Best Excursion With Child (in the Animated Short Category)
Take one adult. Add children and mode of transportation. Arrive in Fairport. Park behind the library in the spacious, free parking lot. Hike up Main Street over the canal, looking down through the bridge grating periodically, just for that weird psychic thrum of sensing nothing beneath your feet. Hang a left at the first break in storefronts and rent as many canoes as necessary for an hour. Make sure everyone rows so they’re all tired. Walk along the canal back under Main Street. Look to your left and see the ice cream parlor. Eat the ice cream. Cross back under the canal; head back toward the library. Stop in at Candy Nation for future supplies. Borrow books, computer games, movies, and music at the library. Struggle back to car, exhausted. In inclement weather, substitute bike rental at RV&E Bike & Skate.

Best Animated Excursion With Shorts (in the Child Category)
Corbett’s Glen is the sort of place beloved by the sort of people who love Corbett’s Glen. If you like flowers, waterfalls, or crayfish, then the Glen is for you.
In our visits, the nestled park has been deserted, allowing the revelation of the oasis as a verdant pleasure of meadow and tumbling waters with plenty of space for exploration and glee. After Rochester’s epic winters, no signs are more appreciated than the prospect of flowers emerging from the saturated earth and the echo of water once more gurgling freely over rock and stone.
Recently, some striking transformations have materialized at Corbett’s Glen. A new parking lot and entrance have appeared on Penfield Road. Hopefully, this does not foreshadow a Samsa-like metamorphosis into something far less pleasant.

Best Performance as a Major League Team in the Absence of a Senior Circuit
It had to happen eventually. One of the major league sports was going to lose an entire season to a labor dispute. When millionaires fight, it remains remarkably difficult to sympathize with either side. Sometimes these disputes devolve into circus sideshows with amateurs performing a disservice to themselves and to management/labor relations. Hopefully, these caesuras from adulation of athletes allow the average fan the opportunity to actually participate in some sports activities, maybe get a little exercise, and attend a few in-season AAA meetings. Rochester has been a minor league town for so long that we feel these absences less keenly. NHL games might not have been on television, but that mattered less than what was going on over at the Americans’ igloo. The Rochester Americans, for one season, were in the major league.

Best Cow in a Suburban Pasture
Gather round me; a story I will tell
Of a beautiful maiden in her dell.
Amongst her cattle kin, she looks the best.
You can see her along 490 West.
Speeding by her herd, don’t disturb her peace,
The splendor of this enigmatic beast.
It’s hard to tell whether that bovine miss
Is Guernsey, Jersey, Ayrshire, or Brown Swiss,
But rest assured past Tinseltown somewhere
She stands with eyes so fair; her udders down to there.
Look for the one who interrupts her meal-
She stares at you with that vacant appeal.
Her milk and meat do mean a lot to her.
Possibly we should even consider
A better memorial than neon arches
And grilled flesh surrounded by salted starches.