A bizarre Catholic Blog nomination

I was pleased to learn that I’d been nominated for a Catholic Blog Award (http://www.catholicblogawards.com/)

Thank you.

I had hoped when I heard of the contest that I might have an outside shot at something like Best New Blog, or maybe even Most Humorous Blog.

But when I looked at the list, I discovered it was for Most Bizarre Blog Post.

Not Most Bizarre Blog.

Most Bizarre Blog Post.

Okay.

My first reaction when I realized what award I had been nominated for was, "This must be what it feels like to kiss one's sister."

Of course, I never had a sister, so I don’t know for certain what that’s like.

I did have a brother. But even though I am an ex-seminarian, kissing him was never part of the equation.

That would be bizarre.

Don’t get me wrong. I'm happy. If I won, I’d do a little dance. (Talk about bizarre!) So vote often.

But I did see a couple of problems when I learned of the nomination.

First, there’s no indication which particular post was considered bizarre.

The “Limbo” back on Dec. 30?

The OFM (Order of Fat Men) series from early December?

Getting “annoyed” on November 14?

Jesus testing the waters to see who should be the Church’s leader (October 20)?

The unpaid library fine of Judge Roberts (Aug. 5)?

Voting for saints (June 6)?

A little Dante on May 1?

The full-service Planned Parenthood (April 8)?

Maybe my poetry?

Or perhaps I’m clueless and it’s something I’d intended seriously, but seems bizarre to others?

Without any clear indication, it makes it hard for people to judge.

The second problem was that when I was first listed as a nominee, my blog address was not included.

I notified the man in charge, who graciously admitted he’d forgotten to include it, then added it.

But that means for 12 to 24 hours, anyone interested in checking out my site to see if I had any bizarre posts worth voting for could not easily get to my site.

With just seven days to vote, that’s about one seventh of the voting time.

That’s like telling a candidate in an election, “Oh, by the way, we left your name off one seventh of the ballots. Sorry.”

Not that I really expect to win.

A contest like this is basically a popularity contest. Where there are some conscientious souls who will check out all the nominees before voting – God bless them! – I suspect most will simply vote for nominees they are already familiar with.

My blog gets read, but I am not one of the more popular ones. I think I’ve been averaging about 50 hits a day. There are sites that get hundreds of hits a day.

I’ve never been a popular sort anyway. Kind of reclusive and quirky, really.

Sort of like the old man with the snow shovel in the first Home Alone movie.

You know, the guy everyone thought was a mass murderer.

He turned out to be a nice guy.

I like to think I’m one, too.

My hope is that some people will at least check out the blog. Maybe I’ll pick up a few new regular readers. That would be nice.

Thanks again for the nomination. That in itself is an honor.

Now go check out some of the fine nominees and vote.

Maybe even for a bizarre one.