Best Mascot: Roc the Panther

Tell me what other mascot crowd-surfs to the top of… Best Mascot: Roc the Panther

Tell me what other mascot crowd-surfs to the top of its student section at basketball games? Whether he’s mocking another team’s mascot at Heinz Field or inconspicuously wading through a wrestling crowd at Fitzgerald Field House, waiting to surprise an unsuspecting fan, Roc pumps up Panther fans even if the Panthers themselves aren’t. The Pirate Parrot took second, only because Roc doesn’t have a beak or a dugout to break dance on.

Runner-up: The Pirate Parrot

—Pat Mitsch, Assistant Sports Editor

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Best Sports Team: Pittsburgh Steelers

The reigning Super Bowl champions aren’t surprisingly Pittsburgh’s most beloved team. Despite their dismal start to this year’s season with a losing record and a slim chance of making the playoffs, the Steelers faithful still bleed black and gold. And although true fans hate hearing this, there always is next year.

The Pitt football team came in second place. The Panthers, under the direction of Dave Wannstedt for the second year, have made drastic improvements from last year’s team and are poised to make their first bowl appearance under Coach Wannstedt.

Runner-up: Pitt Football

—Jared Trent Stonesifer, Assistant News Editor

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Best Free Entertainment: Drunks

Whether you choose to park yourself in Towers lobby around midnight or simply watch all evening from the comfort of your South Oakland porch, you can definitely expect to be entertained by the inebriated antics of your fellow students. Over the course of a typical weekend night, the theater of the drunk swings in an instant from comedy to tragedy and back with each passing group of intoxicated players; the classic damsel in distress, weeping softly, clinging to her closest friend for support and searching in vain for her long-lost purple stiletto; the heroic action of hand-to-hand combat as friend turns to foe and fists fly aimless in the night; and the clown, whose boorish antics make us all laugh, even knowing that his smile hides a deep frown to come when morning dawns. And all of this, dear groundlings, for free.

Runner-up: Pitt Arts

—D. Clark Denison, Chief Meteorologist

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Strangest Thing in Oakland: Big, Inflatable Animals

When they began appearing this past spring, no one quite knew what to make of the giant inflatable effigies around the new Schenley Quad. Now, after several months of everything from dinosaurs to zombies bobbing in our midst, it’s still hard to say what in the name of Andrew Carnegie is going on around here. Where did they come from? Where have they gone? Will they return? Only time, dear readers, will tell.

Runner-up: The smell

—D. Clark Denison, Senior Staff Writer

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Best Radio Station: 96.1KISS FM

Why do Pittsburghers love 96.1 KISS FM? Maybe it’s their popular “Morning Freak Show,” or perhaps it is their tasteful blending of hip-hop, pop and other contemporary music hits. Or maybe it’s the wide array of contests and prizes offered to listeners. Decide for yourself why you love KISS FM by tuning in to the melodic sweetness of 96.1.

Runner-up: 91.3 WYEP

—Erin Green, Assistant Opinions Editor

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Best Local Band: The Clarks

If you’re from out of town and have been in Pittsburgh for nearly a semester and haven’t heard of The Clarks, what’s your deal?

Whether you’re “Chasing Girls” or lighting another “Cigarette,” The Clarks have a song for you. Look up the homegrown band — their rock ‘n’ roll sound has been a favorite in the ‘Burgh for a few years now.

If you’re lucky enough, you can catch them playing one of many concerts nearby. Or you can hold out hope that they’ll come back to Pitt and play another freebie on Bigelow Boulevard.

Runner-up: Beats ‘N Verbs

—Alan Smodic, Sports Editor

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Best Neighborhood: Shadyside

It’s no wonder that Shadyside beat out Oakland in this year’s Best Of. Although more students probably live in Oakland, anyone who lives in Shadyside immediately recognizes its superiority.

Sure, it’s a short bus ride to campus, but the amenities of Shadyside, including relatively clean streets, vomit-free sidewalks, a decreased risk of drunken vandalism and quiet nights more than make up for any added time to one’s commute.

Shadyside’s extensive spread of bars, restaurants and shopping on Walnut and Ellsworth definitely beat out the grubby college bars and restaurants in Oakland.

One may feel defeated when he moves to Shadyside from Oakland, as if his days of drunken debauchery and house parties are over, but when it’s time to make the transition from college life to the “real world,” Shadyside is definitely the place to go.

Runner up: Oakland

—Annie Tubbs, Managing Editor

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Best Web site for College Students: Facebook

“Hey Vikki, is Matt still seeing that ho from Duquesne?”

“Oh my God, I so don’t know.”

“I totally want to ask him out — what should I do?!”

