We all have fears of not measuring up, and not being appreciated for the things we love to do and want to offer to the world. But what if your worst nightmares came true and you found yourself winning only second place? I guess that doesn’t sound like much of a nightmare, second place has a lot of merit. I mean just think about it, second place in a beauty pageant means you only have to wait until the winner bumps off in some inexplicable freak peanut butter and hairdryer accident to be first place. Your really not far from the best, only one person away from greatness. But what if you were second place…in a contest in which you were the only entrant? Is it bringing the nightmare more into focus? Talk about not measuring up.

That’s right, some poor 62 year old woman was judged by her peers in England and was found to be second rate in a single entrant sponge cake contest. Apparently, it was so bad that she was notified that if there were other entrants there was no way she would have won first place.

This poor woman had to endure the public embarrassment of being notified that she was mediocre, even in a crowd of one. It’s most unfortunate when you stand alone and still don’t stand out. I think that’s what makes the web so popular, if you can’t muster prize winning content and as such nobody ever visits your site, at least your mediocrity is anonymous.

In an interesting twist however, one of the judges of this sponge cake contest was the only entrant in a scones contest elsewhere, and she only racked up third place. Irony is a cruel mistress.
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Jenny Brown, 62, entered her sponge cake in a contest sponsored by an organization in Wimblington, England, in July, was informed by judges that she had won “second place,” and was only later told that she was the only entrant (but was also told that she could not have first place). BBC News, 7-5-07