It's going to be a short week here at Great Moments, so we need your submissions more than ever. Send them here.

The polls have closed, and your winner, in one of the closest-fought races so far, is the Chicago Tribune's Mary Schmich, who didn't coin the word "pedophiliaphilia." Mary will receive a copy of The King's English, by Kingsley Amis.

Today's Great Moment is ripped from an account of a recent water-borne tragedy. No, not the one you're thinking of, one right here in the United States. In California, to be precise. It's the story of - oh, let's let the Sacramento Bee's Stephen Magagnini tell it:

Duc Vo's girlfriend called him "The Sparkle Star," his sisters and parents called him the hope of the family, and everyone said he was the smartest one of all.

Vo, a 20-year-old neurosurgeon in the making at UC Davis who volunteered at the Red Cross and a Sacramento medical clinic, was acing life. But Friday he couldn't ace the American River.

Read on and you'll see that he did at least get a doctorate in heroism.

Duc Vo thrived on challenges — until a rafting trip turned tragic [SacBee]