At Long Last- The Fabulous Prize!

Quick break from AstroWeek today, we’ll get back at it tomorrow.

A couple weeks ago, a reader- let’s call her KristenT- helped me solve a problem that had been bugging me for 30 years- the meaning behind the lyrics of Stairway to Heaven. Overjoyed, in the heat of the moment, I mused aloud that I wished I could award her a “prize” for her help. A few days later, caught up in the whole “prize” thing, I offered not just a “prize”, but a “Fabulous Prize” for readers who could pick a Bobcat out of a photo. 2 readers won it- TheGuth for the location and KanyonKris for the species. And really, Sasquatch/Yeti was such an awesome guess, I really wanted to give a Fabulous Prize to Eric Wright as well. And then reader John guessed the Powell Point location in the same post, so I guess he deserves a Fabulous Prize as well.

Then last week reader Enel clearly earned a Fabulous Prize when he alerted me to the triple-planet alignment of Venus, Mercury and Saturn. Really, that was super-prizeworthy.

My Problem

But the problem was… I didn’t actually have any prizes to give away. See, I got all caught up in the whole prize thing, because other, way more popular blogs give away prizes all the time. The Fat Cyclist for example is always giving away bikes, Lance Armstrong-signed posters, dates with blogging celebrities, you name it. I’m pretty sure next month he’s going to give away a beer-date with President Obama, Vice-President Biden, and a Harvard Professor. But I got nothing.

What I Did About It

So did something about it. And now, this week, I have a Fabulous Prize to give away to this blog’s backlog of Winners. I’ll tell you what the Fabulous Prize is in just a moment, but first I need to qualify the term “Fabulous Prize” just a bit.

The first- and really only- qualifier would be my admittedly “liberal” use of the word “Fabulous.” It occurs to me that an objective reader might not-strictly speaking- judge the prize to be “Fabulous.” And in fact, the prize is of little- OK no- actual value whatsoever. But I maintain that I wasn’t exaggerating, even though the prize is of little (OK no) value, because I intended the word “Fabulous” to convey the meaning “Way Cool.” And in fact, the prize is Way Cool. And it is Way Cool because it is intimately associated with this blog, which I’m just going to say right now, is Way Cool.

Tangent: I recognize that calling one’s own blog “Way Cool” could be construed as “bragging”, but I maintain that such bragging is justified if only because of my Awesome Graphics. Think about it. I’ve done sophisticated science graphics, including Punnett Squares, identification keys, countless phylogenies, ancient rafting events, species migrations and hybridization events. Of course I’ve done a whole array of Fabulous Astro-Graphics, and I’ve even solved Complex Mathematical Equations in graphics. I’ve done several action-race graphics, many factual wildlife diagrams, and most recently, helpful child-rearing graphics. Seriously, when you think about it, this isn’t really a biking blog or a botany blog or an astronomy blog- it’s a Fine Art Blog.

The Fabulous Prize

So, what is this “Fabulous” Prize that is so intimately associated with WTWWU? Well, it’s a, it’s a um, er… it’s a sticker.

OK, I know that initially a “sticker” may not sound Fabulous, but, just check this sticker out. It’s the super-cool WTWWU logo, on a 4” x 4” indoor/outdoor sticker (pic right, pen for scale). Seriously, you see stickers- of all-kinds- all the time. But you never see a sticker as cool as this.

Now I recognize that, though you’ve seen this logo every time you’ve visited this blog, I’ve never explained what exactly it is. And you might have some questions about the sticker, and/or how to claim yours. So I prepared this FAQ:

STICKER FAQ

Q: What’s the deal with your logo anyway? Is it like some Masonic symbol or the Evil Eye of Sauron or a secret message to your alien masters?

A: No, no and no. It’s an eye, a flower and a star all in one. The yellow rays are both petals and rays of light. The green rays are sepals. The eye is brown only because most human eyes (including mine) are brown.

Q: What do I do with the sticker?

A: Whatever you like. I think it looks cool as a car/bumper-type sticker, like on my vehicle shown here.

Or you could put it on your skateboard, your snowboard, the tip of your ski, on your roof-top cargo box, on your laptop, or I don’t know- wherever.

