Author: Roger

The entry period was May 3 through July 3, inclusive. I picked the latter date because one of the items, the Billboard book was supposed to ship in early July. Well, it didn’t; I didn’t receive it until mid-August. By this time, we were the throes of busyness around the Pakistani wedding, followed immediately by the buyness of back to school.

Then, I misplaced two of the items for a couple weeks, then it totally slipped my mind for a couple weeks until I cleaned the work desk and said, “Oh, nuts, THAT’S still here?”

I went into the comments section for the new blog and noted 372 comments. Then I picked the random number generator for six numbers. Frankly, I didn’t bother to check if they all qualified – and at least one was mine, which would NOT qualify. But if the post was unacceptable, I’d skip it for the next choice, which proved to be necessary.

I contacted the first person who got the choice of any of the prizes; once selected, the second person got the choice of any of the remaining items, and so on.

I wrote You may select ONE item from the following:
any one of the three items listed in this post, or
the complete Dick van Dyke DVD set
the CD -The List by Rosanne Cash
the CD-Michael Jackson’s Greatest Hits
the book – The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg
(later, when I found it, I added to the list)

1. Joy from A Raft of Apples requested that I send her something not on the list. “Send me a picture postcard. On the plus side, still only one trip to the post office, on the minus you may not have convenient postcard availability.
“I’m a collector of postcards and also a Postcrosser (random people from around the world send each other cards). I’m fascinated by the countries of the world and the cards are little moments of time and places complete with messages on the back.”

Well, how could I turn THAT down!

She received it and wrote:
“Hi Roger
Thanks for the Albany Skyline postcard, your home town beautiful in the setting sun. And also thanks for the UK way date, LOL, it also came with a nice clear US Mail cancellation, which leaves me in no doubt as it had Nov on the date so us Brits don’t get confused:-)
I agree with you, blogging is a great introduction to the citizens of the world.”
Well, of COURSE, I dated it day, month, year; it makes sense. The only reason why I don’t do it always is the possibility of confusion, such as on my work timesheet.

2. LisaF of peripheral perceptions asked for Beyond words: daily readings in the ABC’s of Faith.
She wrote:
“Just wanted to let you know the book arrived today! It’s much thicker than I expected it to be. The timing is perfect as I just finished my other book and plan to start reading it tonight before I fall asleep. Funny thing….a dollar coin dropped out of the pages when I opened it up! Was that suppose to happen? :-)”
Oh, yeah, that was in the rules too. One Presidential dollar coin of whoever’s coin was out most recently on May 2 and that turned out to be Millard Fillmore, the 13th and one of the least regarded Presidents. But at least the coin was pretty.

3. Scott of Scooter Chronicles requested The Heart of Christianity” by Marcus Borg. I’ll get back to him presently.

4. Amy B of Amy’s Miscellany also wanted Beyond Words, which I could accommodate. She said nice things about me – blush – in her blog.

5. Now here’s where it gets strange. I tell the next person, but I’m clearly not being understood, because she has never made a selection, despite e-mails back and forth. The opportunity is still open to her. But I didn’t want to wait too long; I wanted to ship them all at the same time.

6. As it turned out, Scott, a frequent commenter, got ANOTHER pick. This time, he took what I thought he’d pick in the first place, the Billboard book. He thanked me and noted that his son Nigel was impressed. “He said, ‘That’s a lot of stuff, Daddy!’ after I piled everything on the table. He especially liked the coins.”