A Little Poetry for You: Thomas and New Contest

Happy Poetry Friday!

Roundup is at Hip Writer Mama.

This week, I'm starting a new contest, one that I think everyone will find easy, fun and interesting. Yes, yes, we're putting the last contest down to my poor combination of medication. Sigh....

This contest theme: High Culture meets Pop Culture

So I was driving home from work the other night, and for some reason suddenly found myself thinking of Rodney Dangerfield reciting "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" in the movie Back to School.



Which led me to remember Charles Bronson in the movie Telefon, and that scene in the phone booth where the classic lines from Robert Frost are quoted:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep
but I have promises to keep,
and miles to go before I sleep,
and miles to go before I sleep.

What a lovely way to be brainwashed.

And then I thought of one of my favorite scenes from Porky's II (a movie that made me giggle so much I almost wet myself), where Pee Wee plays Shakespeare's Robin in the school play and gives the closing speech from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." This scene coming right on the heels of the outrageous sex and vomit sting scene was a fabulous juxtaposition. What's remarkable to me is that it was because of Porky's II that I fell in love with this little bit of Shakespeare. How many of you can say that? How many would admit to it?

Now the hungry lion roars,
And the wolf behowls the moon,
Whilst the heavy plowman snores,
All with weary task fordone.
Now the wasted brands do glow,
Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
Puts the wretch that lies in woe
In remembrance of a shroud.
Now it is the time of night
That the graves, all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite
In the church-way paths to glide.
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate's team
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream,
Now are frolic. Not a mouse
Shall disturb this hallowed house.
I am sent with broom before,
To sweep the dust behind the door.

And so back to the contest....

Here is your mission, if you want to play:

Submit your comments here with examples of TV shows, popular songs, or movies that used references or quotes from famous poets or authors in a way that may have caught people by surprise. Caught by surprise? I mean, don't include the movie Sense and Sensibility, where half of it was quotes from poetry because two of the characters sat around and read each other poetry throughout. Don't include Shakespeare in Love or Hamlet, where of course there will be a lot of, um, Shakespeare.

Give me movies like Porky's II, or songs like Dire Straits "Romeo and Juliet." Better yet, give me quotes from The Simpsons. Any extra explanation you can include, similar to mine above about Porky's II, will gain you extra points.

You also get extra points for posting about this contest on your blog.

Deadline: October 12
Prizes: Good. I'll randomly draw 4 winners and I'll send them gift cards worth real money ($10 to 25).

Enjoyment factor: 10

Oh, and I'll create a post of all the submissions. Please include links to videos, or pictures, if you can, because that will make the post more fun.

One Year and an Anniversary Contest

Today is the first anniversary of this blog, and I'm so pleased to have made it a whole year. There were times -- after I went back to work, after I started spending more weekends out and about and more time getting together with people I love, after the visitors started showing up on my doorstep to stay a day or two or six -- that I thought something would have to give and most likely it would be the blog. But I've given myself permission to lighten up, post only when I want to and what I want to, and that's made a huge difference and allowed me to keep going. You can't be all-or-nothing about blogging, or eventually it will be nothing.

So, I'll take a moment to reflect on the first year of blogging, and then I'll talk about my Anniversary Contest. Bear with me, the contest info will be just a few lines below....

Highlights of my blogging year:

• Coming up with my blog name, one that was perfectly suited to me.
  
• Being welcomed to the blogging world by Jen Robinson.
  
• Buying two of Leila's excellent t-shirts.
  
• Watching Miss Erin and Little Willow crush the competition in my Great Antagonists of Children's Literature and Great Passages of Children's Literature contests.
  
• Laughing and laughing and laughing over MotherReader's posts.
  
• Remembering to treat myself well thanks to Robin.
  
• Remembering to be grateful thanks to Jules and Eisha.
  
• Being able to count on Michele for very smart commentary.
  
• Learning how to write fibs from Greg.
  
• Working as a judge for the Cybils YA category.
  
• Being contacted by a reporter about my postcard series.
  
