LJ Idol Presents:

Wow.

You folks sure do enjoy a race to the finish line!!!

We are eliminating two people this round. However with a tie in the second poll (and even after going over them the numbers are still the same) we will be having a run off.

Before that announcement though, we have the first elimination. . .

the last of the veterans as it turns out!

We started this off with newbies vs veterans and that fight has now officially ended, and not in the way that anyone predicted.

I'll say more later, but for now - this week we are saying goodbye to

The One.

The Only.

The superhappytime, who once again manages to do something never before done. He finished in *the exact same place* that he finished in Season 4!!! (with more people)

Congratulations on accomplishing that. It's been a pretty damn amazing run.

edit to add I'll be honest, this is one that I'm not sure where to even start. But I also know that I don't want to wait until I can reflect. This one has to be fresh. It's the SHT way. Off the cuff and coming at you from an angle you didn't expect.

I didn't expect him to get this far. I figured he would self destruct or get bored. That's what tends to happen to veterans the second time through. I should have never doubted. If there was anyone who was going to beat the odds, this was the guy.

I thought he was going a few weeks ago when he called people out for being *the problem*. Come on - who can get away with that??? He can apparently.

He does it with charm and wit and let's just say it outright, writing the fuck out of anything he gets his hands on.

From the showmances with every woman he's ever met - real and fictional - to the show-bromances with emo_snal and soopageek, the man used his words to talk birds out of the trees to get them to fly off to bring him back something to drink, some company for the evening and his ipod. *g*

Every time people thought they had him pegged, he turned the tables on them and showed them something a little bit different. The number of people who can do that is remarkably small. But he always made it look easy.

There were people completely loyal and people who didn't like him all that much - but SHT is one of those people you just can't ignore. You have an opinion about him - and this is mine: He is a hell of a writer and regardless of what he is writing about seems to get a genuine and heartfelt joy from his gift. Which, again, you don't see in a lot of people.

Over the last few weeks I've been trying to peg down what sort of winner each remaining contestant was going to be. . . and every time I got to SHT the verdict was the same, he was going to be a fun one. Certainly an unpredictable one! But fun regardless!

We won't know, this season at least. Hopefully we will all get the chance some other time.

***

Now to the second part of this - the run off between abbismom and alycewilson.

The two of you have until tomorrow Thursday March 26th at 6pm EDT to link your entry for the topic Making Fire to this post. Good luck to you both.