Canadians are Americans too

It is a busy time here in the mountain west. My classes start today, which means I have to dust off my lecture notes and prepare my powerpoints. My job applications for next year are due in a few days. I have to finish up posts lauding Sarah Palin (and making fun of Obama). And as always the dissertation looms large overhead.

But each of these tasks pales in importance to congratulating the winner of our caption contest. The voting was close, going down to the wire before a victor emerged. I really should have announced the winner a few days ago, but some of our viewers in Ohio filed a legal injunction against 301NIB, claiming that someone tampered with their voting machines. (We settled out of court)

So congratulations to Joe from Tucson, a virtual unknown who came out of nowhere to claim the 2008 title with this caption:

"C'mon Meg… just pull the trigger already! I don't know how it works either! When I was your age all we got to do for fun was throw rocks eh!"

Well done, Joe. Apparently the combination of portraying me as an illiterate, slack-yawed technophobe and making fun of my Canadian accent put you over the top in a close race - proving once again that anti-immigrant sentiment always sells.

On a related note, I was disappointed that my own entry (entered under a pseudonym) didn't register a single vote. I had no idea the 301NIB public was so hostile to Canadian-Americans.

Ah, well - in the end it was an honor just nominating myself.