The Year in Pictures

The New York Times Review section, normally covering books and news of the week, has compiled a slide show of memorable photographs from the news of 2009. In addition, articles mark:

• The Obama Inaugural: He swept onto the world stage with his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and his voice ringing with yes-we-can hope and promise.
  
• Hitting Bottom: If the Great Recession were ae editorial cartoon, February and March are the months we staggered around with anvil-flattened heads, little birds tweeting above our X-ed out eyes.
  
• Troubled Lands: The fighting in Afghanistan spilled into Taliban controlled Pashtun tribal areas within the borders of Pakistan, and the violence drove an estimated 1.9 million people from their homes.
  
• Health Care: From progessive policy wonks, to corporate backed faux populists, excited partisans lobbed inflamatory & contradictory charges at a moving target, igniting a furious political firestorm.
  
• A Lion Is Lost: After a Senate career longer than his presidential brother's life, forty years after Chappaquiddick and 15 months after doctors found a malignant tumor in his brain, Edward M. Kennedy died.
  

Photo Collage: The Year in Pictures from the NY Times.

The Economy in Cartoons

Although it doesn't seem at all funny while happening, "Tragedy plus time equals comedy.”

Perhaps laughter is the best medicine for economic ill health.

That's the perspective offered by New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff, who has compiled the new book “On the Money: The Economy in Cartoons 1925-2009.”

Audio: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now. Host: Robin Young. See more selected cartoons from the book.