The votes are in, the ballots have been counted, the returning officers have been soundly flogged and locked in the Voodoologic dungeons for the kind of corruption that would make a private contracting company in Iraq blush, and yet it still appears that Darren Saturday has emerged as the winner of the “Cats in the cradle” caption slugfest.

Let me be the first to grudgingly congratulate him for his winning entry, and to also announce a broadly commissioned inquiry into the controversy that will henceforth be known among all Voodoonista as ‘Cradlegate’:

Darren Saturday, “Sod it ! Nathan was going to have fun tonight regardless of his poorly worded posting at http://www.adultfriendfinder.com“

I’d also like to point out that this marks the first slugfest in which anyone has voted for one of my submissions, so whoever threw me that bone, I wish I was cool enough to ignore it, but it’s fairly obvious I’m not, so let’s all pretend I didn’t mention it.

Right, now that we’ve dealt with that moderately awkward moment, I’m pleased to hint that the next caption slugfest will definitely push back the quantum boundaries of hilarity in ways that only a particle physicist would hope to be able to understand [1]. I can tell you that it does feature one or more musical instruments, and that someone may well be wearing a hat. Or, you never know, maybe not.

Well, ha ha ha, I’m laughing already!

So, congratulations again to Darren Saturday [2], and stay tuned for the next slugfest, which should kick off soon.