Our Top 12 Stories of 2012
We’re already well into this droll, sporty, and yet downright painful 2013—St. Elmo and soccer and Lance, oh my—and so here, without further ado and based on pageviews, are the top 12 stories of 2012 at IndianapolisMonthly.com as determined by you, our readers:
No. 12 — Bald & Beautiful: Colts Cheearleaders Shave Heads
>> November: Megan Meadors and Crystal Anne lopped off their locks for love of the game—and the team, and the coach, and, well, everyone.
No. 11 — Q&A: Bachelor TV heartthrob Arie Luyendyk Jr. visits IM
>> October: The racecar driver stopped by to dish on his favorite Broad Ripple hotspots, his own reality-show guilty pleasure, and more.
No. 10 — After the Fire
>> February: Two decades ago, an inferno at the Indianapolis Athletic Club claimed the lives of three people, two of them firefighters. The tragedy awakened the city to its neglect of fire safety and reshaped IFD. But the knowledge came at a terrible price.
No. 9 — Q&A: Austin Armacost of The A List: New York
>> May: He’s an Indy native, reality TV star, and all of 24 years old. As a New York–based model, he once infamously dated fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Boys become men, but this one did so on camera, for the world to see. He returned to Indy for Spotlight, a performing-arts showcase and charity event.
No. 8 — Reopening: Aristocrat Pub & Restaurant
>> September: We reported that the 79-year-old neighborhood favorite would reopen in October after a 13-month closure for reconstruction, the result of an electrical fire that destroyed the back of the building and left everything else saturated with smoke.
No. 7 — Starry, Starry Nights
>> Another February piece: The astral glow that hovered over Indianapolis during Super Bowl weekend subsided once visiting celebs left. But their every public move lit up the Twittersphere, with sightings at all of the well-trodden downtown haunts and as far north as Geist, where Madonna was spotted jogging.
No. 6 — The Future of Fine Dining
>> March: We beckoned you to meet the young chefs who were already dressing your plates for success.
No. 5 — Indy’s Top 20 Sports Bars
>> A third story from February: We set out to find the best places to don your team’s jersey, chomp on wings, and scream at the big screen. Go team!
No. 4 — Spotted: Venus Williams Reps IU East; Andrew Luck Hobnobs Downtown
>> July: Venus appeared at a few of Serena’s Wimbledon matches, including the July 7 final on ESPN, in her Indiana University East sweatshirt. She’s taking IU East courses online. Meanwhile, Luck, freshly landed in Indy, frequented the Rathskeller and more Mass Ave spots. (We know also that he lives in 429 on the Park building. Just not here.)
No. 3 — Mad Money
>> Also from July: From an Evansville strip mall, Bernard von NotHaus ran the most successful alternative currency in the country. Then the FBI raided his headquarters, arrested him, and seized eight tons of gold and silver backing the notes. But even as he awaited sentencing, the $65 million question remained: Was it really counterfeiting?
No. 2 — The Lauren Spierer Mystery, Unraveled
>> In June, the IU student had disappeared one year earlier. We presented a timeline of the troubling case.
No. 1 — 10 Best New Restaurants
>> In a year of grand openings, these hot and fresh eateries rose to the top of their class—and tens of thousands of readers took note, making this the most-viewed story of the year.
There you have it, dear readers—and we’re eager to bring you stories that matter throughout 2012, too. We hope it’s good news.
