Monday, November 10, 2008
Brer Rabbit in New York Times Sunday Crossword — November 9, 2008
Posted by: lain // Category: Brer Rabbit, Challenges!, Good Questions, Not As Cruel Games // 3:54 pm
45 Across, 11 Letters:
Warning sign outside of Br’er Rabbit’s home?
If you’ve got a guess at the answer, leave it in the comments. I’ll give you a few days before I post the answer.
Thanks to Wren’s Nest Theme Song singer-songwriter Jamie for the tip. You can thank him too by picking up a new Cold Weather Pocket Field Guide from the Duck and Herring Company. Our very own Program Director Amelia is published in this one, so you know it’s funny.
Comments: 4Iverson Park Literary Festival: Awesome Birthday Party for a Young Philanthropist
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Big Money No Whammies, Birthdays, Fame and Fortune, Not As Cruel Games // 11:44 am
This weekend Lain and I attended one of the most fun, creative, and altruistic birthday parties ever. For a nine-year-old we had never met. Would you like some background?
Several weeks ago, Lain and I received the following email:
Lain and Amelia,
My name is Jeff, long-time blog reader, first time writer, as well as 19th century folk-tale enthusiast (who isn’t?) and fan of house museums. I write to you with a proposal/request/announcement/heads-up. My 8, soon to be 9 year-old daughter Matilda has for the last several years hosted birthday parties at our home in which, instead of children bringing gifts for her, she raised money for some worthy cause. A car wash for the Humane Society at age 5, hit the dads with pies in the face for the Red Cross and Katrina Victims at age 6, a backyard Hawaiian fair for bookshelves for her school at age 7, and last year’s American Shoe-Kicking Association (ASKA) National Championships for the Red Cross. I’m proud and a little nonplussed to write that this was her own initiative, though I’m sure taken from some TV show.
I write you now to let you know that this year you are on the docket as planned beneficiaries of the first (and perhaps last) Iverson Park Literary Festival! Mathilda visited the Wren’s Nest with her class this past year and was impressed by he experience and wants to join in the fun. Possible events include a short-story telling contest and for those less inclined to prose, a book throwing contest.
Within about two minutes we told Jeff we were in. Playing it cool is not our strong suit.
The Iverson Park Literary Festival wildly exceeded any expectations we could have had. I mean, they had tote bags. And a mascot!
(Haiku the bookworm)
There was a lot of literary fun going on. You could guess the number of pages in the book.
(Waiting has never been so exciting!)
You could throw books at William Shakespeare, Louisa May Alcott, or Edgar Allen Poe.
(This activity made Lain nervous thanks to the children shouting “KILL SHAKESPEARE!”)
You could even tell your own story. Curtis warmed up the crowd, and then the kids competed to see who was the best storyteller. Lain and I served as Celebrity Judges.
Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the amateur storytellers, as we took our judging jobs VERY seriously.
Jeff, author of the above email, played the part of our host — Dr. Armstrong, PhD, MA, RN, NASA, from Valdosta State Technical Community College and State University A & M.
We even wore our most literary duds. A Kenyon shirt and tweed for Lain, and my “I’m a Bibliophile” shirt from age 5 for me. Still “fits”!
Curtis played it cool, as always.
We especially felt at home because some of the kids tried to bribe the Celebrity Judges by wearing their Wren’s Nest t-shirts.
The children really wailed on the authors. So much so that they broke and had to be fixed with a nail gun.
We would have left the nail gun by the snacks, too.
By the end of the Festival we had totally forgotten about how we benefited monetarily, being too busy making exclamations like “This is the best thing ever!” and “I love tote bags!” and “Too bad I will never produce a child as awesome as Matilda.”
So thanks to Jeff, Marisa, Matilda, and everyone at the first (and possibly last) Iverson Park Literary Festival. Did we mention we had a great time?
Comments: 7Amelia Crowned May Queen
Posted by: lain // Category: Mercenary Amelia Trace, Not As Cruel Games, Victorious! // 3:31 pm
It was a tight race, but turns out we’re really, really biased. Your favorite Wren’s Nest blogger Amelia is the new May Queen Champion for 2008.
Better luck next year, everyone else.
Previously– May Queens from 1909 - 1983.
Comments: 4I am deeply in love with the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau
Posted by: Amelia // Category: Burritos and Other Fine Foods, Fame and Fortune, Not As Cruel Games, This is awkward, Victorious! // 5:54 pm
Once upon a time Lain decided to do something nice for The Wren’s Nest and joined the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB). You know, the people who tell tourists what to do with themselves.
We’ve had a pretty great relationship with them so far; they’re nice, we’re nice, it works out well. Plus, they allow us to make connections with other venues around this fair city that weenies like us wouldn’t be able to achieve ourselves.
On Thursday Lain and I went to a networking event for the ACVB and it. was. awesome. Here’s why:
1. They hold these events at neato locations like Braves games and No Mas Cantina. This one was held in the atrium of Phipps Plaza, which is ritzy and no place for the likes of Lain and I, but we tricked ‘em and got in anyways.
2. They had free food! While Lain dined on tasty treats from The Oceanaire, I delighted in chocolate covered cheesecake- on a stick!
3. The only thing better than free food? Free beer! And free good beer!
Here’s a distinctive claim for the staff of the Wren’s Nest: we’re pretty sure we were the only people who got carded at this professional networking event. We win!
4. Plus, and I think this was the whole point, we made a lot of great contacts that are bound to benefit the Wren’s Nest. Which is good, I guess.
5. Lain and I are incredibly awkward. This isn’t good, so much as true. However, to help folks like Lain and I, the ACVB makes “Bingo” cards that force you to talk to people you don’t yet know. Other than triumphing over your crippling awkwardness, the Bingo cards have an added incentive: fill one out and you get to enter a raffle!
Well guess what, chumps. I won the raffle. Booyah!
My prize? Two free round-trip tickets on Delta to basically anywhere in the US, plus Canada and Mexico. Wowee! The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau will make a tourist out of me! How meta.
The real highlight? When people asked me who I was going to take with me, I answered “My boss, of course!”
Friends, that is funny.
Comments: 12Rock-Paper-Scissors and Marketing Genius
Posted by: lain // Category: Burritos and Other Fine Foods, Marketing Tricks, Not As Cruel Games // 10:28 am
Yesterday I was talking to a writer from the New York Times, and she asked, “Why do you have a blog?”
I thought about it for a second, and I mumbled something about getting folks to think about the Wren’s Nest in a different context, connecting with the kids, something like that–blah blah blah.
I wasn’t really satisfied with my answer. What I should have done is point her to this:
Now don’t think I’m comparing my blog to the coolest marketing trick I’ve ever seen–I’m not.
As the almost always astute Seth Godin points out, California Tortilla is not only supremely clever, but they’re also putting a distinctly human touch on fast food, and spicing it up with a little competition.
Suddenly, getting a burrito has become an exchange between two people who share an intimate knowledge of how to play rock-paper-scissors. It’s not just cashier and customer anymore.
You can’t get much more boring than the idea of a house museum, kinda like how you can’t get much more routine than ordering at the burrito line.
So, why do I have a blog? Probably the same reason I wish I got to play rock-paper-scissors every time I go out for a burrito.
P.S. Who calls it Rochambeau anyway? Is that a northern thing?
Comments: 5