2008 Year

The movie release schedule for next year remains tentative and most of the films are unfinished. So picking the box-office hits of 2008, on a month-by-month basis, is more guesswork at this stage than projection, but here goes. January: Fox's "27 Dresses" could be another hit comedy from the screenwriter of "The Devil Wears Prada," and Sylvester Stallone, who resuscitated the "Rocky" franchise with "Rocky Balboa," might do it again with "Rambo," from Lionsgate.

U.S. motorists are on pace to spend $491 billion for gasoline this year, the most ever. Fuel prices have been high this year because of expensive oil and increased exports of gasoline and diesel to other countries. Gasoline prices may decline for a few weeks after the switch to winter blends, which are less costly to produce than summer blends. But gas price woes won't go away, experts said. "The 30 days between now and mid-October will be the most hospitable days in the country for dropping prices," said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service.

Although much has been made about how colleges and universities in California are unprepared for a "tidal wave" of students moving through the school system, institutions in other states could be even more swamped by the children of baby boomers. Forecasters expect this "baby boom echo" to peak by 2008, with high school graduating classes hitting 3.2 million. That's an even higher than the boomer's peak of 3.1 million in 1977. Graduating classes dropped to 2.5 million in the early 1990s.

"Onward: How Starbucks fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul" picks up where author-Chief Executive Howard Schultz's previous book, "Pour Your Heart Into It," left off. The latter is the story of the coffee chain that Schultz built from the early 1980s. "Onward" is the story of how Starbucks faced the demolition ball until Schultz returned as CEO in 2008, eight years after he had stepped down. It is a tale of derring-do, traversing the globe and crowded with a cast of exceptional people.

Putting together this list, I pinged friends to ask what albums I absolutely should not have missed this year. Sixty replies quickly poured in. Only one release -- the big rock mountain "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds -- was mentioned twice. Some picks were already in my best-of pile; many haunted my get-to-it list. Others I hadn't heard, or even realized existed. The fragmentation of pop is getting to be an old story.

The 2008 U.S. Open was awarded to the South Course at Torrey Pines in La Jolla by the U.S. Golf Assn. on Saturday, pending approval of the San Diego City Council. It would be the second public course to play host to the tournament. The Black Course at the Bethpage State Park in New York, where this year's U.S. Open was played, is the only public layout to have been the site of the championship. Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades was thought to be the other finalist.

OUTDOOR HOCKEY You don't have to wait long for this one. On New Year's Day, NBC is betting that ice hockey can compete with Michigan versus Florida in the Capital One Bowl as it televises a game between the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins from Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Bills. More than 73,000 fans are expected to attend the first NHL game played outdoors in the United States. This is not expected to catch on in Southern California.

This year, the Web grew further into its well-chosen name. The boundless net of sticky electronic threads is now ensnaring just about every other form of media. (When NBC chief Ben Silverman joked "Help me!" to Jay Leno, I thought of the line from 1958's classic "The Fly" -- the scene's on YouTube if you need a refresher.

The 2008 Democratic National Convention will be held Aug. 25-28, 2008, after the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean announced. The decision on where the Democrats will hold the convention is expected sometime after the 2006 midterm elections, officials said.

The recession brought the U.S. market for initial public stock offerings to a halt in the fourth quarter, closing the worst year for IPOs since 1977, the National Venture Capital Assn. said Monday. No companies backed by venture capitalists went public in the fourth quarter, and only six staged IPOs in all of 2008, the association said. Emerging businesses also had trouble merging with larger companies, with just 37 venture-backed firms selling themselves in the fourth quarter.

Toyota has recalled more than 1 million of its Corolla and Matrix cars, just days after U.S. auto safety regulators stepped up a probe into the risk that the vehicles could stall because of defective electronic engine control units. The recall also affects 200,000 Pontiac Vibe models built by a joint venture between General Motors Co. and Toyota. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. said Thursday that the recall of the 2005 to 2008 model year vehicles sold in North America was to address a problem with an electronic component called an engine control module that might have been improperly manufactured.

In 2008, the median household income in the United States plummeted 3.6% from the year before, and the percentage of people living in poverty soared to an 11-year high, recently released U.S. Census data reveal. Economists say the bleak news -- which they blame on the slew of layoffs that have accompanied the economic downturn -- is significant, if not entirely surprising. "The current recession has eliminated the gains that have been made in the last 10 years or so," said Lee Ohanian, an economics professor at UCLA.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is taking a pay cut and the league staff has been trimmed by 15% because of the reeling economy, the NFL confirmed Wednesday. The league said that its staff cut, announced more than two months ago, has resulted in a reduction of 169 jobs through buyouts, layoffs and other staff reductions. That amounts to just over 15% of the league's work force of 1,100.

The recession brought the U.S. market for initial public stock offerings to a halt in the fourth quarter, closing the worst year for IPOs since 1977, the National Venture Capital Assn. said Monday. No companies backed by venture capitalists went public in the fourth quarter, and only six staged IPOs in all of 2008, the association said. Emerging businesses also had trouble merging with larger companies, with just 37 venture-backed firms selling themselves in the fourth quarter.

What a difference a year makes. With the virtual collapse of credit markets and the drying up of money from private equity firms, 2008 turned out to be a very slow year for mergers and acquisitions. Globally, there were 37,445 deals, totaling $3.3 trillion, down 29% from record volume in 2007, according to Dealogic, a data research firm in New York. In the United States the value of deals dropped 29% to $1.1 trillion.

Last Sunday, New Yorkers gathered in Times Square for the second annual Good Riddance Day, feeding reminders of the things they least liked about 2008 into an industrial-sized paper shredder. There's something so wonderfully archetypal about this ritual -- the only reason James George Frazer didn't mention it in "The Golden Bough" was that the ancient Celts didn't have giant shredders -- that we can't help but hope the tradition catches on.

It was a strange, stuttering year for television. It's no knock against collective bargaining to point out the writers strike made a constitutionally skittish medium even more erratic than usual. On the broadcast networks, shows came and went and came and went confusingly through the winter, spring and summer; fall, when it arrived, was underwhelming. (Premium and basic cable were somewhat inured to those shocks, but it was a slow year there, too.

Many people think about personal finance as an unemotional, detached pursuit, but it's really nothing of the sort. Money is a means to an end, and what you do with it is all about feelings and values. My wish for 2008 is that the luxuries we choose will fill our lives with warmth and that we will get the precious things that we yearn and work for. With that in mind, here are my New Year's resolutions: -- I won't spend out of habit . . .

From electronically enhanced vocals to a "peanut butter pudding surprise," The Times' pop music staff reflects on the genre's 25 most memorable moments of 2008. Most influential new sound If there was any one definitive tone of 2008, it was not a genre, instrument or voice. It was a $400 pitch-correction plug-in from software company Antares that lends a robotic tang to vocals. Auto-Tune burst into mainstream consciousness courtesy of T-Pain; now, you can't get through two songs on Power 106 without it. Auto-Tune makes a voice sound expansive, uncanny and lonely.

1. In February, what entertainment labor union ended its 100-day strike? A. Screen Actors Guild B. Writers Guild of America C. Directors Guild of America D. International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees -- 2. Which of these did NOT hit a record in 2008? A. Price of oil B. Home foreclosures C. U.S. unemployment rate D. Credit card debt -- 3. When its last competitor dropped out early in the year, Blu-ray emerged as the winner in the competition for a new high-definition DVD format.