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Thinking of adding something to the boards - Bob Schroeck - 09-19-2019
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?
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - classicdrogn - 09-19-2019
I don't know how active I would actually be with it, but it sounds interesting in the abstract.
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - robkelk - 09-19-2019
I might play sometimes. Not all the time, but at least some of them.
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - Wiregeek - 09-22-2019
I'd love a chance to flog my brain with something that isn't actively designed to hurt me.
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - Bob Schroeck - 09-23-2019
Well, so far no one's said "that idea sucks", so I guess I'll be setting this one in motion. Cool.
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - Labster - 09-26-2019
forum description Wrote:the tradition of the New York Magazone Competition,
Did you mean: "MegaZone"?
Either that or politics really is starting to spread to the other boards.
RE: Thinking of adding something to the boards - Bob Schroeck - 09-26-2019
Gah