Previous winners have been Sara Underwood in 2006, and Linda Ergas in 2007 - who won in a landslide, taking 33% of the 3,000+ total votes that were cast.

Before we get voting this year, here are some news, notes, and thoughts that may or may not be of interest.

• Some names from last year, that didn’t make the final pool in 2008, include Dawn Hasbrouck, Christa Delcamp, Cindy Fitzgibbon, Lisa Hughes, Shiba Russell, Mish Michaels, and Sorboni Banerjee. Also Beth Shelburne from NECN who was one of the final cuts. The competition is a bit stiffer this year, and these ladies just couldn’t squeak into the final voting. I am sure they are devastated.
• Some close calls and last minute cuts included Diana Rocco, who looked pretty good in certain photos, but the station head shots just wouldn’t have made it here, and that’s what we are working from.
• Which brings me to Alison Bologna. She has been with Fox 25 for two years now, is clearly a finalist, but has no head shot to be found. What gives there?
• This could be the last go ’round for Fox’s Maria Stephanos. She is starting to wither a bit, but still carries a lot of the vote each year. People seem to love her, but at some point she is going to be bumped out by some of this new blood.
• And lastly, Channel 7 lead the nominee pack with 6 of the 12 finalists. At this point they have literally just said “fuck it” and started hiring Floridian beauty queens.

ANYWAYS, without further ado, here is this year’s list of nominees:

Alison Bologna - Fox 25

Bianca de la Garza - Fox 25

Anne Allred - WHDH 7

Erin Hawksworth - Fox 25

JC Monahan - WCVB 5

Julie Donaldson - WHDH 7

Linda Ergas - WHDH 7

Maria Stephanos - Fox 25

Michelle Relerford - WHDH 7

Nicole Oliverio - WHDH 7

Sara Underwood - Fox 25

Victoria Warren - WHDH 7

Quizzes by Quibblo.com

We happen to live right in the middle of the most musically inclined section of the city, surrounded on all sides by the Berklee College of Music, which means that when those-damn-college-kids are playing loud music late at night, it is not only live, but enjoyable. In fact, I think there is a jazz band in the building across the street that during the summer, sounded awesome when they played with the windows open.

ANYWAYS.

So last night, when Obama sealed the deal, a pretty cool thing happened. Instead of drunk dickheads from BC heaving celebratory kegs from the windows of Brighton three-deckers, we were treated to a lot of live music, impromptu marching bands, and a full on parade in the streets of our neighborhood. Dixie land style bands, drums, horns, string quintets…it was pretty surreal, and all awesome.

At one point, about 500 kids (looked like a mix of Berklee and Northeastern folks) mobbed down the streets (fronted by yet another traveling band), hooked a right onto Boylston Street and headed their procession towards downtown to celebrate. They were flanked by a few Boston police cruisers that were apparently there just in case, but this was what appeared to be a happy, peaceful, and fun-loving group of kids. It was nice for a change to see a giant group of college kids charging down the street, and not having to worry about seeing my car in a ball of flames, or on it’s roof.

Looks like there was more of the same in Somerville.

The Photo above is from a great E B Photo set here.

I thought the live blog of last night’s game on Boston.com was great to look at the morning after.

10:44 PM, TOP 7, 7-0 RAYS

After a double steal, Upton launched a 3-2 fastball off of Papelbon high to left, a blast that nearly scraped the Monster and bounded off the top of the scoreboard. Earlier in the at-bat, Papelbon tried to reclaim the inside part of the plate that Red Sox pitchers so readily yielded all series. Ultimately, nothing works against these Rays. That two-run double ought to be your ballgame.

Then…

12:17 AM, GAME OVER, 8-7 RED SOX

The Red Sox have completed the largest comeback ever by a team facing playoff elimination, defeating the Rays, 8-7, on Drew’s walk-off ground-rule double/single over the head of Rays right fielder Gabe Gross to score Youkilis.

Absolutely amazing.

A loud mouthed, 5′8″, 170 pound, scrappy, intense, hit machine that owns both the plate, and the area between first and second base. He is a blast to watch, has a nutty personality, plays his ass off, and is hitting the bejesus out of the ball for the second year in a row.

“Yeah, he’s one of a kind,” Roberts says. “He and I work out at the same place in Arizona in the off-season, and I’ve seen him call out NFL players during Ping-Pong games, asking them when they’re starting Jenny Craig. He told Brady Quinn, who is a monster, a physical specimen, ‘I’m going to rip this ball right off your throat.’ He’s a piece of work.” On and on it goes. Day after day, in these pregame hours, Pedroia stirs the pot, dishing out threats and insults and mixing in bold predictions about his performance at the plate. He has already texted Millar, “Did you bring your glasses for the laser show tonight?”

How do you not love this guy?

Read all about it here.

Side note…why is there no place to get embeddable video highlights of MLB games? What a joke.

Manny Ramirez Sighting

I Love Manny Ramirez

Manny On Leno

Manny

Seeing this ship up close was unbelievable. The size of this thing is really beyond description, and coming up on it by sea, really gave us a unique perspective on its size. At 148,528 tons, the Queen Mary 2 is the largest ocean liner in the world.

More Queen Mary 2 photos are here.