Its time to welcome in the new year by recognizing a few of the best answers written so far in it.

First up is the "Flairs Choice Award", which saw some tight voting but in the end saw a slight edging out by /u/indyobserver for their answer to "Why did President Bush call Senator Biden during the September 11th attack?".

Meanwhile, the "Users' Choice Award" goes to /u/itsallfolklore, who tackled "Westerns often depict decently-sized towns out in arid regions with little to no visible farmland. Is this purely a limitation of film budgets, or did settlements in the American west and northern Mexico in the 1800s actually generally import food rather than produce it locally?".

For the "Dark Horse Award", which recognizes the combined top-voted non-flair user's answer, there were quite a few deseerving answers, but it is unsurprising many were blown away by /u/royalsanguinius and their lengthy treatment of 'Did the 5th-century western Roman empire have a "collapse of civilizational self-confidence," and so "permitted (Rome) to be sacked?"'.

For this month's 'Greatest Question', voted on by the mods, the mysteries of Aztec plumbing promised by "The Aztecs had pipes. What were they made of? Where did the water come from? What did they look like? Was it like an aqueduct?", asked by /u/Vegetable_Path6975, caught our eye, although it is as of yet unanswered.

As always, congrats to our very worthy winners, and thank you to everyone else who has contributed here, whether with thought-provoking questions or fascinating answers. And if this month you want to flag some stand-out posts that you read here for potential nomination, don't forget to post them in our Sunday Digest!

For a list of past winners, check them out here!