Homecoming – a time to remember Pitt traditions; a time to honor the blue and gold; a time… Homecoming – a time to remember Pitt traditions; a time to honor the blue and gold; a time to pick our most beautiful, put sparkly hats on them and stick them on a boat. Also, there’s tailgating.

But aside from the beer and fried chicken, the Homecoming King and Queen are the tastiest parts of the weekend.

And you should vote for them and vote now – polls close at noon today. Unlike past years, voting this year is done online at www.my.pitt.edu. Just log in, look for the Homecoming election subheading and scroll through your list of options. Each candidate is listed with his or her picture, and a link to an essay about Pitt pride. So, rather than being the vapid beauty contest it usually is, it’s now a beauty contest with essays.

This form of voting is a boon to the election – it allows for 24 hours of polling, rather than the meager six provided last year. Also, you don’t have to be in Towers Lobby to vote. This way, anyone with Internet access can vote, which will hopefully lead to a higher turnout this year than in years past.

Reducing overt bribery – buying votes with candy and other commodities – is another benefit of on-line voting, though we will miss the tiny chocolate bars. And this form of polling will hopefully eliminate an unfortunate Pitt tradition: littering the Ashtray with fliers, candy wrappers and junk, leaving it to the custodians and groundskeepers to clean.

Many complain that Pitt doesn’t have many Homecoming traditions, apart from indiscriminate waste, but there is a new one that we hope to perpetuate – electing a Homecoming King and Queen representative of Pitt as a whole. While the Greek system is important to Pitt, only 13 percent of Pitt is Greek. As such, whoever is elected should represent more than that 13 percent.

We, at The Pitt News, are never ones to be silent. And, to be honest, we aren’t unbiased observers of this election. We are sponsoring a candidate, and a nontraditional one at that.

Brian “Butter” Palmer writes for our A’E section, works for WPTS radio station and is sponsored by the Oakland Zoo, in addition to the station and this newspaper. He deserves your vote, because as his Web site says, “he’s bigger than you.” And we couldn’t have put it better. So vote for Butter. He’ll look great in a sparkly hat.