Wow! First and foremost — thank you all for your wonderful birthday wishes.  You all rock. Even Miss Britt who made a crack about me being old.  I can’t wait until I get a cane just so I can thank you properly…

So — my original post sans hint was a bit… shall we say, improbable.  Who could simply guess a name in my head?  I did, however, get some pretty good guesses.

I decided to give you all a hint — one which I felt might likely give it all away rather quickly. And I was correct — it took someone all of three minutes to guess the correct answer from my hint.

So – what was the name in question? What did the hints mean? For at least one of you, the hints were a type of quaero totus lacuna, which is Latin for “copy what I put on the blog to help people out into Google and look for something remotely relevant.”  But for those of you who got it right off the bat, you knew that these three “hints” were actually the first few lines of dialogue of the repressed peasant in Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

Direct YouTube Link

The first among you commoners to guess “Dennis” was Avitable.  He gets the t-shirt expressly made for the crew of The Wolfman. Coming to theaters this November.  Kudos to LeSombre, whall, Finn, and Janelle for also coming up with the correct name.

I must, however, give honorable mentions to the following individuals for some dreat guesses:

• B. E. Earl guessed that I would be named Romulu He cleverly took into consideration the Wolfman movie flair I was giving away. He chose Romulus over Remus because Romulus is the name of the town where the Detroit airport happens to be. Or something like that.
• LeSombre guessed “Joseph” for a variety of reasons, most of which escape me aside from that it means “he will enlarge.”  Oh really… ::whistles::
• NYCWD and Cissa Fireheart both chose the name “Sam.”  Cissa cited a fact that, on this day in history, Sam Houston led a Texan army to independence in San Jacinto. And Samuel Clemmens (aka Mark Twain) died in 1910 on this day. Dawg just chose it because he knows that I don’t eat ham. (Jury is still out on the green eggs.)
• Dave2 was close: taking a page out of one of the best TV sitcoms of all time, he decided to delve into the quintissential hottest supporting character from that show.  And he guessed Skippy — based on Alex’s buddy and Mallory’s geeky somewhat stalker Skippy Handelman on “Family Ties.”
• Hilly just thinks that I should be called “Dick.”
• Iron Fist thought that my name might have to do with the Jewish holiday which falls today called Yom HaShoah. Which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Way to keep it light…
• MySpaceBarBroke and Miss Britt both decided on “Sir.”  Both of these lovely ladies are younger than I am; SpaceBar is incredibly sweet and respectful towards me. She always has been. Britt, on the other hand… well, she’s also been very nice to me, I suppose.  But she called me old.

• Finally, another tip of the hat to Dawg who took the “37” reference to the other movie which references it: a wonderful film called Clerks. Kudos to you on this one; yes, I’ve aged all 37 years in a row.  I’ve decided that I will bestow NYCWD with a package of snowballs (yes, the confectioned donut treat and not the other stuff) the next time we meet in person.

Today was really amazing for me.  I began this blog slightly over a year ago and was new to this specific blogging community.  Since then I’ve become close to many of you.  Thanks for all of the birthday wishes and for being such a great community.

But wait — there’s more! While I’m revealing answers about stuff, why the heck not give you the answers to that 80s music quiz on my blog about three weeks back?  Here were the snippets; see if you can hear them now that you know what they are:

[audio:80s-mix-c.mp3] Download: MP3 OGG

“Head Over Heels” by the Go-Gos and “We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel.  Nat and Hilly identified the Go-Gos, but the Billy Joel intro was a bit tough for you all. Don’t the two intros go quite well together, though?

[audio:80s-mix-d.mp3] Download: MP3 OGG

Many of you (Faiqa, Janelle, Hilly, B.E. Earl, Sybil and my brother) got The Fixx’s “One Thing Leads To Another.”  Nobody got that the eerie piano chords belonged to the intro for the Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays.”

[audio:80s-mix-e.mp3] Download: MP3 OGG

Yes. “Obsession” by Anomotion. Practically everyone had that one.  The other? “Oh Sherry” by Journey frontman Steve Perry. Yankeebird got that in the round before the last one in which four songs were on top of each other. Go Yankee!

[audio:80s-mix-f.mp3] Download: MP3 OGG

A few of you got “Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. Nobody figured out the opening organ slide to “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News.

