First Annual VWXYNot? Readers' Choice Comment of the Year* Award!

It's almost Christmas!

I'm feeling much warmer and fuzzier than normal about the whole thing this year, possibly because I essentially missed Christmas Day last time around (stoopid norovirus).

And what else makes me feel all warm and fuzzy?

My awesome commenters!

Seriously. I love you guys. You're intelligent, insightful, supportive, funny, and sometimes very, very silly.  I'd like to buy you all a present... but sadly that's not possible. So instead, I'd like to introduce the First Annual VWXYNot? Readers' Choice Comment of the Year* Award!

I've gone through my bragging rights archives, made a long list (every single comment), and then a short list, before choosing my 12 all-time favourites. I am really, truly, sorry that I had to leave some awesome comments out, but really, asking you to chose between more than 12 would be a bit silly.

The 12 options are below in full, with links to the relevant post in case a bit of context is required! Please vote using the poll at the top of the right sidebar.

The Rules:

1. Please vote only once each
2. Please do not vote for your own comment!
3. The votes will be tallied on December 31st 
4. In the event of a tie, I will choose my favourite of the tied comments (I won't vote otherwise)
   
5. The winner will be formally announced when I get back from skiing on the 2nd or 3rd of January
6. Prize: a virtual trophy you can display on your own blog if you so wish (I'm working on this!) AND an item of your choice from Amazon, up to CAD30 in value (not including shipping)
   

Have fun! And thank you again to everyone who commented this year. You're all awesome.


The Comments (in strictly alphabetical order by name of commenter):

1. Bob O'H for "I still think that if you've got a hockey pool, you're doing something wrong. Like having the heating on too high."
2. EcoGeoFemme for "The problem with miracles is that it makes you question all the times when there isn't a miracle."
3. Eva for "I mostly say "I'm not religious", because I didn't even learn the word "atheist" until I was 15 or so and thought "Oh! It has a NAME!". As a kid I thought I had a religion that was called "public" because I went to "public school" and the "public library"."
4. Hermitage (1) for "When the 'leader of the superpower of all time leader of the freeworld' can't tie his shoelaces without assistance and a boob grab, it makes everyone look fabulous in comparison. Further justification for charging George Bush with war crimes."
5. Hermitage (2) for "C'mon, you KNOW some halfwits are still going to wander over and ask you to preform secretarial duties under the pretense that PhD stands for Professional Help Desk."
6. Massimo for "At least you have never been told "What? Mah-see-moh? Oh, no, that's too difficult for me, I'll call you Moose, how's that..."... "Yes, and I'll call you Dick, how's that ?" (Savannah, GA, circa 1988)".
7. Mermaid for "when the 'Feed the World' Christmas song came out all those years ago, my mom thought it was 'Feed the Whales' and was awfully confused as to why Christmas should matter to whales."
8. Microbiologist XX for "I got so distracted by the fact that I had fallen out of a sailboat that I forgot to leave my comment."
9. Nina for "I think it is not fair of them to ask for French, when Quebecois is a whole different language... I took Science-French with 3 Canadian girls and they spoke something more similar to arabic"
10. Prof-like Substance for "I love the fact that the British invented Canada. Don't you mean "asked Canada to grow up, get a job and stop living off its parents" in 1931?"
11. Ricardipus for "You know, if homeopathy worked, you wouldn't have to even open the bottle. Just drink a glass of lake/ocean/river/tap water - it should contain the memory of molecules of every medication ever used.There, cold sorted. ;)"
12. Ruchi for "I don't understand what is so awesome exactly about being in the presence of God. Intellectually, I understand that it's like being in the presence of Barack Obama only better, but emotionally, I just don't get it. :)"

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*well, the period from October 3rd 2008 to now, because that's how long I've been doing Bragging Rights Central. Next year's award will cover a 12 month period.