How to make a featured post

… with query_posts()

<?php query_posts(‘cat=16&showposts=1′); ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_excerpt(‘Read the rest of this entry &raquo;’); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Using query_posts() is a very cool way to display, for example, latest posts of a specific category – query_posts(‘cat=16&amp;showposts=1′) or exclude a specific category query_posts(‘cat=-16)