Okay — let’s hear them all together one last time!

[audio:80s-mix.mp3]    Download: MP3 OGG

Now do you hear each of these eight song?  No? Only me?  Okay…

A quick tip of the hat to my brother who calls himself, affectionately, Shiny’s Brother. I prefer the name I’ve given him in the blogosphere, Captain Awesome. I especially like it because I can almost feel him cringe at the thought of me calling him that. And imagining him in a tight superhero suit with tights and a bright orange codpiece and all.  Yes, he continues to be an inspiration for me, and he really had a lot to do with my obsession for 80s music.  Thanks, CA. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the sky.

And now, for no good reason whatsoever, here is a picture of someone’s butt. With a full color tattoo on one of the cheeks. Of a unicorn. A very special unicorn. One with rainbows. And a swastika armband. Spreading the rainbow-clad, unicornial message of white power.

On the other hand, you’re probably not interested. Tell you what — if you’re reading this in your feed reader and you actually want to see it, click through for the full blog post.  If you’re not, I certainly don’t blame you.

continue reading "What’s in a Name – Birthday Contest Winner Revealed!"

I’m officially going to be proactive about this:

It’s my birthday today.

So — yay!

But this year I’m going to involve a bit of a twist: I have a contest in mind.

You see — now that it is April 21, 2009, I can be called by a different name. In fact, I have a name in mind. It’s a relatively common English male name.

Guess it. And tell me specifically why I chose this name to suit me today.

Winner gets a fantastic prize:  Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins are starring in The Wolfman, slated to come out this November. If you’re the first to correctly guess the name I’m thinking of — including, in full, the explanation of why I’m thinking of this name today — you’ll get an official Wolfman crew shirt. It’s a long sleeved black T-shirt.  You can request any size you wish, but all I have is an adult medium.

Good luck!

EDIT: I realized this morning that guessing a name from thin air is pretty much close to impossible. What was I thinking? So I’ve decided to provide you with not one, not two, but five three clues. The name corresponds to these following qualities:

• Man.
• I’m 37.
• I’m not old.

Hopefully this will help a bit. Good luck!

Why a repeat post?

Well, I’ll be totally honest: since TequilaCon ’08, the traffic on my blog has gone through the roof. Thank you all for reading and commenting. And I apologize for taking a long time to get back to you all in the comments, but I assure you that I will continue to respond to all of your responses.

Anyway — a few weeks back I talked about the rotating headers which adorn the top of my blog. Many of them come from my obsession with Google Maps, Google Earth and Microsoft Live Maps, which I use to find all sorts of landmarks.

Let’s see if you can guess where each of these locations are…

(Yes. Some are obvious; some are not as obvious. Be as detailed as you can. Winner gets due praise on my blog.)

The reason I’m reposting this is because I had zero entry submissions last time. Zilch. I’m guessing that this was the case for two reasons: I didn’t have very many readers to start with, and I didn’t offer a flashy prize to the person who could guess the locations of the most pictures. Now I have more readers.

And a prize.

Yes — up for grabs this time is a Mighty Kite mini-kite! This is a small kite that will fit in a handbag, comes with forty yards of line, and is pre-assembled. Fun little toy, You can read more about it at Woot, the place where I picked up a few of these: Mighty Kite mini-kite. *NEW!* I’m sweetening the pot by writing a poem for the winner which I will recite while vlogging. See my latest “List on the 3s” for more details.

HERE’S WHAT TO DO: Instead of posting your answers to the reply section of the blog, go ahead and email me no later than Tuesday, May 13 Friday, May 16 at 11:59pm EDT with your answers to: contest @ Shiny’s Takeout dot com (without the spaces and punctuation, of course). I’ll tally results and post the answers on Wednesday — as well as identify the winner with the most correct identifications. (If there is a tie, I will pick randomly among the folks at the top.)

Ready, all? Here we go! (Oh — and click on each to enlarge)

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I have about fifteen more. Let me know if this is interesting enough to do again…

I have a weird blog layout.

I mean, I like the background — miniature takeout menus. get it? Takeout?” And the font and randomized tagline have something to do with the takeout food industry — aside from the few taglines which don’t.

(By the way — if you have a tagline to suggest for the rotation — suggest it here.)

