Methods: Making Lists

Hey trend-thusiasts, do you know what's important to you? More importantly, do you know in what order those things are important to you? If you said no, or you're still not sure perhaps you should attempt to use the trendliest way of ranking things - making a list.

Behold, The Original Copy of Ten Things You Shouldn't Do!

Ever since Moses led the Jews out of Egypt on the heels of making a list of "The Ten Things that Would Totally Suck if they Befell the Egyptians for not Letting My People Go" (more recently known as "The Ten Plagues" thanks to that movie with Charlton Heston) making lists has been totally trendly. While Moses was the original list-maker he was soon trumped by the man upstairs who made a list of "Ten Things People Shouldn't Do" (more recently known as "The Ten Commandments" thanks to that movie with Charlton Heston). This list was so rife with important items such as #1: Thou Shalt Not Kill and #11: Don't Eat Shellfish that they became

so much engrained into the collective conscious of mankind that today they are referred to as "common sense" thanks to the handy pamphlet by Thomas"Charlton" Paine.

Bea Arthur #2 On The Hottest 100 of 1976...Can you guess who was #1?
(Hint: It rhymes with Harrah Hawcett)

Lists have gone through a complete evolution since the days of yore and while most people ignore that formerly trendly "common sense" list, the advent of post-its and magazines has given new life to the process of making lists. Lists not only help by numerically telling people what to do and how to do said things, but they also serve to help by telling people the order of betterness or importance where most things in the world stand. Without lists we'd never be able to know who the "Hottest 100 Women" in the world are in any given year or who the "Best College Football Team" is on a week-by-week basis. Why without lists most people would resemble a lost puppy shopping for groceries in the woods.

Ol' St. Nick: The Most Scrupulous Listmaker of Them All

Perhaps the most successful utilizer of the eternal list craze is Santa Claus, who makes two lists each year, one consisting of those who are naughty and one consisting of those who are less naughty. Not only does he bother to make this list, but he checks it twice just to be sure it's
accurate, which is more than can be said for those who compile Spin Magazine's annual "Top 40 Albums of the Year" list.