The Best of Write-In Votes

It's "Best of Memphis" time again. For those readers who could not adequately express themselves by filling out our massive, 112-category ballot, we included an additional category this year, asking readers to pick a category we missed and choose a winner for that category. Here are some of our favorite write-in votes. As promised, the readers who penned these picks will each receive a Flyer T-shirt.

Best Catchphrase

"Clean up!!!"
Richard Ransom's over-the-top delivery of this phrase during Channel 5's weekly "Food for Thought" news segment has slowly but surely taken hold of the Memphis imagination. It's goofy. It's inexplicable. It's downright bizarre. But who among us can look away?

Best Geraldo Rivera Wannabe
Richard Ransom
That's okay, Richard. You can't please everyone.

Best Free Publication Sold to Tourists
The Memphis Flyer
Lots of readers got the idea to use their write-in votes to flatter us. Best Newspaper. Best Weekly. Best Source of News. But we were just waiting for someone to honor us with this dubious distinction.

Best Example of Memphis Drivers
The reversible lane on Union Avenue at rush hour
Oh, the horror! You can see them coming from blocks away. You check to see if you have an arrow or an "X". Sure enough, you're in the right, involuntarily sucked into a deadly game of chicken.

Best Phrase to Never Hear Again
"I've been working on the new Grisham film."
Which is not to say that no more Grisham-adaptations should be filmed here. But perhaps extras should use their non-speaking roles as a model for not boring the rest of us.

Best Example of Too Much Information
The Memphis Flyer's "Best of Memphis" ballot
This reader quipped that our ballot was "as bad as a tax return." Actually, it's quite a bit worse. Since the ballot appears just a few months before tax season, many use it as of a warm-up for the big 1040 and find that their income taxes have never seemed easier.

You're welcome.