• Getting to know Kelly, Liz, Heather, Susan, Lady S, Elaine, and so many others out there blogging.
  
• Finding treasures like the picture at the top of this post and the picture at the bottom.
  
• Every single comment and email that you've sent my way. It's meant so much to know when I've captured your interest, introduced you to a poet you'd never heard of, made you think or laugh, or inspired you to contribute to one of my lists. It's also meant a lot just to know you've been reading. Yes, you.

And the posts....

Posting about sailing, children's books, my evening with Stephen King, my ghost, and my lousy lousy pear trees.

Posting quotations and learning a little about the people who said them.

Posting poetry and discovering the joy of listening to the poets read their own words.

Posting word games, puzzles, dictionary links and other wordie stuff and indulging my love for language.

Posting my own writing and being willing to take a risk by sharing it.

Posting a bunch of old postcards, and getting connected to the past through a little research and a lot of imagination.

Okay, that about covers most of the high points. I'd have to say my very highest points lately have been when I post an old postcard. The "Lives in Letters" series has turned out to be really interesting for me, and a great way to stretch my brain and figure out how things tie together.


Which leads me to the Lives in Letters Contest, at last....

In honor of my one-year blogversary, I am holding a contest that will run through the month of July.

The prizes:

I'll award 4 prizes, each a $25 gift card. Probably Starbucks gift cards, though I might shake it up a bit and go with Target gift cards too. Plus each winner will get one mystery prize of small monetary but huge sentimental value.

The deadline:

Deadline extended to September 30!

The rules to enter:

To enter, simply send some postcard, letter, note, photograph, or some other piece of history that tells a story. Use the Lives in Letters postcard series for inspiration, and search your attic, your scrapbooks, or your local flea market for something from the past that you find interesting, touching, intriguing, sweet, funny or sad.

Email a photo of your item along with its story to nrkii at aol dot com.

I will probably post all the entries up on the blog, so please let me know if you want me to make your entry anonymous. Otherwise, I will be sure to give you credit!

Entries will be judged for overall coolness of the item and for how interesting the story is surrounding it. In other words, I'm afraid I'll have to be entirely subjective in judging the entries. I may call in outside judging help to make it more fair.

I'll also have a separate drawing for a book prize that will be open to any blogger who links to this contest in their blog. Just pop a note in the comments to let me know.

Not yet inspired?

If you want more inspiration for things you could contribute as contest entries, check out The Book Inscriptions Project (thanks Little Willow!) which is very similar to the postcards idea, but centers around the notes people have written inside of gift books. Or check out Found, which is a place to see and read about all sorts of found objects -- love letters, grocery lists, doodles.... I will accept any of these types of entries as well.

I am basically looking for history in the smallest places. Check your sock drawer.

Silly Words Day!

New additions are at the bottom, and some of them are very silly indeed!

As previously proclaimed, March 31, 2007 is Silly Words Day.

Thanks go out to everyone who shared their silly words with me for the Silly Words Contest. You can still enter till midnight, so keep those entries coming if you're so inclined. I'll draw the winner tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, here are the silly words we've celebrated so far. I've included links to audio wherever possible, because the words are so much more silly when you hear them out loud.

SILLY WORDS

Leila
smock (hear it!)

Whimsy (which is also a good silly word, come to think of it)
bonnyclabber (hear it!)
widdershins (hear it!)
razzmatazz (hear it!)
slugabed (hear it!)
snickersnee (hear it!)

Alkeda the Gleeful (gleeful also a good silly word... we may have a theme)
underpants (hear it!)
weasel (hear it!)
potty-mouth
ubiquitous (hear it!)
measles (hear it!)
polyp (hear it!)
sickle-cell

Alkeda points out that those last three have serious meanings but silly sounds.

The Old Coot
persnickety (hear it!)
codswallop (hear it!)
wombat (hear it!)

Miss Erin
doldrums (hear it!)
lollipop (hear it!)
bubbly (hear it!)
lamborghini
rutabaga (hear it!)

