Best of the Best title eludes me again

I can add 2008 to the growing list of years in which I didn’t win Best of the Best Newspaper Columnist. Like a bad ball team, I’m afraid I’m learning how to lose this annual contest.

I am, however, pleased to report great progress. On the heels of last year’s 7th place finish, I have clawed and scratched my way into 6th place. And I have you, the great readers of this column, to thank.

For those of you who took your valuable time and made an effort to vote for me, I want to use this spot as a general thank you because there are simply too many of you to name. OK, you caught me stretching the truth just a bit. I could probably name every one of you right here, but most of my voters have indicated they don’t want me to reveal their identity. I wonder why.

In fact, when I went to thank my Cupcake for her vote, she revealed, rather brazenly I might add, that she didn’t even vote for me this year. She forgot to turn in a ballot.

I’ve decided if I’m ever going to win the Best of the Best contest again, I have to focus my efforts internally. First, I have to win back the votes of my wife and my mom. Then if I can get more distant family members to vote for me, the ones who don’t really know me that well, perhaps I can climb up to fourth or maybe even third place next year.

As for today’s glimpse at things odd, strange and curious, I found a 13-year-old Oregon teen that seems to have my luck. His name is Cody Young and he recently rode a very expensive BMX bike to Goodwill Industries so he could do some inexpensive shopping.

When Cody was done shopping at the Goodwill center in Salem, Ore., he went back to get his bike. However, he discovered a store employee has mistaken sold it to a customer for $6.99.

And in today’s final tidbit, this story is similar to ‘Hansel and Gretl’ only birds don’t come along and eat breadcrumbs in this version. It involves four people who, unsuccessfully, burglarized a Cincinnati candy store.

They were caught because they couldn’t wait until they got home to eat their $400 worth of candy. Police were able to literally follow candy wrappers back to their home where the one adult, a 19-year-old woman, was charged.