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August 04, 2010

Seven Days Staff 2010 Daysie Picks

195-daysies10-winners A few weeks ago, Seven Days readers voted for the eighth annual Daysie awards. You can find the winners in a special section in the middle of this week's newspaper, or on the web here.

In addition, the Seven Days editorial staff has chosen to bestow a few Daysies of our own. We'll be posting them on this blog over the next few days.

Here's the first batch of our picks:

Best Vietnamese Combo platter: Pho Hong and the North Winooski Avenue Laundromat

Doing laundry at a laundromat where strangers can gaze at your unmentionables is a drag. But it's made immeasurably better at the North Winooski Avenue Laundromat thanks to the presence of Pho Hong Vietnamese restaurant. Here's how to optimize your laundry experience: get your laundry sudsing in the washing machine, then nab a table at Pho Hong next door. After you order and before your food comes, slip back over to the laundromat and switch your laundry over to the dryer. Your clothes will be finished at the same time your check comes. It eases the drudgery of the chore and prevents you from having to watch reruns of bad TV while waiting for the spin cycle to end.  - Lauren Ober

Best Cemetery for Picnicking: St. Augustine Cemetery in Montpelier

Perched on a hill off Lincoln Avenue, the Catholic cemetery has a gorgeous westward view of downtown Montpelier, Camel's Hump and the setting sun. The terraced plots are just the right size to throw down your picnic blanket... and the residents don't seem to mind. - Megan James

Best Place to Watch Bosnian TV: Café Mediterano in Essex Junction.

There is no greater pleasure than tucking into an airy lepinja roll filled with juicy cevapi sausages while seeing who will get eliminated next on "Bosnian Idol." - Alice Levitt

Best Place to Nap in Public: the Adirondack chairs at the top of Mt. Philo State Park. 

What better place to catch some Z's — and some sun — than the scenic park overlooking the Champlain Valley?  The wooden chairs are perfect for reclined resting, and the wind and chirping birds are better than any nature CD.  No better way to nod off ... even in public. - Carolyn Fox

Best VT publication: 7 days! Best twitterer: a 7 days writer! Best journalist: a 7 days writer! Runner up: a 7 days writer! How utterly meaningful.

What was sad about the awards this year is that BT lost out to Commcast for best internet and tv. Say what you want about how BT got into this mess and who is too blame, but what BT has done in terms of branding and developing the market in the years since Nulty departed is nothing short of shameful. Leopold and Burns & Co have driven this business straight into a ditch. From Nov. 2007 (when Nulty left) to August 2010 (a total of 34 months!!!) - there was no reason why BT couldn't have undertaken a PR and marketing campaign to shore up it's ship - the service does have it's qualities!! But the management is completely tone deaf and the missed Daysies award is but another sad illustration of that. BT = Big Turd

Comcast? SRSLY?

I keep waiting for Ashton Kutcher to show up--with DVR #6, since #5 is already starting to fail--and tell me that what I've been through since I signed up in February is a sadistic episode of Punk'd.

The people have spoken! It just goes to show you what dire condition BT is in. I would love to have them over Comcast (or would I?) but they claim they can't service my location just off of North Ave in the NNE. They also claimed I couldn't get service when I lived on Flynn Ave. If i can't get service on these two major roads, where can I? Comcast might suck, but at least I can get service and they aren't hemorging money left and right with no plan to correct things except Chris Burns hoping that the college kids all come back and sign up for BT in the fall.

"#5 is already starting to fail"

Getting a DVR from your provider is always a bad idea. Tivo are successful for a reason. Of course, BT doesn't work with the current line of Tivos and apparently never will.

I'm in the same boat as Jeff above. I live on a side street in the NNE, my home is approximately 300' east of North Ave. I would love to fire Comcast and hire BT, as would a good number of the 42 households on my street. BT does not provide service to my street. Numerous residents of our street have contacted BT over the years to request they bring service to our street and as far as I know no one has even received any return correspondence from BT.

I keep hearing how BT has access to 95% of the city, but in a city as small as Burlington anything less than 100% should be seen as failure. Can you imagine the uproar if Burlington Electric or Burlington Water only provided service to 95% of city households?

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