But I do have a carryover from my last blog — and that’s the random rotating header images. On the most part I used Google Earth and Microsoft “Live Maps” to come up with these, but some are pictures I found on the web, some of which were doctored a bit. But most of them are images from rather large metropolitan areas.

Let’s see if you can guess where each of these locations are…

(Yes. Some are obvious; some are not as obvious. Be as detailed as you can. Winner gets due praise on my blog.)

EDIT: Okay, campers — change of plans. People are asking about how they submit their answers without their neighbors copying off of their papers. Here’s the deal: Email me no later than Monday, April 21 with your answers to contest @ <this here blog name . com> I’ll tally results and post the answers on Tuesday.

(Oh — and click on each to enlarge)

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I have about fifteen more. Let me know if this is interesting enough to do again…

Yesterday socKs showed me something online that has had my brain in a tizzy. I’m usually pretty good at guessing a song by snippets of song lyrics (and especially by a snippet of the music). There would be no doubt that having all of the lyrics for the entire song in front of me would make it a whole lot easier! Right?

Well…

Here’s the deal: You’re presented with the lyrics to a popular song. Butall of the words appear in alphabetical order. And each word appears once — no matter how many times it’s sung in the song. For some reason, this drove me wild. Some of them were easy to spot; some of them took me quite a while. You can look at that quiz, cleverly titled “And Great Lyrics Quiz Rock Roll The.”

I decided to do my own with songs (mostly) from the ’80s, ’90s and the current decade. Some of the ones I chose are quite easy. Some of them require some thought.

Good luck!

1.

a across age alive alone and answers anything at be boy but can’t ‘cept course daddy day deserve didn’t do dyin’ for glad got have hey him home huh I I’m if is just know little look man’s nothin’ now of oh question ready real remember room said see she sittin’ slowly so something son sorry stare still story talked that the there thirteen this thought to uh very walks was we well were what where while who wrong yeah you you’re young your

2.

against agony all amputee an and are around been bit body bored boring breeding but can’t cause clearer cloning coming commit crazy cretins curves cut damn digging does doesn’t don’t even ever everybody’s evil feeding feel feels fine fingertips flagpole for forget found get god had have head hear hell holes hospital hot hurt I I’d I’m if in into irony it it’s just kill killing legs like little live looking machines me memories met mind mine mirror moles my naughty nerves never no not now of off oh one only own paranoia people pierce publish put rage rottenness run runnin’ salutes say see sick sin snoring so sounds stupid sublime swear that the them then they they’re this time to told tongue trivial turn tv underground up visions voices wanna was well when who with world you you’re your zines

3.

a after air alone and are at babe baby back be beach boys brown but by cadillac can combed crazy days deadhead did don’t down dream drivin’ ‘em empty everyone feel for forever forget get go goes gone gonna got hair happened have head home house how I I’m if in inside it just knew know lake let little look love made me my never nights nobody not now of on our out pulled radio reach real remember road said saw scream see shinin’ should show skin slicked slow smilin’ sticker still streets strong summer summer’s sun sunglasses tell that the those though thought to today top understand voice walkin’ was wayfarers what will wonder you you’re your

4.

a all an and another asking away baby back be because becomes before blues body but can’t cause comes could devotion don’t door down emotion every everybody faith floor foolish for from games give giving go got gotta guess has have heart help hold I I’ll I’m I’ve if it just know like love loverboy man maybe me mean more my need nice not notion ocean of off on pick play please reconsider reconsidered river rules say saying showing some someone something stay strong takes that the them think this throw tied time to too touch twice up wait well when who without word would yeah yesterday you you’re your

5.

a all America’s an and another apart are around at away baby back be beat been believe blind breathe broken but buy can can’t capital captain case chair chamber charity cigarette city city’s court crime doin’ down eat end everybody’s fame far for fortune gamble game gas general girls go gonna good gotta grass green hard have hazardous he he’s heart here home how I I’d I’ll I’m I’ve in is it it’s jester just keep know like line livin’ losin’ me million mind must my now of oh or paradise pay please pretty pushin’ quite rags remember riches said say says see seen so somethin’ start strapped street surgeon take tell that’s the their they time times to torn tough treat turn under urchin want when where who why with won’t ya yeah you your

6.

