2007

Best Picture: the departed

The Oscar invite goes online! Having just learned a bit of web design I throw together the earliest version of the Barker Oscar Party web site in time for this year's party. Trees around the world breathe a sigh of relief as the print version of the invite/ballot gets replaced by the first instance of the digital version that is now being pumped into your home through your internet connection. Voting in the Oscar Pool is now easier than ever for our guests, who only have to deal with a few drop-down menus and a Submit button to make their choices. (We beta-tested a version of the online ballot to a few stragglers who were late getting their votes in the previous year.)

We did mail out one printed piece this year: an invitation informing people where to log on to the web site. The invite was sent out in an envelope with a handsome, colorful label using characters from the movie "Cars", and with the recipient's addresses skewed to make it appear as though they were painted on the race track underneath the racecars. Unfortunately, the machines at the postal office have difficulty recognizing the addresses as being addresses, and about half of the invites get returned to us as being undeliverable, forcing us to sent them back out in plain brown envelopes. (Who's laughing now, U.S. Postal System?)

Unfortunately, after all this and all of the planning for the party itself, a major snowstorm blows through the area hours before the party is scheduled to start, keeping all but four very hearty souls from attending, and making for a very intimate evening.