Writer Adam Gopnik gave up sweets this year to help his waistline. The lack of sugar led him to write about desserts in the Dec. 27 edition of The New Yorker, exploring confections, pastries, spun sugar and the balance of sweet and salty. Do we want to admire our sweets or ignore them?

Even for a country that has long experienced disaster, poverty and loss, 2010 was a traumatic year for Haiti. "Certainly, in Haiti there's a great sense of frustration that things are moving slowly," NPR's Jason Beaubien tells Liane Hansen. "There's very much a rift that … Haiti could fall off the radar." Haitians are not in a position on their own to rebuild the country, he says, and the pace this last year was so slow, that Haiti could be stuck in limbo waiting for international assistance.

The day after Christmas is one of the worst days to call technical support for those new gadgets Santa brought you this year, according to Jeff Tarter, executive director of the Association of Support Professionals. Register your new toy, get the serial number, copy the error messages you receive -- those things can help expedite solving your problem, Tarter tells NPR's Liane Hansen.

As 2010 winds down, many are saying good riddance. Technically it was the first full year since the end of the Great Recession. The economy actually grew, but so slowly many didn't feel the improvement. So, what does 2011 hold?

If the forecasters are right, one phrase we should hear a whole lot less of in 2011 is "double dip recession."

"Never say never, but the risk of a double dip seems to be off the table right now," says David Shulman, a senior economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast.  "We're feeling better now than we were, say, a month ago."

One of the last acts of Congress this week was to pass a bill giving health benefits to the first responders who worked at ground zero after Sept. 11, 2001.

It was half the size of the bill Democrats wanted, but the fact that it passed at all seemed unthinkable just a short time ago.

The bill had lingered for years and looked nearly dead, until comedian Jon Stewart nudged it over the finish line.

Stewart Steps In