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¿Winners? We've Got Winners! And Coming Soon, a New Contest!
Filed under: Letters & Challenges Tagged: Carolita Johnson, contests, food, Liesl Schillinger, punctuation, Spain
Paul Morris, who also drew the triumphant illustration above, writes:
In a village of La Mancha, the name of which we have no desire to call to mind, a lone upside-down question mark polishes off his newly granted escutcheon. He had been invited to appear at the royal palace at Aranjuez the night before. There, he had jostled with his worthy and eminent rivals: second-place winner The Qué Mark, submitted by Liesl Schillinger, and third-place winner Quiggle, proposed by Carolita Johnson.
With a sultry clickety-clack of Sevillean castanets, the strumming of veteran vihuelas, and the Mediterranean thumping on the adufe, the upside-down question mark received his name: Interroverti, proposed by Nadine and Chris LaRoche. The Spanish kings smiled gracefully at their faithful servant, who was treated to a glass of sherry and a display of fireworks that illuminated the Tajo on the hot September night. Interroverti's rivals were also bedecked with medals hammered from fine silver and cinnabar from the mines of Almadén.
The newly named punctuation mark will now sit proudly on his lean hack, and tilt at grammatical windmills with lance and buckler.
We here at Emdashes would like to thank all who submitted entries to our contest, and we invite you all to participate in our upcoming contest, to be announced soon. It, too, has a punctuation theme!
And, as before, there will be prizes. For their winning entry in this contest, Nadine and Chris LaRoche will enjoy either dinner for two at the Spanish, Mexican, Ecuadorian, Dominican, &c., restaurant of their choice, or a beautiful copy of Pablo Neruda's immortal The Book of Questions. Nadine and Chris, let us know your choice, and we'll get it to you by something faster than the existential-pony express.
Who we?
Emdashes, founded December 2004, is a place where keen and dedicated readers of The New Yorker, past and present, can find related news and commentary: about people, subjects, and ideas within the magazine, and events and conversations outside its pages. Learn more about us and our contributors.
We welcome tips, questions, and comments about The New Yorker past and present, plus related events, links, typeface sightings, &c. To contact the magazine or send a submission, click here.
No fear: Everything you say or send is off the record unless we ask for your permission to use it.
This site is neither owned nor operated by The New Yorker magazine or Condé Nast Publications.
A few clips
- Report: Learning to read with comic books edited by Françoise Mouly (for Print)
- Interview: Designer Eleanor Grosch (for Print)
- Review: Charles Addams: A Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis (for Newsday)
- Review: The King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game by Paul Hoffman (for Newsday)
- Review: Does The New Republic's recent redesign mean a change of tune? (for Print)
- Proposal: A more attractive MetroCard (for A Brief Message)
- Interview: James Surowiecki on what's next for the wisdom of crowds (for Assignment Zero)
- Report: Eustace Tilley spruces up for The New Yorker's website redesign (for Print)
- Feature: Muslim immigration iconography in the Netherlands (for Print)
- Review: books about various New Yorker cartoonists by Liza Donnelly and Iain Topliss (for Newsday)
- Profile: screenwriter and novelist Joe Keenan (for Newsday)
- Review: The Complete New Yorker (for Print)
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They say that dashes “are particularly useful in a sentence that is long and complex.” Emdashes—like em dashes—emphasizes what’s between: in particular, between the lines, covers, and issues of a magazine close to my heart.
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Edited by Martin Schneider, designed by Pretty, and illustrated by Inkleaf. Additional drawings by Carolita Johnson. Kissable pencil girl by Jennifer Hadley, based on a 1943 Dorothy Gray ad.
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Comments
Hi Emily:
Just wanted to inform your readers that the Westfield Library in Westfield, NJ. is devoting much of October to Charles Addams Month. For special events, readers can go online for the library web site, and they'll get the latest event info. If you're traveling from NY Penn Station, take the Raritan Valley Line to the Westfield Train Station stop. You change at Newark for that train; the ride is just under an hour each way. The Westfield Library is about a 10 minute walk from the station. The Charles Addams biography published recently has very well researched chapters on the artist's early years in Westfield; his old house on Elm St., I believe, is still there.
Paul: your narration of the ceremony is, literally, fantastic and very funny. Cervantes would be proud of your wit and imagination.
Congratulations to Nadine and Chris for their ingenious and erudite entry: it is a worthy winner.
Thanks, Carmen!