Wow, a crazy night at the Oscars. A great many predictions (including, sadly, most of mine) were totally wrong. In spite of all the pre-Oscar buzz, "Avatar" pulled in only three Oscars (cinematography, visual effects, and art direction) compared to six for "The Hurt Locker" -- including Best Picture and Best Director.

Not a lot of back-and-forth in the evening's race. At the end of five categories, Marsha had a perfect score -- five for five. John was right behind, and tied Marsha's performance with the next envelope. They had pulled out ahead early on, and stayed there for the whole night. At the end of the first six categories, they each already had five correct picks. Teghan was off to a slow start (no correct picks in the first six categories), but she would soon make up for lost time!

Samantha was making it a race by keeping up with John and Marsha through most of the evening. It was a three-way tie after the 8th envelope. But unfortunately she faded in the stretch.

After the 10th envelope, the 17-and-under crowd was in a four-way tie. But with the 11th envelope -- Art Direction, for "Avatar" -- Teghan pulled ahead and stayed there for the rest of the night.

The 18th envelope was for Best Documentary Feature, and Teghan by this point had more correct picks than some of the over-17 crowd (Amanda and Gary and Karen), and at the end of the night she had outscored all three of them. Marsha moved ahead of John with this category, and stayed there for the rest of the night.

Only Donna and Erika correctly picked the Best Foreign Film category. Only front-runners Marsha and Teghan (plus Grandma and John) correctly picked Kathryn Bigelow as Best Director. John and Marsha each picked a respectable five out of the top six categories. Marsha's total of 18 correct picks out of 24 was not a record (that still belongs to Donna for her 2004 total of 19), but it's a great score. And, most spectacular of all, only Emily picked the Best Picture. A Best Picture that only one of us correctly picked? I don't think that's ever happened before in our thirteen years. Way to go, Emily! [Correction: Olivia also pulled off this amazing feat back in 2006.]

Congratulations to Marsha for her first win since 2002 ("A Beautiful Mind") and Teghan on her first-ever win. (And for bringing the Oscar to the Metcalf house for the first time ever!)

And thanks to everybody who played along this year. See you next year!

(Number of correct picks out of 24 categories)

18  Marsha
17  John
11  Grandma
11  Samantha
10  Anna
10  Donna
 9  Emily
 9  Teghan
 8  Amanda
 8  Gary
 7  Olivia
 6  Erika
 5  Tristen
 4  Karen

And totalling all the results of the past thirteen years, here are the standings, in order of percentage of correct picks:

55%   Gary       158 right out of 291
53%   John       153 right out of 291
50%   Marsha     145 right out of 291
49%   Donna      143 right out of 291
45%   Grandma    130 right out of 291
42%   Amanda     122 right out of 291
42%   Zachary     36 right out of  86
38%   Samantha   111 right out of 291
38%   Lori        56 right out of 148
37%   Paul        82 right out of 220
36%   Karen      105 right out of 291
35%   Anna        81 right out of 229
35%   Ryan        77 right out of 220
34%   Lindsey     90 right out of 267
32%   Emily       93 right out of 291
30%   Brent       28 right out of  95
25%   Erika       68 right out of 276
25%   Olivia      47 right out of 190
25%   Sean        12 right out of  48
21%   Tristen     44 right out of 213
21%   Teghan      20 right out of  96