a all am and any apologies at be become big burdensome can’t captivity ’cause clear comparison dear destiny do don’t drive exactly exposed eyes fear for forcing freak girl good guess had hand have here hide hold I I’d I’m I’ve in is it it’s just kind know late let little living look lucky makes making many me moment my myself night no not numb of off oh ol’ out outside petite pink pretty prototype rather reasons ribbon rights rule run sight sit so some stand stare step succumbed surprise take that that’s the their there’s they things think this those thumb to Tweedle-dum typical up well what what’s where with won’t world worrisome you you’ll your

7.

a aeroplanes afraid alone alternatives an and as at automotive aux baffled Bangs Bernstein birds birthday bleed bloodletting book-burning boom breathing Brezhnev bright Bruce burn but by candle caught cavalier cheesecake churn clatter clear combat coming common continental cropped crush crushed decline divide do don’t down dreamt drift dummy earthquake end escalate every eye fear feed feel feeling fight, fine fire flight food for foreign furies games get government great grunt had heart heel height hire hour hurricane hurry I in incinerate is it it’ll it’s jellybean knives know ladder left Lenny Leonard Leonid Lester lies light line listen locking look low me means motive mountains neck needs night no not o’clock of off offer other overflow own party patriotic playing population pretty psyched rapture renegade reporters representing return, revered right save serve serves seven sit site six slam slash snakes solutions some speak stand starts steer step symbiotic team tethered that that’s the then this time to tournament towers trumped TV uh-oh uniforming vitriolic votive watch we west wire with world you your yourself

8.

a able about alive an and are as away baby back be bear bed best both bug but can ’cause close cross deny did die died dinner does down duplicity eloquently else’s enough every excellent eyes face fade fair feel for forget fuck gave go gonna happy hate have her here hold hope how I I’m in is it it’s joke know laid left like look love made make me mess middle mother Mr. my nails name no not nothing of older on open oughta peaceful perverted quickly quite really remind replaced scratch seem she she’d should slap someone soon speak still sure that the theater things thinking thought ’till time to told until version very want was wasn’t we well went when wide wish would you you you’d you’re your

9.

a about all alone am an angels as at away believe blood bridge cause city companion could cry day deeds did don’t downtown drew drive enough ever feel forgot friend gave get good hard have her hills I I’m in is it’s kisses knows least lie life like live lonely love loves me my never nobody not now of on only out partner place sees she she’s some sometimes streets take that the there there’s through to together under walk want way we where who windy worry

10.

a ah all always and awake away be book but can cheeks complain day do don’t dry escape for gather gonna great have hey I I’d I’ll I’m insane is it it’s just keep know life like made me my no not of oh plain point pour pretty puddles rain read really rips sane say sleep so some someone speak start stay tea that the there there’s think to today two understand view wake want watchin’ we’re when why with ya yeah you

11.

a about ah all Amsterdam and and anything are as at back barrio be beautiful believe believes big black black blue Bob bottle bought bright but buy can cats ‘cause color colors come coming conversation cut dance dancer dances dancin’ different don’t down Dylan each everybody fairy father favorite felt flamenco for funky future girl going gonna got gray guitar happy haired he help her how huh I I’m if in into is Jones just knew know la lights lion little lonely look looking loves man Maria me meaningful more morning Mr. my myself never new no of oh other paint pass perfect Picasso picture play plays reasons red right see sha she she’s show silence smiling so some somebody someone something son Spanish spotlight standing stare staring stars stereo strikes stumbling suddenly symbolic tales television tell that that’s the there’s think this through to uh up very video wanna want wants was we we’re well when while who why will wish wishes with women would yeah yellow yesterday you

12.

a alive all am and are awake away back be burn but car churches come complete days don’t doorway drive emptiness eyes eyes façade fills for from fruitless get go grand hard heart heat I in inside instincts keep keeps light like look lost love me moment much my noise of off oh our out pain pass place pride reach resolution return run searches see slipping so sometimes soon survival that the they this thousand time tired to touch want wasted way when whichever will with without working you your

13.

a afternoon all and baby be bed behind big blankets body bound ‘bout break bubblegum but candy crawling damn deep discover discovering do ‘em every face falls find for frustrate go good got hair hand head hit hurts I I’ll I’ve if in inch is it know leave left let like lips look lose love make me might mile mine my never of one pair pillowcase plans porcelain room sea shape skin so something sometimes swimming take tell the there’s thing this though to tongue towards two want way we’ll we’ve when where while without wonder wonderland you you’re your

