2010 in brief

* Politician and Tallinn mayor Edgar Savisaar retaliates against being dumped by his longtime wife Vilja by taking up with a cabaret dancer who lives in Kadrina and starting a video blog with her.

* On Valentine's Day, Savisaar appears in a livecast four-way bed-in from a Rakvere hotel along with controversial Estonian bloggers Inno and Irja. The intended message is "wait until civil partnership to have sex", in line with growing conservative values in Estonia, but it backfires. The ultimate political survivor finds his reputation irreparably destroyed and he announces plans to retire from public life. Inno and Irja seem to benefit and re-emerge in the course of the year as a new morally conservative voice.

* In other political news, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip comes within two minutes of his best time in the Tartu Marathon. His Reform Party continues to be the #1 or #2 force in Estonia and Ansip has a surprisingly uneventful year, commuting to Tallinn twice a week by plane for government meetings.

* In an otherwise uneventful late winter, a Tallinn magnate unveils plans for WinterTower -- a new concert venue located in a tower to be built between the Estonia Opera House and the Estonia Concert Hall. But opposition comes from many quarters, most notably from Peeter Rebane, who says it will block views of the Old Town from Solaris Centre, which due to falling roof debris is now a full 3 metres lower than it was originally.

* A Tartu businessman unveils plans for "Lasku" -- a sprawling financial and insurance centre built of silicate brick on a concrete platform extending out into the River Emajõgi with several underwater storeys with portholes and views of murky river water. Foreign architects praise the "horizontal", low-density planning.

* In the early hours of 24 April, numerous people report that they saw the Freedom Cross in downtown Tallinn "illuminated", as "if it were shining from within". The reports are generally dismissed as not credible, as the monument's replacement extension power cord ordered over the Internet was too short and there was no power to the monument area on that given day.

* Somewhat surreally, the Freedom Cross becomes popular with Italian graffiti artists who are pathologically drawn to pompous 19th and 20th century nationalist monuments. They make pilgrimages all summer long from as far as Sicily. Estonians decry these "new Brits" but concede that there is now no doubt that the thing is a bit pompous and unnecessary.

* The Public Procurements Act is amended to prohibit the awarding of contracts to foreign companies whose business name translates as "careless", "negligent" or otherwise suggests they may not be on the level.

* On May 1, the country once again goes to work cleaning up the countryside in a repeat of the successful event two years ago. The haul is bigger than ever, but oddly, some participants report finding many of the exact same items, except in a slightly more deteriorated condition.

* Tartu officials attend a meeting of the World Maritime Organization and tout their prospects for a possible major container terminal on what is becoming known, at least in Tartu, as the "northwest-southeast corridor".

* The Use of Improper English Prevention Act is introduced into Estonian parliament but stalls after a vocal lobby of teachers from elite secondary schools in Estonia criticizes a foreign expert working group from the UK for allegedly using American English.

* War injuries, which increase, are neck and neck (no pun intended) with traffic accident injuries, which again decrease.

* The first bilingual street signs in Tallinn appear. Moderate commentators say it's nothing to worry about -- that Tallinn is asserting its cosmopolitan identity.

* Tartu gets Ryanair.

* Savisaar comes out of retirement as a potent force again.

* Travel sections of European newspapers write about a "Slavic renaissance" in Tallinn in the run-up to the 2011 European Capital of Culture festivities.

* A national campaign to discourage the use of a brusquely barked-out "Ach?" in favour of the more genteel "Pardon me, could you repeat that?" has only limited success.

* Enterprise Estonia announces the winning entry in the country's official slogan competition. The winner: "Estonia", a nod toward Nordic minimalism. The runner-up: "Eesti. Ach? Estonia."

* The ever-sensitive government of Kazakhstan files suit against Petrone Print for, as Kazakhstan sees it, "claiming ownership of Kazakhstan" in the title of the successful Estonian publisher's latest country-specific book.

* In early December, with snow falling and accumulating for a second winter in a row, Tartu announces that it will put in a bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics.