As usual, entries in the current Verse or Worse competition varied considerably in form. Each was to be a make of car manufactured in and named for a country, with an amusingly descriptive model name.
 
Some of the entries came with lengthy descriptions, some with just a word or two. And many — in fact, most — did not actually include the name of a country. But for once your genial host easily rose above such trivialities as he set about choosing what he holds to be the best five entries.
 
He's not sure why that happened. Maybe it helped that, when the contest closed Thursday evening and he entered MinnPost's virtual sanctum sanctorum to burrow through the entries, he was in a particularly generous frame of mind: Thanks to the miracle of DVD rental, he had just had the delightful experience of watching an episode of "The Rockford Files" he'd never seen before.

Your genial host is no longer bathed in the glow of that experience (so don't try to hit him up for a quick loan), but he remains satisfied with his selections. Now it's up to you, the vast Verse or Worse voting public, to decide which of the five will be anointed the winner, and bring to its author the ultimate reward: an oddly likable MinnPost T-shirt.
 
Here are your choices:
 
The Beijing taxicab: The Chinese Checker
 —Jill Field
 
A small sub-compact made in Venezuela that comes with a lifetime supply of cheap gas, in order to thumb your nose at Big Oil and the recipients of their largess in Washington, D.C.: The Yugo Chavez.
—Chuck Kaiser
 
Swedish bookmobile: The Saab Story
—Lyn Crosby
 
No cars are made in Central America.  They might be able to pull it off if the Japanese built a plant there. It would be something they could be proud of.  Let's call it the Hondurable.
—Tom Olson
 
A new model created for the northern winters, manufactured in Toronto. It is a hybrid vehicle but sacrifices some of its battery thrust to power especially bright headlamps to pierce the four-month gloom of northern winters. It is called The Canadian Beacon.
— Chuck Carlin
 
Cast your vote for the winner by clicking here. Voting ends at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 6. On Monday, March 10, we'll announce winner of the unbelievably presentable MinnPost T-shirt — and a new competition.