Congratulations to all the winners of this year's Mercury charity auction benefiting the Portland Women's Crisis Line! Together we managed to raise over $16,000 for this wonderful organization helping to support and protect women from sexual and domestic violence. Good work, everyone. I have to say that we were managing our expectations this year, what with all the bad news these past few months, but thanks to the incredible generosity of all the businesses who donated their goods and services, we were able to pull together some really dynamite packages, and everyone who bid really rose to the occasion. A few of the highlights:

—Get a Bike and Lunch with Sam Adams closed with the highest bid at $1,425!

—You Design the Mercury Cover pulled in $1,305!

—The Music Lovers! package raked in $930!

—And Hollywood Reads Your Screenplay, which brought in $690!

And, we have a winner for the Clone-A-Willy package that those D-holes on Ebay so rudely removed from the site—if it's you, you will receive an email by 5:30 pm this evening notifying you of your win.

AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!