14.

a about achin’ afternoon air all although always and angry anime Aquaman aren’t arms as at babes back backswing bad be because been Bert better big Birchmount blame boom both brain break burns bust but can can’t cartoon cause chalet chicken chickity China Chinese clubs cocked come could couldn’t crazy dangerous dans days did dish do don’t dropped drumstick fake fault feel films find finest fish five flavours flying Ford forgiven frantic frying funeral funny get getting gonna got gotta grow guaranteed guy hard Harrison has have head help history hits hold home hoodwink hope hot how I I’d I’m I’ve if in irons is it it’ll it’s just Kaempfert’s kind knees know Kurosawa la laughed laughs LeAnn lights like living looked looking losing mad maison make man’s match me mean mind moment moon my never no not now nubs of off okay on one pan realized rhymes Rimes Robbie room rug said sailor Samurai satisfy say saying see set shake shirt show side sides sign since sit sleeve smile smiled smoking snickers so soon sorry stadium still sting stinkin’ stop stops summon sushi Swiss tackled take taking tantric tell tendency that the then they’d thing think this though thought three threw through tickin’ til’ tiny to together too touched try tryin’ tune two understand value vanilla vertigo wait waiver wassabi watch watchin’ we we’re wear week well were what when who will with wits wrong X-Files yesterday you you’d you’ll you’re your

15.

a above all and another at baby bad be but can card care change cream credit cruel curious diamonds do don’t dove dream fair fame feel feeling first found from gets girl’s glad go good harder hawk help Hmmm hold home in is it it it’s just keeps know life like little love mad make makes man might money more need next night no nothin’ of one power rich ride right ‘round sad save say sing sometimes steel strong stronger sudden take than that that’s the they thing this till time to tougher train weep what when white with won’t world wrong yeah you you’ll you’ve your

16.

a addiction after ain’t all alright an and angels around as black boy but by call certain comes company cross don’t down ever everything eyes family from gives gonna hair has her I in is it keeps know little lock lover make me means meet mentions met name neck never night no none not nothing now of oh orphan out pain pain’s paints pocket pulls says seen shades she she’ll she’s smile someone talks tell that the there’s they those tight to wears when word yeah yes yet you

17.

a abuse act ah all am an and are as at behind can ‘cause chance come control cry dance doing don’t dress ‘em everybody everybody’s everything’ll everything’s far feet find for friends from go gonna got hands hats I if imbecile is it it’s leave life like long look lose mine neat never night no nobody of oh one our out place pole poor real removed right rude safety said say so surprise takin’ the they they’re this to totally victory want we we’re we’ve well when where will with work world yeah yes you young your

18.

tequila

19.

a after alone am and apartment around as at back balled before brick broke buy by call can’t car cause Charlotte Christmas clothes coast cold couch dad dark day down drive driving drownin’ dying ever feeling find fine flowers for found freezing gifts got has have headed her home I I’m in is it it’s know lot lying me mom moment more name not now nowhere numb of off on out pace parking seat see sell seven she she’s showed six sleeping slowly smell some someone son stairs tell than that the then they they’re thirty throw time tired to told truth up us walk was we we’re weeks went world yeah you you’re

20.

a about ain’t all always and anger ask asking away being better brace bringing burden but by can clues concerned do don’t down ease enough ever everything few fine fool gives go going grace have higher I I’m I’ve Instead is it it’s just know lastless leave lies listen love me mean mine more my no of one out problems prose purple pushing questions realize realized relative replies say seemingly seems self shoot so spent stop talk tell telling than the these things think think this through time times to unbelievable us way what when why with world you you’d you’re you’ve your yourself

21.

a about ain’t and as barrio be better breath but calling cause change cool could crying else emotion enough every everyone feel for forget from get give good got groove Harlem hear heart hot I I’ll if in inches it it’s kind leave let’s life lift like Lisa lovin’ make man me melt midday Mona mood moon muñequita my name ocean of on one or out radio real reason rhythm round said same seven shame slow smooth so soft Spanish stay step suit sun tell that that’s the thing this to turning under up well whisper word words world would you you’re your

One of these days I’ll have prizes and stuff. really