Choose the most common item from the list, or the first item if all
    items are unique.

def mostCommonItem(lst):
    """Choose the most common item from the list, or the first item if all
    items are unique."""
    # This elegant solution from: http://stackoverflow.com/a/1518632/1760218
    lst = [l for l in lst if l]
    if lst:
        return max(set(lst), key=lst.count)
    else:
        return None