2007 Year

As the old year fades, it's time to sift through the mountainous kilobytes of pop-culture detritus that has piled up on our computers and in our brains over the last 12 months. Let's figure out what worked, what didn't and what's best forgotten in the new year. Today we examine the best and worst comebacks of 2007: Which of our cultural icons were we glad to see back in the Google search zeitgeist, and which of them do we think were best left . . . unsearched.

The world's investors rethought the concept of risk in 2007, and the result was a vast divergence in performance among financial markets. Suddenly, to some people Indian stocks looked safer than the U.S. housing market, long considered a pillar of security. Speculators shied away from American junk bonds and small-company stocks but remained ravenous for commodities such as wheat, gold and cotton.

Last year was the year Bill Gross said his stamps had outperformed his bond fund, Stanley Ho beat Damien Hirst in bidding for a truffle and Amazon.com Inc. paid 39 times estimates for a book of J.K. Rowling stories. Among the mishaps in 2007, Marie Antoinette's pearls and a Van Gogh painting didn't sell. Money poured into the sales rooms in New York, London and Hong Kong, swelling auction sales by 46% at Sotheby's, to $5.33 billion; Christie's International totals aren't in yet.

U.S. shoppers faced moderate price rises in December, but that capped a year in which prices soared at the sharpest rate in 17 years, pressuring households also dealing with a steep housing downturn and tighter credit. The Labor Department said Wednesday that its consumer price index rose 0.3% in December, less than half November's 0.8% jump. But for all of last year, the key measure of inflation rose 4.1%, well ahead of the previous year's 2.5% gain and the steepest since 1990.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach remained the nation's busiest seaport complex for cargo containers in 2007, even though they saw a decline in traffic for the first time in at least 20 years. But in a shift, exports grew as the dollar's declining value helped U.S. companies ride into new markets and to record-breaking sales. One of those benefiting was Los Angeles Grain Terminal in Long Beach, a 49-year-old company that packs cargo containers with grain from the Midwest for sale in Asia.

Venture capital investments in U.S. start-ups climbed to a six-year high of $29.4 billion in 2007, raising hope that ample money will be available to back promising new ideas even if the staggering economy falls into a recession. The amount of venture capital spread across 3,813 deals represents the industry's busiest year since $40.6 billion went into nearly 4,500 U.S.

SUCCESS may come in threes ... but there also can be too much of a good thing. So which will it be in the summer stampede of 2007, when three highly anticipated sequels -- each one the third in its respective franchise -- debut in the span of just three May weeks? The head-to-head-to-head clash of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Shrek the Third" and "Spider-Man 3" is unprecedented in box office history and could reshape admissions records for the summer.

WHO says there are too many sequels? Certainly not the movie studios. In addition to new installments in the "Spider-Man," "Shrek" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, at least four other movie franchises will offer up third episodes this summer. The highest-profile entries are George Clooney in "Ocean's 13" (June 8), Matt Damon in "The Bourne Ultimatum" (Aug. 3) and "Rush Hour 3" (Aug. 10), the first starring role for Chris Tucker since the last "Rush Hour" movie came out six years ago.

Alien vs. Predator 2 Round one went to the Predators. Who will win this rematch in a small Colorado town? With Reiko Aylesworth, Steven Pasquale, John Ortiz, Shareeka Epps, Johnny Lewis and Sam Trammell. Written by Shane Salerno. Directed by the Brothers Strause. \o720th Century Fox, Dec.