YAY: In Which Secrets Are Revealed
Jun. 17th, 2008 05:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shalannaI haven't received the okay by e-mail to talk about this yet, but a friend of mine saw it on a digest of press releases that were sent to libraries across the nation today, so I assume it is no longer a secret.
Remember that bio I wrote? And how I was sworn to secrecy about what it was for? Well, now you will be forced to look at, I mean will get to see, the press release about what I'm up for. That's secret number one.
The second secret is that my "mundane" name, which I have always disliked (not the LAST name, obviously, as I didn't get that until I married, but the FIRST name, which isn't even my first name but my middle name, except that Mama and Daddy never called me anything but that, so it was effectively my first name, and it didn't end in 'y' or 'ie' like every other girl's, and I hated it), is the name you'll have to look for in the press release. Everyone here on LJ has a handle or a pen name, and most of us make no big secret of our "real" names (for whatever value of "real" you take to be true). As far as my last name, I moved from G to W, meaning that I ended up at the end of the line instead of near the front. I've about gotten used to it now after, so many years.
Of course they listed the finalists in alphabetical order in the press release. *ack*
But I'm the NEXT-to-last on the list. I'm forever having to explain to clerks filling out forms that it's "Weeks, as in weeks, months, and years." For some reason, they want to make it into a single "e."
Various versions of this release will start appearing in various boring venues like this one, I suppose, but why not have it here now?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bob Newhart Judging Top 10 Finalists in Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor Competition
LOS ANGELES, CA.--Ten happy humor writers are busy chewing their fingernails this week, each hoping their essay will tickle the funny bone of comic genius Bob Newhart, finalist judge for the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor competition.
Bob Newhart has taken on the difficult but amusing task of selecting and ranking the top four winning entries for the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor, a task ably handled for the past two years by Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry.
"I think really good writing is timeless," Newhart said, "remembering the humorous persona Benchley created, like the persona Jack Benny created: a man who was very much full of himself, but in a self-deprecating way."
"We had a delightful time selecting our top ten finalists this year," said Robert Benchley Society chairperson David Trumbull. "It is a true honor to turn the job of selecting the top four essays over to Bob Newhart."
The 2008 finalists, in alphabetical order, are: Cornelius "Con" Chapman of Weston, MA; Madeleine Begun Kane of Bayside, NY; Jesse Levy of North Hollywood, CA; Eileen Mitchell of Palatine, IL; Joseph Nebus of Jackson, NJ; Brenda Pontiff of Los Angeles, CA; John Thom of Los Angeles, CA; Mike Tuck of Hopkins, MN; *Denise G. Weeks of Richardson, TX*; and Sharon Elizabeth Wood of Cary, NC.
Newhart's selection and ranking of the top four winners for this year's Robert Benchley Society Awards will be announced the week of July 6th.
Short version is that I'm a finalist in the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor competition. Final judge is Bob Newhart, another Benchleyite. I think my essay was very Benchleyesque. I am praying to be one of the top four (at least) so that I get a personal note from Newhart telling me what he thought of the essay. *Wow*
The winner gets to go to New York and see the Algonquin Round Table, shake Bob Newhart's hand (along with many other hands belonging to Society members), and touch the chair Dorothy Parker sat in all those times during the famous Round Table lunches. *swoon* The other people on this finalists list may be worthy and so forth, but they could NOT possibly WANT it as badly as I do. They could not possibly be as much in need of validation as I am (as regular readers of this weblog can attest to.) They couldn't possibly have been a Benchley/Parker nerd the way I was throughout school, and they wouldn't be as fulfilled by such a journey as I would.
But don't let that influence ya, Universe, ol' buddy. We're happy just to be alive today.
Still . . . wouldn't it be nice, as the song says.
Remember that bio I wrote? And how I was sworn to secrecy about what it was for? Well, now you will be forced to look at, I mean will get to see, the press release about what I'm up for. That's secret number one.
The second secret is that my "mundane" name, which I have always disliked (not the LAST name, obviously, as I didn't get that until I married, but the FIRST name, which isn't even my first name but my middle name, except that Mama and Daddy never called me anything but that, so it was effectively my first name, and it didn't end in 'y' or 'ie' like every other girl's, and I hated it), is the name you'll have to look for in the press release. Everyone here on LJ has a handle or a pen name, and most of us make no big secret of our "real" names (for whatever value of "real" you take to be true). As far as my last name, I moved from G to W, meaning that I ended up at the end of the line instead of near the front. I've about gotten used to it now after, so many years.
Of course they listed the finalists in alphabetical order in the press release. *ack*
But I'm the NEXT-to-last on the list. I'm forever having to explain to clerks filling out forms that it's "Weeks, as in weeks, months, and years." For some reason, they want to make it into a single "e."
Various versions of this release will start appearing in various boring venues like this one, I suppose, but why not have it here now?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Bob Newhart Judging Top 10 Finalists in Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor Competition
LOS ANGELES, CA.--Ten happy humor writers are busy chewing their fingernails this week, each hoping their essay will tickle the funny bone of comic genius Bob Newhart, finalist judge for the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor competition.
Bob Newhart has taken on the difficult but amusing task of selecting and ranking the top four winning entries for the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor, a task ably handled for the past two years by Pulitzer Prize-winning humorist Dave Barry.
"I think really good writing is timeless," Newhart said, "remembering the humorous persona Benchley created, like the persona Jack Benny created: a man who was very much full of himself, but in a self-deprecating way."
"We had a delightful time selecting our top ten finalists this year," said Robert Benchley Society chairperson David Trumbull. "It is a true honor to turn the job of selecting the top four essays over to Bob Newhart."
The 2008 finalists, in alphabetical order, are: Cornelius "Con" Chapman of Weston, MA; Madeleine Begun Kane of Bayside, NY; Jesse Levy of North Hollywood, CA; Eileen Mitchell of Palatine, IL; Joseph Nebus of Jackson, NJ; Brenda Pontiff of Los Angeles, CA; John Thom of Los Angeles, CA; Mike Tuck of Hopkins, MN; *Denise G. Weeks of Richardson, TX*; and Sharon Elizabeth Wood of Cary, NC.
Newhart's selection and ranking of the top four winners for this year's Robert Benchley Society Awards will be announced the week of July 6th.
Short version is that I'm a finalist in the 2008 Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor competition. Final judge is Bob Newhart, another Benchleyite. I think my essay was very Benchleyesque. I am praying to be one of the top four (at least) so that I get a personal note from Newhart telling me what he thought of the essay. *Wow*
The winner gets to go to New York and see the Algonquin Round Table, shake Bob Newhart's hand (along with many other hands belonging to Society members), and touch the chair Dorothy Parker sat in all those times during the famous Round Table lunches. *swoon* The other people on this finalists list may be worthy and so forth, but they could NOT possibly WANT it as badly as I do. They could not possibly be as much in need of validation as I am (as regular readers of this weblog can attest to.) They couldn't possibly have been a Benchley/Parker nerd the way I was throughout school, and they wouldn't be as fulfilled by such a journey as I would.
But don't let that influence ya, Universe, ol' buddy. We're happy just to be alive today.
Still . . . wouldn't it be nice, as the song says.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-06-17 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-17 11:50 pm (UTC)That's tremendous news! Good luck in the final round!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-17 11:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 02:04 am (UTC)!
YAY!!!!
no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 02:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 02:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-18 03:10 pm (UTC)Congratulations!
Date: 2008-06-18 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-19 02:41 am (UTC)What is your firstfirst name?
I went, you know, from W to K when I got married & I really miss the W when I am trying to find my nametag in a big event location.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-29 07:14 pm (UTC)