Earlier today, we published a round-up of the most popular Consumerist posts from 2013. That list only represents about .2% of all the stories posted to Consumerist in the last year, meaning thousands of important, funny, interesting, and helpful posts didn’t make the cut. So we each looked back at the year that was to pick the stories that meant the most to us.

Laura Northrup:
Favorite Post: Walmart Now Offers “Naughty” Costumes For Toddler Girls

Why It’s My Favorite: It had everything: cute children, Walmart, a discussion of how the meanings of words shift in contexts and over time, and angry people e-mailing us to call me a pervert. I maintain that the bigger problem with the costume was that it doesn’t look anything like a leopard.

Honorary Mentions:
• Hobby Lobby May Have Overreacted To Theft Of $5 Worth Of Iron-On Letters;
• Sears Admits: People Only Come To Our Stores To Park;
• Nation’s Two Largest Funeral Companies To Merge, Form Bereavement Voltron
• Bertolli Takes Advantage Of Barilla’s PR Problems, Says Their Pasta Is For Everyone

Chris Morran:
Favorite Post: Former Staffers: Bank Of America Rewarded Us For Lying To Homeowners, Losing Paperwork, Denying Modifications

Why It’s My Favorite: In the years following BofA’s ill-advised acquisition of Countrywide Financial, the bank attempted to blame the too-common complaints — lost paperwork, delayed filings, rushed foreclosures, inept customer service — on the bad paperwork it had inherited from Countrywide. But these sworn statements from former BofA employees highlighted the bank’s calculated, systemic attempt to push homeowners toward foreclosure.

BofA has subsequently tried to discredit these employees, but the mud slung by the bank focused on making the former workers look like bad people, rather than attempting to prove that the claims made in the statements are false.

Honorable Mentions:
• After A Dine-And-Dash, Is It Legal For A Restaurant To Take Money From A Waiter’s Tips?;
• How Far Off Were The Predictions Of 1967′s Home Of The Future?;
• 23 Things Debt Collectors Are Not Allowed To Do;
• Proof That Bank Of America’s Twitter Account Is Moderated By Robots Or Morons (Or Moronic Robots)

Mary Beth Quirk
Favorite Post: There Is No Such Thing As An Apple Core

Why It’s My Favorite: Sure, it’s simple, but it was one of those posts that I felt personally attached to because I was physically eating an apple and living through the experience of realizing there really is no core. I also love it when there’s a topic that is so polarizing — without having to involve anyone or any entity other than the person who cannot fathom eating an entire apple. I connected with that apple in its corelessness, and it changed my food-eating habits… I’d like to think it affected other people as well.

Honorable Mentions:
• Slushie Machine Wonders What It Ever Did To Naked Woman Attacking It At Gas Station;
• 15 Explanations For Company Name Mashups You Never Knew You Wanted Explained;
• 11 Company Slogans That Say What We Know To Be The Real Truth;
• 5 Foods That Have More Sugar Than A Krispy Kreme Doughnut

Meg Marco:
Favorite Post: We Are In The Era Of “Nightmare” Bacteria And Nobody Seems To Care

Why It’s My Favorite: When the CDC says the word “nightmare,” it’s time to pay attention. I think that if people stopped to take a closer look at the way we, as a society, and, hell, as an organism, are stupidly wasting antibiotics, they’d rethink their behaviors. For the most part, people who are alive today don’t remember what medicine was like before the widespread availability of antibiotics. If we don’t pay attention to how we are using them now, we may not have to remember.

Honorable Mentions:
• With Bacon And M&Ms, Resort Makes Couple Feel At Home;
• Maybe The Most Depressing Amazon Listing Ever (Unless You’re In The Market For A Crack Pipe)

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