What a long, strange year it's been...

I love this time of the year: the "dead week" between Christmas and New Year's, when (short of something new and interesting to report) we all look back at the year that was and realize what a bizarre 12 months it's been.

I commend

USA Today

's Laura Bly for doing the best job I've seen so far of pulling it all together in one place. Bly writes, "In a year when yogurt and lip gloss were declared security risks and snakes on planes slithered into the national consciousness, what's left to raise a jaded traveler's eyebrows?"

The answer? Plenty. From a farting passenger forcing an emergency landing to a baby going through a TSA X-ray machine, there were countless weird and wonderful travel stories this year. Have a

look for yourself

—and try not to think about what 2007 has in store for us.