A newspaper in Omaha, Nebraska has awarded a rogue electoral vote to Barack Obama, bringing his total to 365. Still to be decided is where Missouri's 11 electoral votes will land. McCain is reportedly in the lead there but it's not definite…so Obama's final total will be 365 or 376. This brings us back to our little contest to guess the number.
No one guessed 365 but as explained here, a lot of people — starting with Richard Bensam, guessed 364. We also had one person, Ellen Bischoff, guess 366. Richard's guess came in before Ellen's so if 365 is the final tally, I'll declare Richard the winner, Ellen the runner-up and the next ten folks who picked 364 as Honorable Mentions.
One and only one person guessed 376: Jim Ellwanger.
Before I forget, I want to again plug the website of Bob Claster, who was one of those who picked 364. Bob is a writer and historian of comedy, and also of other things. He once hosted a very fine radio show called Bob Claster's Funny Stuff on which he interviewed many of the giants in the mirth business and he's been nice enough to put a number of these broadcasts online for your pleasure and edification. Among those he interviewed were John Cleese, Stan Freberg, Douglas Adams, Peter Cook, Quentin Crisp and Tom Lehrer. If you go to his page, you'll find an interview with someone you think is or was a genius in the world of comedy…probably several someones.