TNB Night Owl Looks Back

The Night Owl, for the record, was Lenny’s idea and he wrote the very first one (on Predictive Tweets). He thought it would be a good idea to have something for the late-nighters to enjoy, and something that was scheduled for the time but not for the writer. The only rule was that there was to be no politics in the body of the article itself (as it was to be an open thread, the comment section was completely fair game… and politics were very welcome there, because of the bent of the site.) Beyond that the hope was that nobody would know what was going to come next… a nice little retrospective of a beloved pet or a historical review of influential world cheeses, a piece by one of the staffers or a guest essay.

I thought it was a great idea and offered to try to fill in on those days when other people hadn’t claimed the slot. This arrangement remains, but as life has gotten in the way for everyone, I’ve taken over the bulk of the Owls. That’s why you get so much odd stuff. I know odd stuff. I go with my strengths.

For tonight, I’m doing a look back… and, as I was the first person to claim tonight’s slot, I’m picking my favorite entry from each of the other regulars, and then my favorites among the different categories I try to alternate between.

For Steve, it’s easy… that’s his encounter with an odd device during his daily run.

My pick for Tiff’s is the phone game piece she wrote recently, because that was something that a lot of people could relate to, and which allowed me to vent my frustration about Disney Emoji Blitz. Really, people, it’s not a good game.

My pick for Beth’s is NOT her treatise on the Loch Ness Monster, however amazingly detailed it might have been, but rather her post about the climbing raccoon. That was the first time the Owl covered events that had happened just that day.

My pick for Lenny was done in coordination with Lenny, because he’s written a bunch of these. It’s the Press Your Luck story, which proved that sometimes hard work and paying attention can pay great dividends.

For Halodoc, I have to pick her fishing story. Not only was it heartfelt and resonated with the readers, it was her first work for the site. There was a lot of love for her “baked lobster” piece, too.

MsMaryLou gets to pick her own, because she’s my wife and I’m not a fool. She chose the pigeon who won New Zealand bird of the year, because, in her words, it’s “the ultimate underdog story. It’s a fat, drunken pigeon who somehow got more votes than anyone.”

Richard Doud covered the story of a comparatively small woman who taught a fairly big public lesson to a pervert. That’s a feel-good story, too.

And then there are mine.

I grab things from all over, but I strive to keep successive Owls different, and to that end I have a few categories I like to use: Products, internet, history, special events, World records, myths, special people, pop culture and of course the PSAs.

My favorites of the past year for each:

Products – Wakaliwood

Internet – Evil Bert

History – Iceberg Aircraft Carrier

Events – Furries vs. Klingons Bowling

World Records – Ugly Dogs

Myths – Fan Death

Special People – The Oral Argument

Pop Culture – Parry Gripp

PSAs – Don’t Have Blindfolded Anonymous Sex

A special nod also has to be given to the one story which netted me more offended feedback than all other stories combined, and that was Dead Cat Flying. And to the one which I did not post for fear of disturbing too many people… that one may yet find its way to the Owl, but probably not. Some images just aren’t worth seeing.

What images are worth seeing are the ones Lenny has provided for the Owl… which is to say, the overwhelming bulk of them. I may write a lot of these, but Lenny’s contribution cannot be overstated.

There’s the retrospective. Agree or not, I’d love to hear from you. Which leads us to the Question of the Night… What was your favorite (or least favorite) Owl this year?