Okay, here they are. What they lack in reliability and insight they make up for by being out early and not changing—no matter how silly they start to seem as the date of the Academy Awards telecast draws nearer. Say what you want but, hey, they’re worth every penny you’ve paid for them.

My main regrets? Well, for one thing, that the wonderful Irish/Luxembourgois film The Runway did not qualify—not that it would have gotten any nominations even if it had. Also, I think movies like Let Me In, Kick-Ass and Made in Dagenham got robbed—although no one, including me, seriously thought they were contenders. Christopher Nolan got slighted, but that doesn’t really bother me. Inception was good, but not quite as good as its most ardent supporters insist. And anyway, Nolan clearly has lots of awards in his future. The oddsmakers seem pretty sure that Colin Firth and Natalie Portman have the main acting awards sewn up, and that’s just fine.

So enough with the boring chat about the quality of the movies and the acting. Let’s get down to the important issues. What will I be drinking on Oscar night? I’ve been thinking about bucking tradition and going for margaritas. I’ve discovered that I can actually buy triple sec in Northern Ireland, even though I have never been able to find it in the republic. This solves my margarita problem, except that I only get up to the North about once every three years. So most of the time I substitute Cointreau instead. I don’t know if this breaks some law or rule, but it tastes just fine. In any event, I probably won’t do the margarita thing. The noise from the blender could keep the Missus and the kid up all night. I might stick with the semi-traditional barrel of martinis.

So all of the important planning has been done. Nothing to do now but brace myself for the humiliation when someone checks my list against the actual winners.