The aughts: best of.

Besy new Dylan tunes of the 2000s: Workingman's blues and Mississippi.

Best concept/story album: The Sunset Tree, by the Mountain Goats. (Close second: Aimee Mann's The Forgotten Arm. Separation Sunday falls to third because of the band's descent into self-parody.)

Best new label: Soundway. Honorable mention: Numero.

Decade-defining career arc: Wilco. From stratospheric to afterthought. (also: Pixies? Also, Matt Drudge.)

SNL host of the decade: Justin Timberlake. Peyton Manning is a close second.

Footballer of the decade: Ronaldinho Gaucho? (I'm biased, of course, but here's my logic: it has to be someone who has achieved at the club/league, club/continent, and national side/world cup level. Zidane is unfortunately a decent vote, but he disqualifies himself by getting sent off in the final match of 2006. Plus, his crowning achievement was in 1998. The 2006 Italian team may be the least talented team ever to win a World Cup, so they have no one in the running. Kaka might be another vote, but his role in the 2002 title was minimal. And if you put him in there, well, why give someone like Didier Drogba the shaft?)

Quarterback of the decade: Peyton again. Brady won more rings, but we're talking individual accomplishments.

Baller of the decade: Kobe. Unfortunately.

Food of the decade: Sushi. Because you can get it in landlocked states, and in supermarkets. Not good things, necessarily, but unlikely, 10 years ago, to think that supermarkets in Indiana would sell sushi.

Beer of the decade: Unibroue's La Fin du Monde, followed closely by Dogfishhead's 90 Minute IPA.

Album I just don't get from this decade: SMiLE by Brian Wilson.

1980s movie of the decade: Robocop as a new critique of Haliburton. Dick Jones = Dick Cheney.