Thinking of adding something to the boards
09-19-2019, 07:41 AM (This post was last modified: 09-19-2019, 11:21 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
09-19-2019, 07:41 AM (This post was last modified: 09-19-2019, 11:21 AM by Bob Schroeck.)
For nigh unto fifty years, New York Magazine had a feature (curated for most of that time by the late Mary Ann Madden) called simply the "New York Magazine Competition". It first came to my attention in the 1970s when I stumbled across a paperback with the picture of a pair of immaculately trousered legs sticking out, upside down, from an inkwell on the cover, and the intriguing title Maybe He's Dead. It was a collection of Competitions and their results. I bought the book, which I still own, and it remains a favorite to this day.
Basically, Ms Madden would post a challenge that usually encouraged imagination, clever and creative wordplay, and/or a twisted sense of humor. She would get submissions from the magazine's readers, and then post the results a few issues later with a new competition. To give you an example of what it was like, here's the titular competition from the book, and its winning entry:
From Competition No. 366, “What I Should Have Said / What I Said”:
1. “Look, there’s a lot of traffic, and he’s probably stuck in a meeting all day and didn’t get your message, or he’d have called. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”
2. “Maybe he’s dead.”
—Cynthia Harrison, Rockville, Md.
(There are a few more examples in the article linked from Mary Ann Madden's name above.)
One of my favorites was "The Kangaroo Joke", in which she provided the old joke about a kangaroo going into a bar and getting overcharged for a vodka martini, and then challenged the readers to retell the joke in the style of a famous person. I can still recite the Edgar Allan Poe pastiche which recast the joke as "The Raven".
So, for quite a while now, I've been thinking of creating a "Competition" board, harvesting a few hundred or so of my favorites from Maybe He's Dead and the other Competition books I have, and posting them there once a week or two for the incredibly creative and imaginative denizens of the DW Forums to have their merry way with them.
Would anyone be interested in playing?
Basically, Ms Madden would post a challenge that usually encouraged imagination, clever and creative wordplay, and/or a twisted sense of humor. She would get submissions from the magazine's readers, and then post the results a few issues later with a new competition. To give you an example of what it was like, here's the titular competition from the book, and its winning entry:
From Competition No. 366, “What I Should Have Said / What I Said”:
1. “Look, there’s a lot of traffic, and he’s probably stuck in a meeting all day and didn’t get your message, or he’d have called. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about.”
2. “Maybe he’s dead.”
—Cynthia Harrison, Rockville, Md.
(There are a few more examples in the article linked from Mary Ann Madden's name above.)
One of my favorites was "The Kangaroo Joke", in which she provided the old joke about a kangaroo going into a bar and getting overcharged for a vodka martini, and then challenged the readers to retell the joke in the style of a famous person. I can still recite the Edgar Allan Poe pastiche which recast the joke as "The Raven".
So, for quite a while now, I've been thinking of creating a "Competition" board, harvesting a few hundred or so of my favorites from Maybe He's Dead and the other Competition books I have, and posting them there once a week or two for the incredibly creative and imaginative denizens of the DW Forums to have their merry way with them.
Would anyone be interested in playing?
-- Bob
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber. I have been
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....
