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As the stroke of midnight approaches Saturday, odds are you’ll find yourself at a New Year’s party. Over the twinkly chime of champagne flutes, people will swap superlatives, debating the most addictive YouTube clip of the year or the funniest political gaffe. Don’t panic. Our meta-edition of Cocktail Chatter represents (mostly) a highlight reel of Slate’s 2011 highlight reels.

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Five South American presidents and former presidents, including Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, have been recently diagnosed with cancer. Chavez speculated on Wednesday that American agents may be inducing the disease in South American leaders by feeding them or injecting them with an unspecified substance. The State Department rejected Chavez’s insinuation on Thursday. Can you give someone cancer?

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Listen to Episode 2 of Slate’s new podcast, The Afterword:

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On the Friday before Christmas Day, the Department of Justice formally objected to a new South Carolina law requiring voters to produce an approved form of photo ID in order to vote. That move already has drawn cheers from the left and jeers from the right. The DoJ said South Carolina could not show that its new law would not have an adverse impact on racial minorities, who are less likely to have acceptable forms of identification.

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Become a fan of the Political Gabfest on Facebook. We post to the Facebook page throughout the week, so keep the conversation going by joining us there.

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Do use a clean glass. No guzzling from the bottle, either. Drinking at breakfast is a rare pleasure with a noble heritage, and you need to show some decorum. If self-respect is beyond you at the moment in question, then settle for showing some respect for the institution. Treat this as a special occasion and dress to impress—a feat easily accomplished by waking up in or near your tuxedo. At the very least, affix a boutonniere to the lapel of your bathrobe.

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Economic forecasting is a mug’s game. There are simply too many unknowable factors that affect “the economy” for anyone to make accurate predictions. The Fukushima earthquake and nuclear disaster, for instance, had a noticeably negative macroeconomic impact around the world, and nobody knows what lurks inside the hearts of central bankers. Plus, if I did possess the secrets to the future, I’d be making a fortune as a speculator, not telling you about it.

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This week we’ve been sharing our favorite articles of the year on Slate. This is the final installment, our overall top 10 stories of the year. For our full list—including the top 10 articles about sports, politics, tech, and more—check outLongform’s Best of 2011. —The Editors

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It’s fitting that its release comes in the midst of the end-of-year frenzy for rating and ranking and listing, because the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation serves asa quiet reminder of how good it’s possible for movies to be. You don’t always have to sacrifice complexity for suspense, or formal sophistication for visceral power. It’s possible, if rare, to come across a movie that has it all.

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NEVADA, Iowa—In a few minutes, Michele Bachmann’s whale-blue campaign bus will pull up to the Snack Time Family Restaurant in this central Iowa town. It’s running a little late. I use the extra time to buy a copy of the Ames Tribune, the paper that serves the college town next door. On Page One: a picture of Bachmann standing on a chair, surrounded by signs with her name on them, rapt Iowa crowd totally unaware of the banner headline they’re going to appear under: “Wheels coming off?”

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