Who will win the Oscar?

Sometimes the SpineBlogger believes that we all need some levity in our lives. Recently, Orthopedics This Week announced the 2009 Spine Technology Awards. The intent of the Awards Show is to bring recognition to the engineers, companies, and physician inventors who create breakthrough technology (definitely not Blackstone). By the looks of things, our industry is on a roll!!!! Could this be the next Academy Awards, the Country Music Awards, (God, I love that Carrie Underwood chick) or the American Music Awards, and are we heading for the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard next year? Could we start seeing engineers and surgeons with Stars on Beale Street in Memphis? Will this ceremony have the potential for a Janet Jackson moment? Can this inaugural festivity have the potential of picking up momentum and becoming an annual Red Carpet extravaganza like Oscar? Will we see James Lipton (The Actors Studio) playing Alexis Lukianov in a documentary on NuVasive in the near future? Will OTW eventually build a Spine Technology Hall of Fame in Warsaw, Indiana, the Orthopedic Capital of the World, where sculptures of engineers and surgeons will be enshrined? Will we have to listen to winners get up on stage and tell us how they would like to thank their fans. How many times will we have to endure someone yelling from the audience, "We love you, Tony!"

How subjective will the judging be when surgeons and clinical research experts will be doing the voting? I mean come on, even Jeopardy has rules! Will Deloitte and Touche be monitoring the voting? I always thought award shows were a venue for the public to acknowledge their stars? All in all, it should be a fun night. So dig deep into your pockets (pony up boys) and be a participant in what could turn out to be an annual classic that is something beautiful. Individual tickets are $850 and a table of eight will run you $7,000. Let the party begin!