Sunday, July 23, 2017

Last week's contest results!



You'll be forgiven for not remembering this contest, since it was held a week ago!
Here's the photo that asked the question: what is it?




The results for this contest were delayed cause I was out of the office on Monday and
by Tuesday I was knee-deep in backed up email from being out of the office for three days straight (on Thursday and Friday for ThrillerFest-which was a lot of fun!)

Herewith, at long last, the results!


Susan
Uh-oh... Who stole Panda-In-Chief's snugglies? Someone's gonna get in trou-ble!

Kitty sent us to Google translate!
Θάνατος στη Δήλο, ένα άλλο μυστήριο Αθηναϊκή

PAH suggested
3D puzzle of that building...

It looks like a 3D puzzle here for sure. It's actually a length of card stock paper, cut to show the skyline of NYC. Normally it's on my window but the window cleaner moved it and didn't put it back.

Amanda Capper
A cuddly tarantula with poor circulation.

Jennifer Delozier
I spy bear-ly visible spider cozies on them there feet!

Barbara
All in all, I think
she brought
those two tacks in the wall.

Steve Forti can always be counted on for something hilarious
It's literally in “this photo”. Rearrange letters to “hip to shot”, meaning he brought whiskey and two glasses. A good drinking partner is a gift.


Gabby Gilliam
A spider friend had chilly feet
and lamented to a shark.
A client heard the spider's woe
and it tugged upon their heart.
While whiskey warms the belly
it does nothing for the toes.
The client knew that panda socks
were the only way to go.

(Over the 25 word limit, but the socks were too inspiring. Please forgive me, your sharkliness.)

Amber B
 It was bad enough being the only furry octopus in existence, but having to wear hand-knitted panda socks in public was mortifying.


Kathy Joyce
Dum, dum, da, dum...Spider is getting married!! See the garter? To throw at the reception! Socks? Destination wedding, China. Floppy butt thing? Spider veil.


Melanie Sue Bowles
You all think this is cute. It's not cute. You try navigating a tower of books with two legs crammed into one sock. I demand four more socks!

The Seasick Mermaid
Socktapus in the wild.

Panda In Chief
This makes me want to find a little stuffed shark for Janet and dress it in a panda costume.

Her Grace Heidi the Duchess of Kneale
 Why on earth would your client give you ten copies of the same book? Didn't they know that you can reread a book over and over? Good for the environment.

french sojourn
I wouldn't want to play poker with it.

He's got 4 of a kind showing, waiting on the river card.

My spidey sense is tingling.


Well, NONE of you got it exactly right.  You got the socks part. And of course, the spoctopus is wearing them here, but the sox are intended for chairs.

Yes, chair sox.
I about fell over when I heard that. Who puts sox on chairs? Well, whynot?
(It's a Japanese thing, these sox came in Japanese packaging.)

But, even though none of the guesses were exactly right, the entries were hilarious.

For the first time in forever, no winner.
Unless you think I missed something! Weigh in in the comments section.


34 comments:

Kitty said...

I hope they're having safe sox.

Melanie Sue Bowles said...

Any hardware store has a variety of fixes to prevent the legs of chairs and tables from scratching hardwood floors. But I am weird and quirky and don't like doing things the conventional way. Plus, I'm frugal. Not cheap. I'm very generous - I leave huge tips at restaurants. I'm a "reuse/repurpose" freak.

And so, chair sox? Yep. I do that. I've always bought toddler, infant sized socks with silly designs to slip on the legs of any chairs that get scraped across my hardwood floors. I buy at garage sales or Goodwill and only spend a few dimes. First time visitors often comment, "Are those socks? On your chairs?"

I loved Steve's entry! And a bunch of others.

AJ Blythe said...

Missed this contest but giggled my way through the entries. My serious answer would have been puppy socks - furniture would never have crossed my mind.

Loved Panda and Steve's comments.

CynthiaMc said...

In Florida we use flip flops.

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Socks for chairs? Could this Sunday morning get any stranger?

BJ Muntain said...

I've heard of putting socks on chairs to keep from scratching hardwood floors. I've never seen them sold as 'chair socks' before, though.

They're cute, though. :)

Cecilia Ortiz Luna said...


Sox and the City?

BJ Muntain said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BJ Muntain said...

*laughing at Cecilia's Sox and the City*

I used to visit the Sock Man in the East Village every time I visited NYC. The sheer number of socks and types of socks in a small shop like that nearly overwhelmed my little prairie brain, but it was so cool. It's moved now, so I might not get there next time, even if it is only a block and a half away.

Maybe the Sock Man needs to get a new tag line: Sox and the City... :)

Claire Bobrow said...

:-) Cecelia. Sox and the City - dang, that's good!

RosannaM said...

Wouldn't that make the wheels on your chair stick, Janet?

I have to confess I didn't notice that there were only 4 socks until Melaniie's entry, but then when I saw that there were indeed four socks, I thought someone in the office was having twins. Which made me happy.

Now I'm wondering what furniture item we're going to dress next? We had those plastic arm covers, and doilies, and those la-di-da slipcovers for ugly wedding rental chairs. And let's not forget about tea cozies, and Kleenex box covers knitted by some well-meaning auntie. Wow. I'm going to open a wardrobe store for household items. That's my ticket to millions, forget this silly writing gig!

Kregger said...

Oh, that's what they were for?
I put them on my dog.
No wonder he was mortified.

RosannaM said...

Sorry Melanie, I think my i's have a mind of their own. And I'm on the other coast, so my eyeballs are pre caffeinated. BTW-am in the middle of your book, and I am loving it. I want to go hug a horse!

Colin Smith said...

