I keep forgetting to mention that next year will mark the follow-up to the popular state quarters program, as we'll start a new series of quarters featuring a national park or historic place/thing from each state/territory/DC. And unlike the state quarter process, which saw us in Massachusetts get stuck with this uninspired result, we get to vote on what'll be on our national park coin.

But we've apparently replaced a dictatorship with anarchy, given this list of candidates. Nice to see that each county is represented, but a little extra winnowing would have been nice. I'm not familiar with the city halls in Worcester or Chicopee, but I'm not sure I'd want them on my quarter. Same goes with the Balch House, which even with the dose of homerism seems a little obscure to be on a quarter.

Picking a top 5 candidate list is a little fraught, but if you forced me to I'd go with:

1. Gloucester Fisherman's Memorial. Perhaps not the most representative choice for the entire state, but I think it's a good choice based on its nod to the state's fishing industry and because it'd be less open to design nonsense.

2. Minuteman National Historical Park. Were I designing it, I'd come up with something centered on North Bridge, which is scenic (bridge, water, trees) and connected with the "shot heard 'round the world" in Emerson's "Concord Hymn."

3. USS Constitution. This seems like as close to a no-brainer on the list as anything else. But after the aforementioned Rhode Island and Maine quarters, picking a ship may be a little derivative.

4. The Ether Dome. I think we can all get behind celebrating the birth of operations under anesthesia.

5. Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival. I have no idea how they'd make a design on this that's something other than people dancing and the name "Jacob's Pillow" somewhere, but I'd like to see someone try. My alternate Western Massachusetts pick would be Al's Diner in Chicopee, which I know nothing about but think would be fun to have on a coin.

So there you are. Voting continues through next week, and you can vote as much as you like, so feel free to stuff the ballot box for your favorite.