Kathleen Cei Photo

The bathroom at Koffee on Orange.

Poll-holding, pulse-taking fools that we’ve become, when we created the 2008 Best of New Haven ballot we just couldn’t stop when we got to the end of the “official” categories. So we created a brace of “fun” categories. These write-in votes would mean very little if we tallied them into statistics, but when sifted through as an exercise in passion-sharing and creativity, were a treasure trove of insights into our singular Greater New Haven community.
Here are some highlights from readers’ responses to our Best For Fun categories—unscientifically gathered and randomly arranged. (Next week Advocate staffers, as they do every year, will sound off with their own idiosycratic “Best Of” picks.) Thanks to the dozens of you who went to the extra effort. It’s worth it to know where the best bathroom graffiti might be.

Best Alderperson:
Yusuf Shah
Tom Lehtonen
Shorty

Best Door:
Firehouse 12
Door to Sterling Memorial Library

Best Farm:
Flowers from the Farm
Dudley Farm
Bishop’s Orchards
Hindinger Farm, Hamden

Best Fire:
“The one that cooks BAR’s pizza.”
“When Lou Martins sings it.”

Best Graffiti:
The bathroom at Koffee
on Orange
Win Wykowski

Best Local Artist:
John Aruny
Silas Finch
Todd Rogers

Best Local Blogger:
ctbob
Paul Bass
Hernandez Silicone

Best Local Celebrity:
“Ruby Vine, motherfucker!”
The Carpenters
Floatin’ Fred

Best Local Scandal:
“The Ideat Theft”

Best Local Writer:
Dave Solomon
Christopher Arnott
Paul Bass
Randall Beach

Best Neighborhood Park:
East Rock
Wooster Square Park
The New Haven Green

Best Parking Spot:
Shell Beach in Guilford.

Best Place to Have
Sex in Public:
“Beneath the Willow”

Best Place to Pick
Up Yale Students:
Jail

Best Place to
Skateboard:
State Street
Beinecke Plaza
Corner of Eagle & Nicoll

Best Place to Take
Off Your Shoes:
“Not 512 George Street.”
Yale Sculpture Garden

Best Public Bathroom:
“See above (Not 512 George Street)”

Best Street:
Orange Street
Warner Street
Chapel Street

Best Thing about
New Haven:
“Cheap parking.”
“Animated, dedicated people making it grow.”
“Small-town mentality in an urban environment.”

Best Thing about Yale:
“Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization.”
“Free health care for employees.”
“The money.”
“Art museum and Yale Rep.”
“Intellectual ferment: so much to go and hear or see.”■

editor@newhavenadvocate.com