Thanx for the reply. I've thrown myself into the 19th contest. Good luck to me.

No offense, but with a name like "Frijid Pink," I did not expect you to be a guy. I look forward to participating in your future contests.

Thanks for participating.

FYI ... Frijid Pink is the name of a (all Male by the way) Rock band from the late 60's - early 70's. ... I just adopted the name.

I think that is a bad idea. It relates none to magic! I enjoyed the magic theme and it helped us learn about magic trivia. Oh, and someone would find a way to google it.

Ooooh yeah. I totally forgot. Their "House of the Rising Sun" hit inside of the Billboard Top Ten in 1970.

Totally forgot. Sorry about that.

Dude, you totally googled them after his reply!

Frij,

The point is that you want people to participate in the forums. An essay contest gives the opportunity to spark discussion, at least, while it is a little bit subjective it is better than picking a number, which has nothing to do with magic. If people don't want to participate that's on them. I would also suggest that with essay contests you could open it up to everyone. Because they would be contributing to the forums and moving the forums forward. I am just saying! Something to think about!

PS Poetry is not my thing.

No, I didn't. See my screen name? "RadioRob"? There's a reason for that. I used to be in broadcasting. My first gig on the radio was about 1990 and I spent three years as the producer and music researcher for a "70's Saturday Night" show. I got the gig because I have an uncanny ability to remember stuff - especially one hit wonders - from 70's Top 40 radio. Googling them actually never crossed my mind.

After my post, I did, however, go blow the dust of my old Billboard Top 40 book to verify my rememberance. That's when I learned that the song charted in February of 1970, (I'd have guessed much, much later in the year than that), and peaked at #7. It also listed how long it stayed on the charts and listed all their names - which I did not know and even now do not remember.

But I did NOT Google them.

My bad, I do remember a post somewhere that stated that you worked for a radio station. But you still looked it up so I wasn't completely wrong was I? Regardless my humblest of apologies!

I looked it up after the fact to make sure I was right. If they had any other hits, I'm not aware of them and know absolutely nothing else of the band. In fact, had OUR Frijid Pink not mentioned it having been a band, I don't think I'd have EVER engaged my brain enough to remember the song, (as done by them - I like Buster Poindexter's version).

Apologies aren't necessary. ...Except maybe from me for having been ignorant. Though I still think it's a strange name - band or otherwise.

Why do the challenges of the Contests have to be related to Magic ... the Prizes are Magic ... isn't that enough ?

Well, I guess thats enough. I still don't favour the idea though.

The poem and essay things were my favorite idea. The way I see it is as such.

The Sci-Fi idea: Spend hours on google unless you already know, and if you did spend hours on google, you would only learn about pointless sci-fi stuff... It makes it pretty limited to a few people.

The Magic Trivia: Over quickly but since we are all magicians, practically all of us have a shot at knowing it. Also, even if we google for hours we are learning something useful that can be used to perfect our art.

Poems and Essays: We learn a lot and we all become somewhat more literature-oriented. I enjoy these the most, because they take skill and realistically, almost everyone can do them. Plus there is no "straight answer."

Number Guessing: A good compremise. Quick, not over tooooo soon, and pretty fair. (And if you win, you can say that it was all because of you "penguin mentalism powers."©

Just my view on them.

It's questions and suggestions. Frijid I did not mean to offend. I think what you are doing is well above and beyond what some members are contributing. I want to reiterate that one of the purposes of your contests, by your admission, is to promote discussion. I was just trying to come up with ways to do that. Picking a number is fine and I will do it and participate I was suggesting an alternative that is more magic related in its nature. The number thing is very fair and as popchris stated it's a compromise. There is nothing wrong with it!

No offense taken ... it's all in fun.

The trees had whispered to me in a dream that you were back. It has been Eons since we last read each others words. How are you old friend?
I see you are still instilling wonder into the hearts of the Kingdom's children.

Listen one and all, feel joy in your hearts for you are in the presence of a Great Teacher...the first to lead us at the very birth pangs of Penguin
Magic.
His humble scribe-buster

buster my old friend, it's really nice to see you again man. How have you been ?

It's been nearly 3 years since your last post, and you pop in just to say nice things about me I'm flattered 'ol scribe ... thank you.

Who won the 19th contest?