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| Photo by Bill Adler |
The “Listies” are back! We haven’t done this every year, but
we have decided that for 2018 we will again bestow “Best of the Cleveland Park
Listserv” awards in five different message categories. Unlike in past years,
this won’t be quite so moderator-dominated; we want to try making this year
more like the “People’s Choice Awards,” taking nominations in each category
from Cleveland Park Listserv members.
Keep in mind that in this contest, “award” does not mean any
sort of material prize. It’s all glory.
And now….the categories:
What was the BEST
QUERY of the year? Can you think back to a post from someone seeking
something other than the old, humdrum re-run of “find me a good plumber” or “I
need some brick repointing.” We’re looking for people who are looking for the
kind of help you’re not really sure that anyone will be able to provide….but what’s the
harm in asking? The CP Listserv can be quite surprising!
And the flip-side to “Best Query” is MOST HELPFUL (OR CREATIVE) ADVICE. Who offered up the best way to
solve a thorny problem? Or came up with that very obscure bit of information
that answered the “This is a long-shot but…” query? The “Helpful Advice”
category can include all sorts of information, from instructions to fix the broken thingy-ding in your home to ways to get your complaint moved up the
food-chain at a utility or company.
What was the best item in a SALE OR GIVEAWAY message? Please don’t nominate any old pieces of
furniture or collections of moving boxes! We’ve had a zillion of those. We’re
looking for unique items, or perhaps something not-so-unique but described in a
way that makes it seem like a mysterious object of desire.
[We interrupt this list to provide a few tips: To play this
game, you’ll find it useful to search the listserv archives. You can find
instructions here: http://www.cleveland-park.com/searching-the-archives.html.
To make it more of a challenge, you will be dealing with Yahoo’s current state
of semi-dysfunction, and about half the time you run a search, you can expect
to get one of a number of Yahoo error messages, truncating your search results
or failing to return any results whatsoever. Extra points for persistence! You’ll
be at quite an advantage if you have saved your favorite listserv messages in
your own email program and can search that instead. When sending in your
nominations, it’s helpful to include a message number and/or the date and
subject line of the message you are nominating. And please don’t shy away from
nominating your own messages! Or if you received great advice or a great
giveaway from the listserv, by all means, nominate the giver!]
What was the BEST
LONG-RUNNING DISCUSSION THREAD? We
all know some topics pop up over and over again, with multiple posters weighing
in on each round. Bad mail delivery. Dog poop in your supercan. Reversible
lanes. That darned service lane! It’s not all rehashes of past arguments –
there are always some new controversies to stir up some passion. And even at
times, some fresh new perspectives on some old, well-trodden ground. What topic
in 2018 do you think brought in some light, and maybe even real insight? You
can identify the thread by the subject line and date of any particular message
in the thread, or you can give us the message number of one specific post –
anything to permit us to find that discussion among the archived messages of
2018.
And for our final and most important category – what would
you name as the POST OF THE YEAR?
What post was this year’s most memorable? It could be funny or touching or just
a nice story, well told. It could be the post with the best outcome (lost pet,
found) or the one most eloquently expressed. It could even be the most outrageous
complaint. We’ll consider anything you want to bring up!
We await your entries. You have a week to send them in – the
deadline is by the close of business on Friday, December 21 -- and we’ll take
them off-list at moderator @ cleveland-park dot com.
The plan is to devote next week’s column to your nominations
– and, of course, our own ideas about the outstanding posts in these five
categories. To cap off this three-column series, on the last Saturday of the
year, we will announce the winners of the 2018 “CP Listies.”
Stay tuned!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland ParkListserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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