This week in The Friday Challenge
Guy Stewart weighs in on Why We Write. Is it true that if you don't get 'em hooked on reading when they're young, you won't get 'em hooked at all? Join the discussion...
Henry Vogel continues to brag about his shiny new Kindle, and explores the wonderful world of free books you can download for your Kindle, Nook, or other ebook reader. Join the discussion...
Ultimate Geek Fu tackles a simple, and for us, remarkably non-cynical, question. What are your favorite Christmas memories? In your own personal version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, what would the Ghost of Christmas Past show you? Join the discussion...
Kersley Fitzgerald shares a few thoughts about plans and what happens to them when they collide with reality, and the great virtues of expedition-weight polypropylene long underwear. Join the discussion...
Finally, Henry Vogel writes a column about the true meaning of Christmas, Bruce gets snowed in, and the inmates discuss the view from their respective places in the asylum. All this and more, this week in The Friday Challenge.
12/17/10 - The Holiday Song Parody Challenge
Re the 12/17/10 Friday Challenge, which was to write parody lyrics for your chosen holiday song, as of the deadline we have received the following entries:
WaterBoy: "I'm dreaming of a tight Christmas" and "The Little Dumber Boy"
Watkinson: "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas"
Miko apparently wrote an entry, but the posted link doesn't work. Any suggestions?
The Bandit: "Last Christmas"
As always, you're invited to read, comment on, and vote for your favorite entries. The winner will be announced at some ill-defined date in the not-too-distant future.
Speaking of ill-defined dates in the not-too-distant future
As Miko has graciously pointed out, the "Before and After," "Writing the Winner," and "Save the words! Write a story!" challenges all await resolution, as described here. With the vaporization by aliens of drop.io, any entry that was posted there is presumably lost forever, but we really should get the rest of it sorted out, by—say, January 16? Does that work for you?
And now for this week's challenge.
The Utterly Unforgettable Gift
We've all experienced it: that magical moment on Christmas morning when someone unwraps a gift, looks at what's inside, and says, "Oh, you shouldn't have."
"Seriously, you shouldn't have. I'll get you for this."
That's what we're looking for this week. Whether given or received, by accident or intention, tell us your story of the most ironically unforgettable gift ever. Was it the time you gave a new friend a delicious spiral-cut ham, not realizing he was Jewish? Or the time your aunt gave you a lovely sweater, while insisting that your wool allergy was "just a phase"? Or maybe you belong to one of those families in which the sisters and in-laws have been "regifting" the same ugly salad bowl set to each other for years, each time in ever more elaborate and harder-to-open packaging?
Anyway, that's the story we're looking for this week. Funny or embarrassing, tacky or terrific, wonderful or wince-inducing, share your story!
As always we're playing by the loosely enforced official rules of The Friday Challenge, and playing for whatever is behind Door #3. Given all the disruption caused by the holidays, the deadline for this one is midnight Central time, Thursday, January 6, 2011.
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