Democracy Doesn't Always Work

Especially with pumpkins.



I asked my co workers to help me judge the pumpkin contest, only I neglected to remember that "decision making" is maybe not what you would call a "high performance skill" in our office. What resulted was a confusing collection of multi-pumpkin ties for 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Holy gourd glop, Batman, I need more judges!
So then I enlisted the help of several more co workers (the power of unsanctioned employee e-mail usage!) and changed the parameters to just one vote for the top pumpkin. You would think this would be a little less confusing...but you would be wrong.

What resulted was just more votes for virtually the same amount of ties. (sigh)
But in a way that's good news, because, like T-Ball, everybody wins! Every pumpkin got at least one vote for first place, so snaps all around. Also, many judges commented on how great all the pumpkins were and how hard it was to pick just one. So, in keeping with the friends I keep, some, in fact, totally ignored my instructions and gave me multiple submissions for different reasons (technical merit, cuteness, spooky factor...)

We did have one stand-out for first place, and that was Rachel's Spooky Witch Tree (on the left). Yay for that!


Second place was a neck and neck race between Todd's penguin, Ronda's Edward Scissorhands, and Austin and William's mummy.

Lenore's Tiny Ghost, Austin and William's Scary Ghost, Ronda's Chuckie, Joules' Headless Horseman and Josie's Spooky Tree garnered all the votes for third place.

Thanks to all the participants and judges. I'll contact you for addresses so we can send you your Perky Potholder Prize!