. It's our annual Best Dishes List. It's nothing terribly official; we're not as formal as movie critics tracking their picks for best picture. As the Times Test Kitchen sets each finished recipe on the counter, as forks come out and lips are smacked, a name might get jotted down, a mental note made.

Eminem was right when he boasted, in the hit single "Without Me," that pop music would have felt empty this year without him. It's a sign of Eminem's dominance of the scene that he holds the first three places on our New Year's Day countdown of the most compelling singles of 2002. In the hits "Without Me," "Cleaning Out My Closet" and "Lose Yourself," the gifted, volatile rapper touches on three of pop's strongest strains.

In 2002, a 62-year-old man in a broken sailboat survived an astonishing four months adrift in the Pacific Ocean, drinking rainwater and roasting seagulls on a jury-rigged grill. Meanwhile, three condor chicks, hatched in the back country of Ventura County and monitored by human experts who left food out for their parents, never made it past 6 months of age. One died from a stomach full of metal scraps and bottle caps.