Cecelia FTW, I think. :)

I think that's modern Greek, Kitty. I believe the Attic Greek form (more consistent with the novels) would be Thanatos en Dēlō, allo mustērion Athēnaion. Sorry--didn't know if the comments would permit Greek characters.

*Takes off nerdy anorak...* :D

Colin Smith said...

And I meant Cecilia of course. Sorry! :)

Claire Bobrow said...

Argh. Cecilia. And I even made Colin mess up the spelling, too. Sorry!

Julie said...

Soooo... but, wait... the chair sox were the present, though, right?

That's what you mean by "You got the socks part."

Was there more in the picture? Like, should we still be looking in the pic?

(Squints into the picture.)
(Scratches head.)

Every time I come to this blog, I wonder if I've LOST IQ points, or
gained them. It's like some version of "Dumb and Smarter." Or something.

Were the books any part of it? Or just a prop for the spider, which was a prop for the sox?

Goodness. I'm going back to my Pitchfest prep. Have a good Sunday, y'all!

-Nemo

Cecilia Ortiz Luna said...


Claire and Colin,

No worries ***chuckles***

I do notice that a lot of you guys call me Cecelia instead of Cecilia. I'm starting to think Cecelia sounds and reads better. Maybe I should adopt this as my writer name?

Panda in Chief said...

I don't care that I didn't win. I'm just happy I got a mention! (two, actually! Thanks, Susan!)
And what chair wouldn't be thrilled to wear panda socks??? None that I can think of.

Sox in the City! Hahahahahahahaha!

Craig F said...

Chair sox?

In Florida?

They wouldn't last. Florida floors end up looking like a beach every few days, even without four cats.

I have an old piece of half inch hard copper tubing. I used to make scallops out of stingray wings with it.

Now I hammer it through blown out flip flops. Then I use servo tape from remote control vehicles to stick them onto the bottoms of chair legs.

The moral of the story: If all the scallops are the same size, they are not scallops.

Sorry, but it has been raining since I woke up at 0547 and hasn't stopped yet.

Kate Higgins said...

Sooo if everyone missed it or came close ... maybe it's the stack of books (the new one # 7 Death on Delos) that was just released (with another starred review!)

And they are meant for the Reider (aka woodland creature), who notices first and she gets a copy as a prize...and the chair socks have nothing to do with it...and spiders have eight legs not 7....

And the Japanese say, "if you see a spider in the morning it's good luck"

???

Melanie Sue Bowles said...

Off topic squeal of happiness...! And a great big "thank you" to RosannaM for letting me know you're reading about Proud Spirit. I'm so glad the stories make you want to hug a horse. But which book? The first? Doesn't matter. YAY!

Cecilia HA!

RosannaM said...

Melanie, The Horses of Proud Spirit, 2003. And I have gotten a little further into it and I really need to hug a horse, now. Or you. Thank you for the work you do for those horses.

E.M. Goldsmith said...

So OT- quick question for group. I am editing. In my WIP, one of the characters is a disembodied spirit or madness of the MC. We have talked about how italics are bad. Then how do I indicate this internal dialog that only the MC is hearing? I have always seen this done in italics. In every freaking book I have ever read that features unspoken dialog be it spirit, madness, magic, or telepathy. Is putting it in italics wrong? Help! My rodent wheel is about to fly apart.

Lennon Faris said...

Congratulations, Melanie Savransky! And congratulations, NOBODY!

Never heard of chair socks, but OK I guess I could see that. Glad your email nightmare is over, Janet.

I'm traveling for CE the past four days (and a couple more). With no one I know here, it's weird to have oodles of writing time in the evening.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Craig F said...

Elise:

Do any of your characters had internal conversations with themselves? If so, save the italics for that.

For the disembodies voice, use a slightly small point size and a font with no serifs, like Helvetica, if you are using a serifed font such as Times New Roman.

Good luck with your edit, I have to pick one of four endings I dreamed up.

Unknown said...

E.M., don't know what's right or wrong, but I love when internal dialogue is italicized. I lose the flow when a story slips into mind dialogue without signalling me. Also, FWIW, my WIP uses italics for this purpose, and the professional eyes who've seen it have never said it was a problem.

Melanie Sue Bowles said...

Elise ... I recently struggled though a work of women's fiction, with dual (present day/historical) points of view. The historical protagonist's point of view was in italics. It was awful. Entire chapters, 20-30 pages long. I hated it and skimmed over them. I've seen other works where the author simply noted "another voice" was speaking. Sorta like: "Mary's story"... or just "Mary"... as a header.

As KathyJoyce mentions, bits of dialogue are okay for defining who is talking... but I feel great big blocks of story should be handled differently. Just my thoughts...

BJ Muntain said...

EM: Italics are only bad in huge chunks. They're hard to read. Internal dialogue is often done with italics.

It doesn't really matter, anyway, as long as you note it somehow. If the publisher's style is different, they'll tell you how to change it. All that's important is that the reader understand what's going on.

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Thanks everyone. You guys are the best. I feel a bit better about the italics no italics thing

Julie said...

There are two tacks up there on her wall.

D'you guys suppose she hangs that spider up there?

Just wondering.

E.M. Goldsmith said...

Ok. Is no one else worried that it is almost 10 AM EST shark time on a Monday, and there been no word from our Queen? Is she ok? Did her email eat her?

Is it just me? Ok. Just me then. I will slink back into my hidey hole.

Her Grace, Heidi, the Duchess of Kneale said...

What I use instead of chair socks.

Janet Reid said...

Sorry, didn't meant to worry all y'all.
Monday post is late.
And really, it's absent too.

Cat petting.
(the best excuse ever)