Fire

On Thanksgiving, I returned to the house. It looked like an oversized dollhouse; you could see the remains of the second floor from outside.

The jury’s decision stunned the sleepy town. As one Nashville denizen told IM, “Good luck finding someone who admits to knowing those two now. The entire community thinks they’re guilty as sin.”

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:

As St. Patty’s day came and went last week, we couldn’t help but think about Patty’s of the past at The Aristocrat Pub & Restaurant (5212 N. College Ave., 317-283-7388). Since last August’s electrical fire that resulted in more than $1.5 million in damages, we have been watching the business’s Facebook page for mention of a re-open date.

Even now, on off-duty drives through downtown, some of them will seek another route, any other route, to avoid the shadow of the nine-story building at Meridian and Vermont streets. For most of the city, the Indianapolis Athletic Club is an elegant landmark from an earlier time, an old-boy haven where Democratic Party elites once hosted parties and presidents. But for firefighters who crouched in its halls 20 years ago, it is still an imposing reminder of one of the Indianapolis Fire Department’s darkest nights.