Randy Shemanski
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here to vote.
Remember those days when your back was out of alignment from sitting on your wallet that was bursting at the seams? OK, so that’s still the case, but it’s credit card receipts causing your wallet to split at the seams, not dolla dolla bills, y’all.
The recession has put a pinch on all of us in some manner or another, even here at the electric city office. Instead of fresh Starbucks coffee each day, we’re reduced to recycling yesterday’s coffee grinds at home, a poorly conceived idea we first saw on The West Wing.
Of course, mentioning the country’s politicians may not gain us much sympathy. After all, they’re the ones responsible for this God forsaken recession, right?
Anyway, even with pennies pinched tighter than ever, that’s not stopping us from surging forward with your favorite electric city feature — our “Best Of” Readers’ Poll. That’s right, kiddos, it’s time for you to vote on all things Lackawanna County, from your favorite restaurant to your favorite pizza to your favorite (gulp!) politician.
Thanks to that new invention they call the Internet, we’re continuing our paperless voting, which means you’ll have to fire up your computer to log your votes; just don’t get distracted by all that Internet porn you have bookmarked that you don’t want your wife to find out about.
Just like last year, voting will be done at
www.ecweekend.com/bestof. While you’re filling out your answers, we’re going to see what we can do about scrounging up $1.75 for a fresh cup of coffee. Remember, we have a few rules you must follow, otherwise we’ll send Jigsaw to your house to teach you a lesson. (Yes, we can afford to have him on the payroll.)
First off, you can only vote once. Just how do we know how many times you’ve voted, you ask? It’s simple, we’re watching every move you make. In fact, you’ve got a poppyseed stuck in your teeth right now. So save yourself the time and don’t bother voting multiple times — we’re just going to toss the secondary votes into a giant bin with the sign that says, “People who don’t listen.”
Once you’ve got that figured out, make sure you vote for at least 25 categories. If you’ve got time to fill out one answer, you can find a few more minutes to answer 24 more. And don’t give us stuff like “Restaurant X” or vote for Pizza By Pappa’s for Best Bookstore or Best Karaoke. Yes, that happened last year. Don’t waste our time and we won’t waste yours.
And the most important rule you need to follow is this — vote for local businesses, people and places, please. We’re talking about Lackawanna County and a few nearby areas, so Tony Luke’s in Philly shouldn’t win Best Cheesesteak, no matter what Adam Richman says on Man vs. Food. And while Olive Garden might have good food, it shouldn’t win Best Italian Food; it can, however, win Best Chain Restaurant.
And finally, your ballot is due by the end of the day on Sunday, Dec. 6. That way, we’ve got plenty of time to count your votes — we received more than 50,000 last year — and put together our mega-issue with the results, which will hit streets on Thursday, Dec. 17. And we’ll give you a bonus treat the week before when we reveal our diamond city “Best Of” winners, so you can find out what the readers in Luzerne County like about their home to our south.
So now that you’ve got the details, you’ve got your instructions and you’re ready to vote, take a few minutes and tell us what you think. We promise it won’t cost you a thing.
Click
here to vote.