2006 Year

Fashion is an industry built on planned obsolescence, which means that much of what was breathlessly touted in 2006 will be forgotten in 2007. There will be no need to fret about leggings, wide belts, sweater coats and the various expensive handbags -- the Chloe Edith, Chanel's Coco Cabas -- that once seemed so essential. The industry will be on to something else.

When the irreverent music blog Idolator reveals the results of its inaugural critics poll on Friday (www.idolator.com), it will be watched in the music/media world with more than passing interest. Not only does the survey compile more than 500 critics' opinions on the best recordings of 2006, but it also endeavors to supplant the granddaddy of them all, the Village Voice's whimsically named Pazz & Jop Poll. Not that Pazz & Jop has gone away.

The year 2006 was the deadliest on record for journalists and media workers worldwide, with at least 155 homicides and unexplained deaths, the International Federation of Journalists announced in Brussels. The group, representing more than half a million journalists in more than 100 countries, said in its annual report that Iraq continued to be the most dangerous place to work, with 68 media staffers killed, bringing the total since the war began in March 2003 to 170.

Investment research firm Morningstar Inc. on Wednesday picked its 2006 "managers of the year" in mutual funds, and gave a nod in the fixed-income category to Jeffrey Gundlach of Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc. Gundlach, who oversees the $540-million TCW Total Return Bond fund, has produced returns "that far outpace his typical intermediate-term bond peer while taking on less interest-rate risk and enduring less volatility than the category's typical offering," Chicago-based Morningstar said.

It was only about a year ago that "Brokeback Mountain" was making grown men weep. Eric Bana's hero in "Munich" was conflicted and tormented about killing Arab terrorists. Johnny Cash battled only his inner demons in "Walk the Line." And "Good Night, and Good Luck" had men grappling with ideas instead of each other. Oh, yes, and Truman Capote was the hero of a movie.

The arbiter of Australian English, the Macquarie Dictionary, has declared "muffin top" the word of the year for 2006 -- even though it's two words -- choosing it over "affluenza." "Muffin top" refers to the fold of fat around the midriff that spills over the top of tight-fitting pants or skirts on overweight people. The usage has spread across the globe. The also-ran word describes dissatisfaction with consumerism.

FOR more than 30 years, Susan Tanzman, owner of Martin's Travel and Tours Inc. in Los Angeles, has been a passionate advocate for consumers and travel agents alike. She helped develop California's tough 1996 Seller of Travel law, which requires travel companies to register with the attorney general and prove they have consumer protection plans.

ZOLTAN E. PALI'S architectural firm will be credited as executive architects when the Roman-inspired Getty Villa in Malibu reopens as a museum later this month. But the historic preservation work on this elaborate showcase of European finery involves a design sensibility far different than the unadorned, functional lines of SPF:a's award-winning projects.

IT'S an idea hatched just in time for Southern California's loft craze: the Eggling, a tiny indoor planter for design-savvy, yard-deprived green thumbs limited to gardening on windowsills and countertops. Crack open the top of the sleek 2 1/8 -inch-tall ceramic shell, and you'll find a petite place for herbs or flowers to take root. Seeds and peat mix are already inside the egg; an extra seed packet and a terra cotta tray are included in the box.