Contest Results: (News Story and Buzzwords)

News Story of the year:

The news story and buzzwords of the year were the two categories with the most consensus..

There was really one HUGE story this year. Chris summed it up best in his simple 'OBAMA. Period.' Agreeing with Chris were Heather, Chanbong, Saffron, Pine tree and Tulip.

A surprise second was devoted to the (size 10) shoes being thrown at G.W. Eric, Claudia and my dad chose this as the story of the year, with my dad adding admitting that the story made him 'happy rather than sad'.

Rebekah pointed to 'any Tina Fey impersonation of Sarah Palin' while Kam had an entry after my own heart 'Sachin dedicating his 41st century and India dominating the cricket world' (yeah!!).

Heather in her inimitable style: "the parliamentary antics of Canada’s pre-x-mas near constitutional crisis where our prime minister proved himself to be the arrogant ideologue we all know him to be and the opposition actually grew a pair (however temporarily). Thanks to actions by our Governor General (since when does she act!?) the most exciting moment in Canadian political history in a good long while pittered out and will probably be largely forgotten." (Seriously, the girl needs to start her own blog)

Gloomy stories were also covered in The blast at the Indian Embassy at Kabul (Daisycat, a personally sad story for us), the recession (Pine tree), the bombay attacks (pine tree), and the war in Georgia (Vlad).

From bluebell, a very precise and detailed response to 'best news story' and a great read: "Newsweek The Long Siege (This is a in-depth look behind the scenes of the campaign)"

Itenerant was very honest: 'I am so out of news.'

But my picks of this category are the following three entries:

From Vivek a story that should make you think twice about the benefits of bananas and walking: In his own, funny, words:
" 1) Your smoothie's in big, big trouble. Contact me if require more information on the hapless Cavendish. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html
2) I feel vindicated. http://www.dailyfreepress.com/news/1.582523" (Having also picked up on the bus story, I will now stay put and wait for a bus- even in the snow. Thank you for this important public service message Vivek)

From Violet: "Is it lame to say the NPR story about Brent's dissertation project?" Answer: No, Violet, it is not at all lame. It doesn't get cooler than NPR doing a story on your husband's research!

And my vote for the funniest response of the contest:

Mike: Everyone's going to say Barack Obama, so I'm going to send some love in Eliot Spitzer's direction. wait...he's already had enough of that...

Chuckle...

Buzz word/quote of the year:

Again, a lot of consensus. let's break it down by the themes:

The Recession: "Economic Downturn." (Chris) "credit crunch" or "subprime" (Eric) "Main street" (Tulip)

"YES WE CAN" (Eric, Heather, Mike, Saffron)

Elections 08: "hockey mom." (Chanbong), "Change" (Rebekah, Bluebel), " Obamarama" (Claudia)

Vivek: "What, no one said 'Maverick' yet?"

Corporate Speak: "Synergy" (Daisycat), Dynamic (Itenerant)

Heather: “Where’s your platform? Is it under that sweater?” [this is probably not funny without the context but trust me, it was hilarious! Picture the Canadian prime minister in a sweater vest attempting to be more “friendly”] (I guess you had to be there, Heather. Kidding!) Also Research project” (heh heh) and of course, THE word that should define my year but ain’t got a thing yet on the ‘Cuse: Hahvahd. (Absolutely Hahvahd Heather- not everyone gets to say that!)

Mysterious entries, I don't fully get Kam: ‘there is no cup’ and Papa: It could have happened only in America

My picks of this category:


Bluebell: Quote “Come on! Words mean something. You can’t just make stuff up.” (Barack Obama, Indiana, September 6, 2008, quoted from NYT, September 7) (Great! Love the preciseness, details and of course appreciate the thought as a discourse analysis loving constructivist type)

Pine tree: ‘If you dream it, you can make it’