In this, the third installation of the 2005 favorites cycle, we announce our favorites in the category of “scandals” and “the internet”. But not, for this year, the scandalous internets.

NO CONTEST scandal of 2005 : enumclaw man-horse love incident

Man meets horse, man loves horse, horse loves man in the only way one can generate national media attention. Which was more scandalous: the mainstream press’s slow realization and explanation of which participant was pitching and which was catching, all of the times developments in this incident showed up on this weblog, the frighteningly high number of hits that this story generated, or the fact that Washington has no laws against beastiality?

runner-up : alaska air springs a leak

An argument against outsourcing? A baggage handler dented the fuselage of an Alaska Air MD-80 jet and didn’t think it was worth mentioning it to anyone. Once the plane ascended into the low pressure skies, the dent turned into a foot long hole, causing rapid depressurization and forcing the plane to land safely at SeaTac. Of course, there were bloggers on board: notably blogebrity publisher Jeremy Hermanns, whose account of the ordeal and Treo photos from the cabin [jh] brought the terror to our laptops and all over the national media.

favorite internet : caffeinated and unstrung

With wireless havens Victrola and Vivace shutting down their wifi on the weekends to discourage freeloader campouts and to encourage people to talk to strangers (apparently, it’s better to interrupt someone reading a book than looking at the internet), it was a big year for checking your e-mail while sipping a cappuccino. Still, there’s something great about the prospect of being in one coffee shop, tuning your web browser to seattle.wifimug.org, and finding another place to go to drink more coffee where you can still be online. Managing one’s digital lifestyle without a real office has never been easier! As a resolution for 2006, why not turn on Bonjour [apple] or your iTunes sharing to promote more intra-cafe interactions?

runner-up: the ever-evolving slog

Leave it to the folks at the Stranger to make “blog” sound a little grosser. This year saw the expansion of “Seattle’s Only ___” franchise with the launch of The Stranger Slog, now advertised on almost every cover of the print edition. While the content isn’t always about Seattle, it provided an addictive hyperactive look at just what’s going on inside the Stranger offices and through the minds of the Stranger staffers. But the real intrigue has been in the redesigns. From nothing, links to discussion boards appeared, only to be superseded by links to comment pages. Later, both links shared space at the bottom of each post. And who can forget the headline font wars? Sans serif to serif and back in the space of a week! If only they’d get true permalinks and let A. Birch Steen post more often.

PHOTO CREDITS: most of the pictures came from metroblogger vaults (or were lifted from the linked sites), but a few were borrowed — scandal [hasbro].