THE STUPIDEST THINGS EVER SAID annual awards * * * 2009 WINNERS * * * The Stupidest Things Ever Said awards – selected by stupidity specialists Ross and Kathryn Petras, the compilers of the best-selling annual calendar The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said (now in its 16th year) – are given in twelve different categories celebrating the stupidest things said, printed, broadcast or otherwise disseminated in the current calendar year. And the 2009 winners are . . . in the Stupidest Headline category: High school swimsuit ban applauded by coaches - Greenwich (CT) Time, 8/20/09 in the Great Moments in Defining Things category: "A versatile guy is a guy who can be very versatile."  – Washington Redskins player Brian Orakpo in the special Mother Teresa Memorial category: " [I am just a banker] doing God’s work."  – chief executive of Goldman Sachs Lloyd C. Blankfein in a Times of London interview in the Great Moments in TV Broadcasting category: Fox 5 (New York)’s anchor Ernie Anastos: "It takes a tough man to make a tender forecast." weather forecaster Nick Gregory: "I guess that’s me." Anasotos: "Keep f---ing that chicken!" in the Stupidest Helpful Hints category: "Just remember this acronym –DOSSiShQACNMN  – to make it easy for you to remember the order of adjectives in a series."  – from an English language learning book used in the Phillippines in the Perhaps I Should Rephrase That category: "The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings and inefficiencies to our health care system."  – President Barack Obama in remarks after a health care roundtable with physicians, nurses and health care providers in Washington, D.C in the Perhaps I Should Hire a New Speechwriter category: "It is as throughout all Alaska that big wild good life teeming along the road that is north to the future." – former Alaska governor Sarah Palin waxing poetic about the Alaskan wilderness during her last official speech as governor in the Stupidest Interviewing Question category: "You definitely must feel like you didn’t do anything wrong I mean to write a book and whatever, like that’s how secure you are that this is something else?" – political commentator (and daughter of Senator John McCain) Meghan McCain to former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich in the Stupidest Statement by an Annoying Rich Person category: "I always lived very frugally. I flew around on a private jet. I had a boat. But I always lived very frugally." – billionaire financier and alleged Ponzi scheme operatorAllen Stanford in the Stupidest Mangled Cliche category: "I'm not a rocket surgeon."  – tattoo artist and star of TV show LA Ink Kat Von D in the Less Than Compelling Advertisement category:  "Trojan-Enz Latex Condoms, Lubricated, 36-Count Boxes (Pack of 2) by Trojan Buy new: $15.99      4 Used & new from $14.99"  – listing on Amazon.com in the Overly Picturesque Headline category:   Minister Quits Over Brown "Smears" – headline on a vending machine placard for that day’s The Evening Standard – after Environment Minister Jane Kennedy resigned, accusing British prime minister Gordon Brown of running a smear campaign   The 365 Stupidest Things Ever Said annual calendar is complied by Ross & Kathryn Petras and published by Workman Publishing.  Other books in the Stupidest series include Unusually Stupid Americans, The 776 Stupidest Things Ever Said, Lexicon of Stupidity and Unusually Stupid Celebrities.