Tangent To Explain My Other Bumper-Stickers: I always told myself I’d never be one of those people with a whole mess of bumper-stickers on my car. You know what I’m talking about- you see some 15 year-old Subaru with like 30 bumper stickers on the back, and you think: “CRAZY PERSON”. But now I’m up to 4 (and I’ll be at 5 when I get my TdPC sticker on.) But they all have a great reason for being on there.

The LOTOJA sticker was way cool when I put it on (2006) but now it seems like everybody in Utah has one. Now that I’m a racer-snob, I think they should only give you the sticker if you finish under a certain time- like say 10 hours*.

*But that would drive KanyonKris ballistic. The guy is on like an Anti-LOTOJA-Jihad.

My Pine Nut sticker looks bizarre, but has a great story. Way back when I blogged about the Blue Piñon, I started off by telling how my buddy Arizona Steve and I collected pine nuts on a hiking trip. While we were collecting, I kept going on and on about how great it was, and at one point I said, “I’m gonna get a bumper-sticker that says, ‘This Car Stops For Pine Nuts!’ 4 Months later on my birthday an envelope arrived from Arizona with the sticker inside.

Mantenga Tahoe Azul is of course the Spanish version of Keep Tahoe Blue, which are the stickers you see all over the place in Tahoe. I got it for 2 reasons- first, I love Spanish language stickers and slogans, if only because they drive xenophobic Anglos batty trying to figure them out. Second I thought it was weirdly ironic. Like pretty much all vacation spots in the West, all the grunt-jobs around Tahoe are done by Latinos. I’m sure some well-meaning Anglos thought, “Hey let’s make a Spanish version of the sticker for immigrants who don’t speak English!” But honestly, I suspect that if you’re a non-English-speaking (and quite likely undocumented) worker busting your ass washing dishes, mowing lawns or shoveling snow while trying to keep your nose clean and put away a few bucks, you got bigger worries than the lake’s water clarity* or reading some damn bumper-sticker.

*And Lake Tahoe is already infinitely cleaner than any of the large lakes in Mexico, which are overwhelmingly (and sadly) heavily polluted.

Q: So my “prize” is advertising your blog?

A: No- that’s the cool thing. It’s just the logo- no text, no title, no URL. The only people who will know what it is are people who read this blog. It’s like an insider-in the-know thing.

Q: So if I put the sticker on my car, does it mean I’m a plant-freak/bike-racer/non-theist/always-going-off-on-tangents/beard-growing-martini-snob?

A: No. It just means 2 things- that you read this blog, and that you are Way Cool.

Q: Cool! How do I get one?

A: These folks already get one for reasons listed earlier: KristenT, TheGuth, KanyonKris, Enel, John, Eric Wright.

These folks get one because they’ve been supportive of this project and/or said kind things about this blog that filled me with an all-round general sense of well-being: Sally, KB, Lucy/Jube, maggie, Kevin Vigor, El Guapo, Sarangkot, Marissa Buschow, SkiBikeJunkie*, Rachel, Carrie, mtb w, BonnevilleMariner, SYJ, Psycho Rider, Chris in Portland, ElZo, Desert Survivor, P65, Christopher Taylor** and Ted MacRae. I’m probably forgetting some folks here; if so, just email me.

*Actually SBJ would get one anyway just out of sympathy for his awful crash yesterday.

**Yes, I know you live down-under. If you want a sticker, I’ll spring for the postage.

Next, if you’re one of my several, lurking, never-comment-coworkers who read this blog and you’d like a sticker, just stop by my office. If you’re related to me and want one, I can just give it to you at Christmas.

Lastly, if you don’t fall into any of those categories but would like a sticker, if you send me a nice email and I’m in a good mood, I’ll probably just send you one anyway*.

*I had to order 250 of the things, so it’s not like I’m hoarding them…

To get the sticker, send an email with a mailing address to adventureREMOVECAPSbotanist@yahoo.com, removing the caps from the address. If I don’t know you, please remind me of the nickname/handle you commented under. Or if you already have my real* email, you can just mail me there. In either case, I’ll reply from my real email account, and let you know the sticker’s on its way.

*My identity isn’t really secret, but I avoid putting my last name directly in the blog. My real email address contains my last name.

OK, back to AstroWeek!

Next Up: How Orion is like an action movie.