Robin
nincompoop (hear it!)

stidmama (who also includes some nonsense words in her post)
plump (hear it!)
polymer (hear it!)
harrumph (hear it!)
opacity (hear it!)
gerontology (hear it!)

Tim (who also recommends what might be my new favorite book: Poplollies & Bellibones)
splurge (hear it!)
polynomial (hear it!)
blurb (hear it!)

dshep
lollygag (hear it!)
nincompoopery
rambunctious (hear it!)

catsmum
balderdash (hear it!)
sesquipedalian (hear it!)
tarradiddle (hear it!)

actinggal
ginormous
lugubrious (hear it!)
boomerang (hear it!)
shrubbery (hear it!)

My own
kerfuffle (hear it!)
flibbertigibbet (hear it!)
discombobulated (hear it!)
indubitably (hear it!)
hullabaloo (hear it!)
guacamole (hear it!)
mollycoddle (hear it!)
sprocket (hear it!)
diphthong (hear it!)
bamboozle (hear it!)
haberdashery (hear it!)
tomfoolery (hear it!)
glockenspiel (hear it!)
kerplunk (hear it!)
thwack (hear it!)
sasquatch (hear it!)

Added Saturday

Widdershins
blatherskite (hear it!)
accoutrement (hear it!)
gobsmacked (hear it!)

Mary Lee and her students (Mary Lee's commentary included)
Zit (won't be long before they abhor that word!)
Dilfy (a made-up mom word for messy)
Atlatl (a prehistoric spear thrower)
Boonka (a word remembered from pre-speech, meaning blanket)
Kwakiutl (a NW tribe of Native Americans)
Mississippi (fun to say and more fun to spell FAST)
Tegucigalpa (the capital of Honduras)
Onomatopoeia (fun to say and spell - hear it!)
Gift Certificate (because the nominator only recently mastered the pronunciation of certificate...cerFITicate? cerFICKatut? Plus, they're fun to get!)
Pachycephalosaurus (there's nothing better than dinosaur names! - hear it!)
Antidisestablishmentarianism (is that really a word? - hear it!)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (we KNOW that's not a word, but it's delicious! - hear it!)

MsMac
brumby
puzzle dust
coif (hear it two ways!)
nougat (hear it!)
funiculi (hear it!)
spooge
glabella (hear it!)
omphaloskepsis
incredulous (hear it!)
diploblastic (hear it!)
zaibatsu (hear it!)
somniferous (hear it!)
mycelium (hear it!)
odoriferous (hear it!)
minutia (hear it!)
mashie niblick (hear mashie! hear niblick!)

Words on Wednesday: Silly Words Contest Reminder!

So, as I've previously proclaimed, Saturday is Silly Words Day.

And I've got a contest running to celebrate!

You can enter your words in the comments here, or in the comments to the previous post, or even better, on your blog (just leave me the link). Anyone who enters 3 silly words has a shot at winning this contest. It's that easy!

My latest installment of silly words:

haberdashery

tomfoolery

glockenspiel

kerplunk

thwack

Words on Wednesday: Silly Words Day and Contest

I don't know why this popped into my head today, but as I was wondering what to post about for Words on Wednesday, the word "kerfuffle" came to mind.

Which made me think about other silly words, and inspired me to do a little hunt. Here are just 10 words that made me smile tonight.

Kerfuffle
Flibbertigibbet
Discombobulated
Indubitably
Hullabaloo
Guacamole
Mollycoddle
Sprocket
Diphthong
Bamboozle

Now in my wanderings to find these words, I found a post that proclaimed March 31 (2005) as Silly Words Day. I don't know if a similar proclamation was issued in 2006. But what say we go for 2007?

I hereby proclaim that March 31, 2007 is Silly Words Day. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find and post your 3 personal favorite silly words in the English language. You have 10 days to come up with your words.

When you find your words, post them on your blog and send me the link. You don't have to wait until March 31, but on March 31 I'll publish all the links, and ...

ONE LUCKY POSTER will win a $10 Starbucks gift card just for playing! Yes, I love silly words THAT much.