Today and throughout the week, Y&H will be giving you a glimpse back at 2009, via the blog posts that most captured your attention. First up: the granddaddy of all aggregations, the 10 most-read items of  the year.

The list is after the jump.

1. Budweiser Launches Select 55, Light Beer Arms Race Gets Absurd. This page, posted by the Beerspotter in August, is the Michael Jordan of Young & Hungry. It performs at peak levels week after week. The page is also the holy temple of search engine optimization; future Web gurus will study its signs and contours to learn out how it has performed so well on Google.
2. Vintage TV Beer Commercials. I compiled this page as daily blog filler, no more important to me than some random fat dude screaming for his McDonald's chicken sandwich. But the internets has its own way of rewarding inanity.
3. Spike Mendelsohn Evicted from His Capitol Hill Rental House. The item that forever put Y&H on the burger man's shit list.
4. Ritz Pastry Chef Jérôme Girardot Found Dead in Cameron Station Park. A terrible, terrible incident that I still think about with equal parts wonder and sadness.
5. Another D.C. Beer Week? Yes, Please. Because it's always better the second-time around.
6. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What's Inside? The Logan Circle beer emporium has been a consistently strong performer on Y&H. It is, in fact, the only establishment with two nods on this list.
7. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page. People were so desperate for information on this tragic killing that they turned to my shallow little effort — and sometimes expressed their anger at its lack of real info.
8. Birch & Barley Slated for Summer Opening. Maybe. More false optimism spooned out by Y&H.
9. Breadline Busted on 19 Health Code Violations, Ten of Them Critical. Excessive fruit flies! Dirty meat slicers! Operating without a license! Readers wanted to know all the icky details of Breadline's spectacular health inspection failure.
10. Michel Richard Plans to Move His Home Base to Tysons Corner. The maestro of D.C. chefs hunted for investors last year for a planned move to the former Maestro space in McLean.

OK, that's it. I'm tired of including Select 55, that piss-water of a beer, in our weekly count-down feature. Starting this week, I'm officially omitting the perpetually clicked-upon item and noting, with an asterisk (*), where it would have fallen in the Top 5, assuming it would.

With that said, here are your most-read blog posts from the week:

1. Dogfish Head & Sierra Nevada's Collaboration Ale, Life & Limb, Coming Soon
2. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page (*)
   
3. P&C Market Takes Upscale Bodegas to a New Level
4. Best Food Writing 2009 Due in Bookstores Today
5. Dish of the Week: Tacos at La Placita in Hyattsville
   

If there's anything that grips Y&H readers, it's tragedy, and it doesn't get much more tragic than the homicide of Nori Amaya, the co-owner of Coppi's Organic on U Street. People were obviously desperate for information on the strangulation. Even our negligible little item was widely visited.

Here's how the week shook out:

1. Nori Amaya's Friends and Fans Express Their Grief on Her Facebook Page
2. A Certain Goddamn Budweiser Beer That People Can't Stop Reading About
   
3. Birch & Barley Opens Today. What's Inside? (This item is quickly entering Select 55 territory.)
   
4. Tom and Derek Brown to Channel Spirits and Iggy Pop at the Passenger
   
5. D'Acqua Shutters, Ping Pong Dim Sum Set to Open Next Month
   

You have probably heard this awful news by now, but Coppi's Organic co-owner Nori Amaya was found dead yesterday in her apartment. D.C. Police Department spokeswoman Traci Hughes confirmed to Y&H this afternoon that Amaya's death has been ruled a homicide. The cause of death is strangulation.

The horrific news has inspired an outpouring of grief on Amaya's facebook page. Below is a selection of the comments on Amaya's Wall:

• Nori, I had the pleasure of knowing you for years and am better to have had you in my life. We will all miss having you as a part of our lives. This is a tragedy and a shame. I wish you peace.
• I'AM SO SICK AND FUCK UP ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU BABY I LOVE YOU AND I'LL MISS U MY FRIEND , YOUR SMILE WILL ALWAYS BE WITH ME R.I.P ..................

• Nori I had the joy of knowing you. I always admire the way you cope with obstacles in life. I will miss you and I will always remember you.
• R.I.P. Nori I will always remember you as the good friends we always were...Im so glad we got to know eachother as little kids and share those wonderful moments.you are in a better place now and I will miss you....
• Growing up with you during our high school years left an indelible mark on me. We all shared so much together and memories of those times are times that I will always cherish. I deeply regret that I lost touch in the last years but it serves as a reminder that you need to reach out, and reach out often, to those who mean something to you. Take care, you leave many better off for having shared time with you.
• THIS IS FUCKIN BULLSHIT. I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT SOMETHING SO BAD, SO TERRIBLE CAN HAPPEN TO A PERSON WHO IS KIND, LOVING, AND AN ANGEL. NORI IS MY FRIEND AND I WILL MISS HER. I WILL PRAY AND I KNOW THAT GOD IS WITH HER. I LOVE YOU NORI AND OUR FRIENDSHIP, R.I.P.