We needed a not-so-creepy way to stalk people and cyber-flirt, and then a higher power gave us Facebook. As if we didn’t have enough distractions before, now we can waste time making groups and posting hideous pictures of our friends (thank goodness for the untagging feature). And if the news feed says that the cute guy in Intro to Psych is no longer in a relationship, romance is just a “poke “away. Totally.

Runner-up: Google

—Kristen DiLemmo, A’E Editor

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Best Movie Theater: South Side Works Cinema

South Side Works Cinema is ideal for students seeking a bag of popcorn and a good flick. Not only is it proximal to campus — a mere 15-minute ride on the 59U — but it offers a broad range of cinematic selections for viewers to choose from at bargain prices. The theater boasts 10 screens, three of them showing foreign and art movies for the cultured viewer. And for those of you who really want to treat yourselves, on Monday nights, the theater offers $5 tickets and a free popcorn — it doesn’t get much better than that.

If Mondays don’t work, try out Thursdays when South Side Works offers its student special, where moviegoers with a valid student ID can gain admission to a movie for just $6.

Runner-up: AMC Theatres at the Waterfront

—Erin Green, Assistant Opinions Editor

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Best Live Theater: Benedum Center for the Performing Arts

Rest assured, the spirit of Broadway is alive and well in Pittsburgh.

The Benedum Center for the Performing Arts, located downtown on Liberty Avenue, never fails to offer a “Standing O”-worthy array of musicals and theatrical events each season. In the coming months, the Benedum Center will stage several must-sees, including the Abba-themed “Mama Mia” and the explosive, percussion-heavy spectacle of “Stomp.”

With a classy interior featuring more than 90 chandeliers and several l8-foot-high mirrors meant to mirror those of Versailles, the Benedum Center will have you feeling like theater-going royalty. All hail “The King and I.”

Runner up: Mr. Small’s

—Derek Reighard, Assistant A’E Editor

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Best Class as Pitt: History of Jazz

Apparently, students love listening to jazz music and hearing anecdotal stories of life as a jazz musician on the road. Students voted History of Jazz the best class at Pitt, and a lot of that has to do with Professor Nathan Davis, a prominent jazz musician and experienced teacher and scholar. The class is very informal and well-organized, so it isn’t much of a surprise it won the honor of the best class at Pitt.

Runner-up: Religion and Politics

—Jared Trent Stonesifer, Assistant News Editor

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Best Class to Sleep Through: Intro to Psychology

It’s OK if you passed out when your professor started talking about the hypothalamus, everyone else did, too.

Don’t blame yourself. Falling asleep when you step into your Intro to Psych class is second nature, like salivating when Pavlov rings his bell.

It’s a little too tempting to take a quick 50-minute nap after staying up all night watching funny cartoons on YouTube or winning a beer pong tournament. And in a sea of sleeping faces, your professor can’t possibly pick you out as one of the slackers.

Besides, with hundreds of people in one class, it’s like they are asking you to sleep, and you aren’t as bad as the people who picked the runner-up.

Runner-up: All of them

—Tim Stienstraw, Assistant News Editor

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Best Classroom: David Lawrence 120/121

There’s nothing quite like the lecture halls in David Lawrence. With those weird wooden block sculptures and the walls that appear to be made from bits of rubber bands, it’s no wonder those particular classrooms are everyone’s favorite.

Most students in the School of Arts and Sciences probably end up in these lecture halls at least once a year, and there’s something that always keeps students coming back for more.

Maybe it’s the usually frigid temperatures or the sense of anonymity in the exceptionally large rooms, but students at Pitt feel attached to these rooms, wooden blocks and all.

Runner-up: Cathedral of Learning 302

—Annie Tubbs, Managing Editor

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Best Student Organization: Pitt Program Council

Pitt Program Council has been voted the best student organization by readers of The Pitt News. PPC is in charge of many of the events brought to campus, including musical acts during Fall Fest and Bigelow Bash. They are also responsible for other events on and off campus, such as the fireworks and laser show during Homecoming weekend and school-sponsored trips to exotic locations.

Runner-up: SODAS, Student Government Board (tie)

—Jared Trent Stonesifer, Assistant News Editor

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Pitt Sports Team: Basketball

Carl Krauser may be gone, but Pitt’s basketball team maintains its campus popularity without the “X.” Aaron Gray, Ronald Ramon and Levon Kendall provide the foundation for what should be an exciting season. With a preseason NCAA ranking of No. 4, who doesn’t have dreams of showing WVU that Pitt is more than just a pretty face by making an appearance in the Final Four?

Runner-up: Football

—Keaton Carr, Assistant Photo Editor