[the phantom]

And how sad that the contest is being skewed by a small number of irregular voters who turn up on the orders of their lord and master to vote exactly the way he tells them to. Still, there is, I suppose, no rule against it. And if the only way the phantom is able to maintain his preferred candidate is to rely on the votes of lackeys, then so be it. The effort involved is, at least, probably keeping him out of trouble.

Wow. You're really making me feel powerful. Thanks.

But seriously, you might not want to refer to my intelligent friends as "lackeys". You might just anger them into perpetually voting against you.

Come on folks, when it comes to Elrond, which posts are the more entertaining? Those proposing his eviction or those seeking to defend him?

Actually, what I truly find entertaining is the contrast between the two camps.

Do I need to give any reasons? I gave enough yesterday.

Hee hee. That's one reason why I really wanted to save Elrond. I wanted to see if you could bring yourself to, for a third straight day, push for his execution. I was sort of betting you'd become awfully frustrated by the third day, but you seem to be doing a good job of remaining in good spirits.

I may even be nice and not call upon my "lackeys" today.

Now, who do I think should be gone today? It's getting to the point where I like, to some degree, most of the candidates, or at least respect them somewhat. I think that's a good problem.

So instead of asking who I want gone, I think it would be more productive for me to ask myself, "Who definitely should not win the entire game?"

In my opinion, Anarion, Tar Miriel, Cirdan, Celebrian, Narvi, Fangorn, and Ohtar have no business taking the trophy home, and I think most of you agree. Sure, it might be fun to take a couple of them into the later rounds- I happen to have a soft spot for a couple of them- but it would be a travesty for one of them to win the game when there are so many better candidates. I don't particularly like a couple of the "better" candidates, but it wouldn't upset me if they won.

So, you can bet I'm going to vote for one of the people I listed above.