I consider myself a pretty good critic. I try to stay on top of what's new and mix that up with what is classic, the best of the new and the old. But TIME magazine really did a number on me. I guess I'm just stupid. Out of their choices for Best Film, I'd never even heard of five of them, and their Winner, Wall-E, was cute, once, but it's no Nemo, that's for sure. Maybe it's me, but I think The Dark Knight should have at least been on the list. The good news is, it's on yours. There were only a handful of sure things. You sure love your Chick-Fil-A (and you can't even go there on Sunday!), even if no one can spell it. Anyway, the concensus is:

Best CD: Jack's Mannequin's The Glass Passenger. Viva La Vida by Coldplay was tied for 2nd with Carter III by Lil Wayne. Out of 43 ballots, though, there were 21 choices. [Items in parentheses that follow each category are Stowell's choices] (Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie)


Best Song: No hands down winner here either with 27 different songs, but it was a three way tie with three votes each for "Human" by the Killers, "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz and "Hot and Cold" by Katy Perry. ("Spinning" by Jack's Mannequin)

Best Film with 15 votes, more than one third, was The Dark Knight, but no other film was a standout. Twilight was a distant 2nd with four votes. (Dark Knight)


Best TV Show: Your favorite was House, but with only seven votes, followed by Dexter (NO, not the Laboratory!) with four. Gossip Girl got 3 votes. (Dexter)

The penultimate (that means 2nd biggest overall) winner was Barack Obama with 20 votes for Most Important News Story. The Caylee Anthony story got 10 votes. President Bush ducking shoes got two. (Obama)

Michael Phelps got 19 votes as the Best Sports Story. Gators got four. This is the first year that the focus was not on professional sports. (Phelps)

Best Fast Food: Yep, you really like to "Eat Mor Chikin." Chick-Fil-A was the hands down overall poll winner with 22 votes, more than any other category. No Chipotle? No Cheeburger Cheeburger? You guys need to get out more. (Five Guys)

This one is pretty interesting. For 2003 and 2004, the big star was MySpace. For 2005 through 2007, the clear winner for Best Website was Facebook. Are social websites less popular than they've been? Your choice: Google. I don't know, but that seems a bit nerdy. Three of you were cool though, you put litthink.blogspot.com. Also of note, MySpace beat up Facebook 7-2.

Best Clothing has always been a battle between Pacsun and Hollister, but this year Hollister was the clear victor while American Eagle and Pacsun tied for 2nd. A couple of new stores made a good showing. Tilly's and Urban Outfitters were beaten out only by Forever 21 to round out the top three. (J. Crew)

Busch Gardens was the surprise victor for Best Theme Park with seven votes. Universal Studios, which has never before made the list, was 2nd and IOA and Disney's Magic Kingdom shared 3rd. Islands of Adventure, by the way, has won for the past six years. (Animal Kingdom)

Best Male Star was overwhelmingly Heath Ledger with Shia Labeouf (yes, this is how you actually spell it), Will Smith and Johnny Depp tying for a distant second. (Heath Ledger)

Best Female Star went to, and this is lame, Tina Fey, with Katherine Heigl and Taylor Swift coming in second. (Katherine Heigl)

Forget Time Magazine, this list is much more representative of real people. Oh, and of course, the most important of all... Your choice for Best Punctuation Mark is:
!