The Sunflower Boy
7-year-old Wyatt Wilke was looking forward to entering his best sunflower in a competition at the Sunflower Fair in La Porte, Indiana.
“He loved growing his sunflowers,” said his mother, Cathleen Wilke. “Every year we talked about coming into La Porte for the Sunflower Fair, but we never got around to it. Wyatt really wanted to be part of the contest.”
That’s what they had planned — a day at the fair, to enter his sunflower. He was a healthy, constantly laughing boy — he loved school, where he was in the second grade, he loved horses, he loved his big brother John, with whom he shared a bedroom. The Wilkes lived in the tiny town of Hamlet, about 15 minutes from La Porte; Wyatt would look out the back window, watching for blue jays and cardinals.
“He planted his sunflowers in our garden,” Cathleen Wilke said. “He was so careful with them. A few weeks before the fair, there was a heavy windstorm that knocked his biggest sunflower over. He called to me: ‘Mom, it’s on the ground — my flower, it’s down.’ He was afraid it was ruined. But he managed to save it.”
But a bacterial infection struck Wyatt and he died in just a few days. His stunned parents realized the fair had started the same day he died and took Wyatt’s sunflower to the competition, just as he had planned. They had never been to the Sunflower Fair before.
They waited together as all the categories were judged. No one around them had any idea.
And then, through the loudspeaker system at the fair, the winner of his category was announced:
“First place. . .Wyatt Wilke.”
There is more to the story, but you’d better have your handkerchief ready if you go read it. Link -via Fark
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Where the Wilds Things Ought To Be
Lots of artists are entering the contest “Where the Wild Things Ought To Be”, placing characters from the Maurice Sendak classic into other worlds, real and fictional. The entries include Max and his buddies in The Dark Knight, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Where’s Waldo, and even on Fox News! This entry has Vincent van Gogh illustrating the book Where the Wild Things Are. Link -via Super Punch
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Winning Weiners
The Minneapolis StarTribune hosted their first annual Hot Dog Dressing Contest for Independence Day. The weiner winners included the pictured entry entitled “Dog Gone” by Mel Ferrer and Joanne Haas. You can see all the dressed dogs in their slide show. Link -via Buzzfeed
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Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Video Contest: Deep Thoughts From the Throne
Why wasn’t I told that June is National Bathroom Reading Month? I’ve been celebrating it all year long!
Anyways, to celebrate this momentous occasion, our pal Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader is running a neat contest: Deep Thoughts From the Throne.
You can win nifty prizes (including an iPhone, a set of Bathroom Reader books autographed by Uncle John himself and a year’s supply of toilet paper – a year! – now that’s a prize) for entering a video clip you create about … your bathroom!
Here’s the details: Contest Rules | Visit Uncle John’s YouTube channel for approved entries
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Peeps in Places Photo Contest
National Geographic is running a photo contest called Peeps in Places. Just take a picture of one or more marshmallow Peeps posing in some travel destination, add them to the Filckr pool, and tag them as “NGTpeeps.” Due to enthusiastic response, the original deadline has been extended until Monday, April 13th. Winners get prizes from Nat Geo and Just Born (the maker of Peeps)! Link to contest information. Link to a slideshow of entries.
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Laws of Physics Broken for Watersliding Fun
[YouTube - Link]
So here’s the scoop: I’m about to turn 30 – this friday in fact. Also: I love waterslides. Then I found a competition which, if I get enough votes, will send me around the world to the biggest watersldies there are. Best Present. Ever. This is my entry. Did it in an hour.
If you like it and fancy voting me into a state of splashy swooshy ecstasy, Vote for Slideyman in the Barclay Waterslide video competition. Just click the green thumbs up! Link
Love and Waterslides,
Oscar
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Cadbury Creme Egg Deaths
My sweet tooth must be in full effect tonight because I somehow keep stumbling upon posts about donuts and cupcakes and Cadbury Creme Eggs. Last year, Cadbury held a contest for fans to submit videos of the delicious chocolatey goodness going splat. They called it their “Here today, goo tomorrow” campaign, and some of them are pretty awesome. Check out this Rube Goldberg contraption – it’s really complicated. My favorite part is the Smashing Creme Eggs band.
But fans of Andy Samberg and SNL digital shorts will appreciate this one – it’s a tribute to the “Dear Sister” short.
Via Cakespy
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Odd and Extraordinary Beauty Pageants
You know about the Miss America and Miss Universe beauty pageants. You are probably also aware of child beauty pageants, bodybuilding contests, transexual pageants, and pageants for married women. Then there are the odd beauty pageants. Last August, an Italian priest proposed an online beauty pageant for nuns. One day later, he rescinded the idea under pressure from local and religious authorities. But there are plenty of other beauty pageants that stray far from what you are used to.
Miss Klingon Empire
The Miss Klingon Empire beauty pageant has been held annually for ten years now at the Dragon*con event in Atlanta. This image of the 2006 winner is from Flickr user elemess. Also see a video report of the most recent pageant.
Miss Hooker
The Miss Hooker 2008 pageant was what you’d think -a beauty pageant for prostitutes, but there were no real prostitutes in the running, just actresses putting on a show, arraigned by artist Natalia Fabia. But what a show! The eventual winner went by the name Miss One Dolla No Holla. See more pictures here.
Miss Plastic Surgery
A Miss Plastic Surgery pageant was held in China in 2004. It was a one-time-only event, in which all contestants were required to have undergone some type of plastic surgery. The pageant was launched in reaction to an earlier scandal in which a contestant was disqualified from another beauty contest because she had used cosmetic surgery.
Ms. Pregnant
You don’t have to let a little thing like pregnancy stop you from entering a beauty pageant. The Ms. Pregnant pageant celebrates beauty with a bump. And yes, they parade in bikinis!
Miss Subways
A New York advertising agency held a pageant from 1941 to 1976 called Miss Subways. The winner was featured in ads on trains and stations. The tradition was revived in 2004, when Caroline Sanchez-Bernat was crowned Miss Subways.
Zombie Beauty
A Zombie Beauty Contest is held annually at the Phoenix ComiCon. This year’s pageant was just a couple of weeks ago. Heather, the winner, is pictured here. See pictures from last year’s zombie pageant at Flickr.
Most Beautiful Bottom
The Most Beautiful Bottom in the World contest was launched in 2007 by the underwear manufacturer sloggi. It is open to both men and women, and the winner for each category gets a modeling contract. See a video of the 2008 competition in Paris. This photo is from the 2007 contest in Munich.
Miss Landmine
Miss Landmine is a beauty pageant for women disabled by landmines and other war-related injuries held in Angola. The pageant, created by Norwegian artist Morten Traavik, celebrates pride and empowerment over physical perfection.
Prison Pageants
In the Miss Spring beauty pageant held in a Siberian prison near Novosibirsk, participation can mean freedom, as the parole board takes community activity into account when deciding who to release. A 2006 film, Miss Gulag is a documentary about the Miss Spring pageant. Other prison beauty pageants include Miss Captivity, held in a Lithuanian prison, Miss Prisoner held in Bogota, Colombia, and Miss Prisoner in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (image credit: Fabio Cuttica)
Miss Jumbo Queen
Thailand hosts the Miss Jumbo Queen pageant for big beautiful women. The pageant grew out of an elephant conservation project.
The aim of the contest is to select the contestant who best exhibits the characteristics of an elephant, by virtue of her grace, elegance and size, to help promote elephant conservation causes in Thailand.
However, it appears that the last Jumbo Queen was crowned in 2005.
Harvest Festival Queens
Local harvest festivals have the funniest names for ordinary beauty pageants. Who could resist putting such gems as Miss Meat Pie, Miss Hell Hole Swamp, or Miss Worm Gruntin’ Queen on their resume? Pictured is the Gilroy Garlic Festival queen.
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Englishman Sells Home Through Sudoku
There are some pretty nifty things you can win through puzzles and contests. iPods, concert tickets or dvd’s…but what about a house? Dave Mackie, a 49 year old Englishman is offering his house (valued roughly at $750,000) as a prize to whoever can solve a Sudoku puzzle.
To participate you’ll have to pay 60 bucks, but otherwise there is no catch. Mackie claims he is planning to migrate to Egypt and needed a fun way to get rid of his current home near Blackpool, England. Being addicted to Sudoku’s himself, Mackie quickly set up the plan. He is hoping enough people will participate so that he will have a fair amount of money in return for his house, which includes a sauna and hot tub.
"It’s a fun way to sell my house and a way to avoid getting sucked into the global financial crisis" says Mackie.
The puzzle will be available on Mackie’s website til February 2010. By then Mackie hopes at least 14,000 people will have participated.
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Fruitcake Failure
Competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi {wiki} has won awards for eating hot dogs, hamburgers, dumplings, bratwurst, lobster rolls, cow brains, and rice balls. But he completely gave up on the world record at a fruitcake eating competition!
With only a 1/2 pound to go at 8 minutes, Kobayashi began crumbling the nutty cake before jamming it into his mouth, a technique that seemed effective.
“Koby! Koby! Koby!” the crowd of about two dozen shouted, as his pace quickened.
By 8 minutes and 35 seconds, Sonya Thomas’ 2001 record was still almost a pound out of his reach. In the end, Kobayashi managed to eat 4 pounds and 8 ounces.
“It was very difficult to eat because it was so dense,” Kobayashi said through a translator, admitting that he had never eaten the cake before.
The fruitcake record remains at 4 pounds 14 ounces, eaten in ten minutes. The event held Friday raised funds for a food bank in New York City. Link -via Unique Daily
(image credit: Handschuh/News)
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