While we party in Colombia work feverishly over the holiday break to bring you more exciting blog diversions, we hope you’ll take a moment to revisit some of our favorite essays that appeared on The Open Bar in 2012.

Pauls Toutonghi on the fiction of Naguib Mahfouz.

Suzanne Guillette on love and boxing in Prague.

Tana Wojczuk on Walt Whitman’s newspaper career.

Courtney Maum on writing conference survival.

Michelle Wildgen on Bond food

Adam Braver on Marilyn Monroe and the Cal Neva Lodge.

Justin Nobel on the cafe culture of Brooklyn.

Tania James’s other English.

David Naimon learns about love via Philip Roth.

Kate Schmier on The Jazz Car.