One of the most popular events in the Iowa Olympics is the “Mondo Modesty” portion of the Hawkeye Decathlon, where contestants compete to see who can shout “Iowans are humble and don’t like attention!” the loudest in a public place. The end of the calendar year is always a great time to be training for that Iowa Mondo Modesty competition, since websites and magazines and newspapers from around the country almost always include Iowa in their year-end “Best Of” lists for one thing or another. Not that we’re keeping track, mind you, since we’re modest, and we don’t like attention. But, still, here are some of the accolades that Iowa earned in 2015, just in case you’re interested. Not that we’re bragging or anything, because we don’t do that. It’s not nice.

• Pitchfork ranks Des Moines the #1 music city in the country in its year-end “Places Where People Still Think That David Byrne Matters” report.
• Forbes ranks Iowa #3 among “States Whose Names Begin with Vowels,” and #4 among “States Whose Names End With Vowels;” only Ohio, Alabama, Idaho, Oklahoma and Alaska score higher consolidated scores in both categories.
• Gastronomica ranks Des Moines the #2 city in the U.S.A. for “Most Inexplicable or Inappropriate Things Served on Pizzas and Hamburgers.”
• Iowa finishes #3 in Weather Channel’s annual “Most Grotesque Climates in America” contest.
• The Atlantic ranks Cedar Rapids #3 on its “Cities Most Often Confused with Other Cities” Survey. No, wait, that was actually Cedar Falls. We think.
• Big Think ranks Iowa #4 in its “Best Sort-of-Square-Shaped States” List.
• United Airlines names Mason City “America’s Most Flown Over Holiday Destination.”
• Buzzfeed features Iowa State University in its annual “You Won’t Believe What These Colleges Do On A Football Field!” report.
• Penthouse ranks Iowa #1 in the U.S.A. in its “States That Will Do Anything at a Caucus” analysis.
• Congressional Report ranks Iowa #3 in its “Most Embarrassing Congressional Delegation” report (up 15 spots since 2010!)
• Huffington Post ranks Iowa #2 in their annual “Top Ten States for Looking at Corn While Driving Through on Interstate Highways to Somewhere Else” list.
• The Economist ranks Iowa #2 in the Nation on its “Craziest Ways to Spend a Budget Surplus” report.
• Des Moines once again finishes #1 in the U.S.A. in Forbes‘ “Most Counter-Intuitive Non-Scientific Polls That Don’t Tell The Whole Story” list. That’s five years in a row, and counting!