To put the coming year into perspective — and to understand why so many are eager to flee the last one — peering back over the shoulder at the social, political, cultural, and general malarkey (to borrow a phrase) and wreckage over the 2023 calendar can be an engaging and sobering enterprise.

Here are more of the notable newsworthy distractions, the political curiosities, and the meandering media offerings from the second half of last year. (Here is Part 1 of this calendar retrospective).

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER