How do you properly measure the substance of a year? Time spent with family? The amount of retweets you've garnered on Twitter? Or perhaps the hours you've wasted watching trash TV? Comebacks, for me, are the true measure of a year—stories about resilience and drive and hard work. Here, before we say goodbye to 2014, the year's best comebacks.

Reclusive British singer/songwriter/dancer Kate Bush played her the first of her 22 Before the Dawn shows at London's Hammersmith Apollo last night and people are freaking the fuck out. The show was divided into three sections: an opening hits portion, a theatrical interpretation of The Ninth Wave (the entire Side B of her 1985 Hounds of Love album) about a woman drowning, and another narrative portion using the songs of A Sky of Honey (the second disc of her 2005 comeback album Aerial), at the end of which Bush transforms to a bird. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis summarizes the show's sprawling, and at times absurd spectacle in his review's opening paragraph:

TMZ just posted footage of Jenna Jameson discussing her return to the world of adult entertainment (via webcam). It seems like just yesterday that she was on Oprah: Where Are They Now?, discussing why there's no way she'd "ever, ever, ever" go back to porn.

Justin Timberlake's third album, The 20/20 Experience, would be a disappointment were we not adequately prepared to be underwhelmed. This is the kind of album whose mellow, nothing-more-than-nice first single is puzzling until you hear the rest of the album and realize that it's the most commercial pop on a collection whose musical m.o. is to be nothing more than nice. "Suit & Tie," at least, has a sense of spunk, which is more than can be said for most of 20/20. The album sounds like a conscious attempt at musical maturity that is never quite earned or fully realized.

Justin Timberlake performed "Mirrors" from his upcoming 20/20 Experience album at last night's BRIT Awards in London. When that track was released after the Grammy Awards, it seemed like an energizing, skittery return to FutureSex/LoveSounds Justin. In the live context, it was just as dull as his R. Kelly-lite Grammys rendition of "Suit & Tie" and "Pusher Love Girl."

Last time we heard from lite '90s crooner Brian McKnight, he dropped an X-rated slow jam for his conceived (still forthcoming, I hope) adult mixtape that proclaimed, "Let me show you how your pussy works / Betcha didn't know that it could squirt." Now, as so many men do, he's moved onto the butthole. In a song he wrote for user-generated smut site YouPorn, he seduces the masses with: "You wanna see some fucking anal? I can get you close enough to smell."

Justin Timberlake has a minority stake in MySpace, newly acquired by the online advertising network Specific Media. How will he revive the near-dead social network? With a talent competition.

Shiba Inu Puppy Cam has returned! Shiba Inu breeder bitch Kika—mother to the most meme-worthy whelps ever to grace the internet—gave birth last week to six puppies, three boys and three girls.

Literal killer whale Tilikum—the six-ton orca that thrashed a 40-year-old trainer to death in front of a live audience last year—has returned to Sea World's increasingly harrowing killer whale show, "Believe." Apparently the show is an "important component" in Tilikum's "physical, social, and mental enrichment," and trainers will only interact with him from a distance. [NYDN, image via AP]

TMZ is reporting that cocaine golem Lindsay Lohan, the troubled actress who's been in and out of both jail cells and rehab over the past few years, is in talks to get a major role in the new Superman movie currently in the works at Warner Bros. If this is true, it would be surprising!

John McCain, who loves switching personalities, is trying to reclaim his bipartisan Maverick hero image in the media again, now that he's secured another Senate term. And he'll get it. He always does! It's just too easy for him.

First, former dictator "Baby Doc" returned to Haiti, but was quickly detained. Now, ex-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide says he just wants to return as a "simple citizen in the field of education," and because his eye doctor told him to. [NYT]

Crazy old racist Dr. Laura Schlessinger is making a return to radio in January after leaving her show over an n-word laden rant back in August. Dr. Laura has reportedly signed a multi-year deal with Sirius XM Radio. [THR]

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that dog-loving New York Post columnist Cindy Adams has been absent from the paper for months. She was sick! Now she's back! With a deeply disturbing column of hospital erotica.

Lohan is apparently "in conversations" to host SNL on December 4, right after her probation ends. Her previous SNL appearances—in 2004 and 2006—were all attempts to prove she was doing just fine post-Mean Girls. So, good omens. [NYDN]

Sobered-up actor Rip Torn (arrested in January for drunkenly mistaking a bank for his house) is looking pretty skinny, isn't he? Don't worry, though: "When asked about his health, he says, 'I'm fine. Do you want to Indian wrestle?'" [NYP]

Former HP Mark Hurd, who was fired amid a scandal involving softcore porn actress Jodie Fisher, has been offered a job at Oracle. Usually there would be some joke in here about sloppy seconds, but it's Sunday. The Lord's Day.

Rock star adman Alex Bogusky abruptly retired from advertising this summer, saying he wanted to pursue other, more righteous initiatives. Has Burger King's greatest pitchman really had a change of heart? Or is his narcissistic personality disorder acting up again?

Rosie O'Donnell will return to TV with a new daytime talker on Oprah Winfrey's very expensive OWN channel. The show will start sometime next year. Sorry, but Rosie won't be nearly as fun without an Elisabeth Hasselbeck to shout at.

Last month we introduced you to The (Potential) Intern From Hell, a young gent with some very tough words for a company at which he applied to intern. Well, he saw the piece on Gawker. And was not amused.