The votes in our BPHOF poll are trending towards exclusivity, something that I had not foreseen. Any further discussion?

The final nominees:

Betty Smith
Dodie Smith
They Might Be Giants
Sarah Vowell
Joss Whedon

I want to take a moment away from announcing the names of the final nominees to address a procedural question. Please take a moment to respond to our poll:

How big should the inaugural class of the Big Pink HOF be?
	Let em all in if they get the votes!
	No more than 25.
	Let's be selective: limit it to the top 20 vote getters
	Let's be exclusive: limit it to the top 12 vote getters
pollcode.com free polls

I would like to suggest an addendum to the Big Pink Hall of Fame voting process. Since it's pretty obvious that some of these nominees relate more to some family members than others, I would like to suggest that each person is allowed to propose (from the list of nominees) a personal influence who they think had a greater impact on them than on anyone else in the family. This vote would take place in the final rounds, but personal influences would be disqualified from the main Hall of Fame. What are people's thoughts on this?

The excitement mounts as I take the podium to announce today's nominees to the Big Pink HOF:

Russell and Lillian Hoban
Madelene Jankowski
Norton Juster
C.S. Lewis
Scott Oakley
Keith Richards
Ruth Reichel

Congratulations to today's seven nominees to the Big Pink HOF:

Carol Christ
Bob Dylan
Ella Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jonathan Safran Foer
Ira Glass
Darlene Gullia
Dashiell Hammett

Nominations for what is provisionally being called the Big Pink Hall of Fame have all been received and are now closed. In order to heighten the excitement we will release seven names a day, here and at Outside Counsel.

As sharp-eyed readers will surmise, there was nomination overlap, which is why each elector submitted seven names. The first seven are:

L. Frank Baum
Joel Becktell
The Beatles
Chuck Berry
Walter R. Brooks
Julia Child
Bing Crosby
Miles Davis

Over dinner last night (spaghetti squash with apples and sausage, very nice) we decided to put the notion of a family Hall of Fame into action, and devised some rules. For the first class each member of the Big Pink household has been invited to submit up to five names. Nominations are anonymous. In the event of duplicate submissions the electors will be invited to each submit two additional candidates, for a total of seven each. All nominees are to be real people-- no fictional characters. The nominees may be public figures, or they may be private people who are known to us and are deemed sufficiently influential to merit inclusion. Collective candidates are permitted-- if a nominee collaborated with others, as with, for example, a band or, or a sports team, or an author/illustrator team, that collective will be counted as a single nomination.

The names submitted will be assembled on a single, alphabetized ballot. The formal vote shall take place over dinner on Boxing Day. Australian Rules shall apply to voting. Candidates who do not receive at least 2 votes shall be ineligible for future consideration; Candidates must receive at least 75% of the votes cast to be inducted. Electors may vote for all, none, or as many candidates that appear on the ballot as they so choose.

I'll post the names of the nominees when they are all in. Debate, horse trading and cajolery are encouraged, either in the Comments here, or by email.