And then, negative though the contest turned out to be, the undercurrents weighed in.
No matter how the Springsteen-Adele contest turned out, the biggest winner was Columbia Records, the Sony-owned label that released both titles and has been holding on to a growing market share this year.
However, others who hear how the contest turned out may wonder whether the winner will react — to paraphrase the old joke about dubious victories — by asking whether the second prize was $2 million worth of full-page newspaper ad space.
It surprised me last week that my article about Rima Fakih becoming the first Arab-American and Muslim to win the Miss USA beauty contest turned out to be Cif's most-read item of the day.
Boris Johnson's victory against Ken Livingstone in the race for mayor of London offered some relief to the Conservatives, but Tory celebrations were muted because the contest turned out to be far closer than had been expected.
The champion in this contest turned out to be Andrea Martin, who, accepting the award for best featured actress in a musical ("My Favorite Year"), managed to beat the clock, and with a joke; she thanked her extended Armenian family "for giving me my roots, and my hairdresser, Gary, for restoring them to their natural color".
According to the Bismarck Tribune, the North Dakota contest turned out 9,785 people in 2008.
Sports added that it would not be a surprise if the contest turned out to be the fight of the year.
Whatever the legality or constitutionality of this move, and however the inevitable court contest turns out, it's nice to see someone in Albany doing something.
POLITICAL analysts in South Korea are proving to be unusually wary about predicting who will win the presidential election on December 19th, so close is the contest turning out to be.
