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Prize-Winning Deals The tallies are in, the shortlist shortened. Behold, the crème de la Cremora. WHAT CAN BE SAID of our respondents this year? Words can't convey the depth, the breadth, the awe-inspiring intensity of this year's voters. And certainly Metro applauds all of those who spent their precious free time to reply to this year's Best of Silicon Valley Readers Survey. We received some of the most thoughtful and complete ballots ever, leading us to believe that (1) people really like winning free stuff, even it it's small, or (2) people don't have that much to do at work. In the end, we were forced to whittle down the masses to a select batch. It was a mean feat. Metro is happy to hail the artistic efforts of Clare Dee of Santa Clara, whose tri-colored, beautifully written envelope got to us just in time, on deadline day. Inside, Claire not only surpassed her competitors in penmanship and style, but went outside the box, as it were, with voluptuous squiggles and curlicue doodles. She then took the time to slice off the rigid edges of the paper, giving her entry a shapely, almost Constitutional appearance. She even adorned the first letter of each line with a calligraphy-style character in red. Breathtaking. Metro bestows upon Clare its highest award, for the Loveliest Ballot--or "neatest" as we may have indicated on the survey--that arrived during this year's month-long flurry of Readers Survey mania. And then there are other award-winning authors, like Jen Hernandez of San Jose, who steals the glory for Most Complete Ballot. Jen meticulously filled out every single line in her survey. She obviously did this in three sittings, as she used mostly red, a tinge of blue and a final smattering of black. Helmut Safar of San Jose took the humor category by storm with his answer for the category "Best Adrenaline Rush." Helmut's retort? "George W. Bush trying to speak in complete sentences." Our final winner entails a little yellow sticky note attached to one of the mail-in surveys, on which Kathryn and Keith Westberg of San Jose carefully printed: "Dear Sirs: We tried to write as neatly as possible. We would be very thankful if you would consider us for the dinner. Thank you." Well, Kathryn and Keith, we're happy to do that, on the condition that you not call us 'sirs' again. Metro would like to honor the duo for their mindfulness. They procure this year's Thoughtful Ballot award. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]