I think it's safe to say three potential guest-bloggers stood out from the rest. Mike, Peter and Josh were the top finishers, and they will receive Blogger invites to post at Scholars tonight. They may post as soon as they receive the invites.

I had always intended more than one person to substitute. Part of my desire is to highlight other good blogs, and Mike's and Peter's are two. I also would love to see Josh or Nate blog regularly, and while Josh has had a personal blog he doesn't do economics or politics much. I think he should do more, and this will give him a chance to try it out on a low-commitment basis.

My thanks to Nate, Hube and Tony for their offers. The conversation about Tony dominated one comment thread, which I think was a problem. Tony's blog is something you won't hear elsewhere, and if you don't like it you needn't go back. Hube's blog is very good -- I find it interesting that the one educator in the pool of contestants did not garner more support. Does this mean that people don't come here for education news any more? I hope not. Michael Boucher, high school teacher from Minneapolis with whom I've sparred many times on education policy, was going to enter in this contest but decided instead to send me one or two posts, which I'll put up before I go (if I get them, friend). I'm looking forward to those as a challenge to the usual readers here. I think Tony's posts would have been challenging too, in a different way.

I like readers who disagree with me. And I'd hope my readers would welcome a chance to read opposing views. I don't want too much of it -- a blog needs a theme and a certain consistency -- but homogeneous only works well in milk and production functions.

With that, I take down the poll and prepare for travel.