and coming in third

Today we saw a commercial on the weather channel for an upcoming show entitled "The 100 Biggest Moments in Weather." It made me think about the importance of lists and rankings in our culture, and how it's one thing to talk about a person or thing that was "pretty interesting," or "above average," or even "outstanding," but how it fails to captivate our attention as if we were to call it the greatest/biggest/tastiest/sexiest/most scenic/most substantial person or thing in the entire neighborhood/city/state/world. One word can make an item stand out, possibly much farther than it ever intended to stand out.

So with that I wondered what other lists we could come up with. What list could we create that would find an audience in the world, even if it was just for the fact that we called it the greatest? We'd need experts in each field to debate these rankings on tv of course, but do you think we could build a following for ............

Top 10 Worst Horse Stall Disasters
20 Moments in Knitting That Took Your Breath Away
The 100 Greatest Bullfighters of All Time
The World's 20 Most Important Math Problems
Top 15 Most Unromantic Flowers (and the guys who gave them)
5 Best Uses for a Lima Bean
20 Most Useful Things to Do While Debilitated by Kidney Stones
100 Most Annoying Sounds on the Planet
15 Great Moments in the History of Pet Breeding
State's 20 Most Handsome Poodles

rise and shine!

I admit I have trouble getting up in the morning every now and then. The more comfortable the bed, the better the covers-tempurature ratio, the greater the hindrances the night before in getting a full, satisfying span of rest, the unispiring appointments to go to in the morning ..... the excuses can add up easily. Sometimes it helps to have a little prodding to get out the door.

When I was little, my mom used to give one call into the room (hey, it's time to get up!), and then would come in and pull back the curtains. If I was having additional trouble waking, she would come in and sing:

Mr. Sun, Sun,
Mr. Golden Sun,
Please shine down on me.

The other day I employed the tried and true "Skillet and Spoon" method to wake someone from her dreaminess. What methods have you used, or have been used on you? What method do you least prefer?