randomslices

# sort dictionary by value 
>>> sorted(d.iteritems(), key=itemgetter(1), reverse=True)
    [('b', 23), ('d', 17), ('c', 5), ('a', 2), ('e', 1)]

# sort dict by keys:

>>> sorted(d, key=d.__getitem__, reverse=True)
    ['b', 'd', 'c', 'a', 'e']

# Also, Python 2.5's heapq.nlargest() function addresses the common use