UPDATE 11/23/12: The contest is closed. See below.
Yes, my friends, it is the day of the American holiday popularly known as "Thanksgiving", but if you are into "bicycle culture" at all, you inevitably call it Cranksgiving. Yes, there are historical implications for this holiday, but nowadays it's just a way to watch football and eat lotsa foods.
But I want to give thanks to you, my dear readers, for following this blog for longer than you probably should. And this thanks translates into a contest for a prize!
But first, a little backstory: back during my stay at the Grand Lodge before the Verboort Populaire, I visited the local Goodwill, as I am want to do. Small town thrift shops can be a rewarding experience, as they tend to not be as picked over as the city ones. And besides, I am clothed as if Grant Petersen went on a shopping spree at Goodwill, so it is my imperative to check out any thrift shop in my path. Anyway, at the Forest Grove Goodwill, I was duly rewarded with...
A LONGBOX!
Okay, if you have no clue as to what I'm talking about, let's go back to a simpler time, the late eighties into earlier nineties. Bush One was in the White House, grunge was starting to grungulate, Grant Petersen hadn't yet been let go from Bridgestone. This was the era when the Compact Disc was ascending to the preferred format for music storage, but not yest ascendent, as cassette tape was clinging to its short-lived (and not that deserved) supremacy. The era of the LP wasn't long past, though. Record stores needed some way to display CDs (this was before special CD racks were predominant). The easy solution was to display them in LP racks, especially since record stores had plenty of LP racks and little to no LPs anymore. The answer: the longbox, a carboard box 12 inches long and 6 inches wide, with the CD inside and badly butchered record cover art on the front of the box.
When I was a music-loving teen, I loved longboxes because they basically were a free poster that I could put on my bedroom wall, advertising my love for bands like Aerosmith and Metallica. However, all the waste created by longboxes (most folks just threw them away) raised environmental concerns, and due to pressure from musicians and activists alike, longboxes were phased out around 1993. The longbox faded into obscurity, a cultural curiosity not remembered by many. So it's a big deal to see an unmolested longbox in the wild. So I bought it.
The album? The Ghosts That Haunt Me, the first album by Canadian folk-alt rock band Crash Test Dummies. Of course you all know the Dummies from their smash hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" from their second album, God Shuffled A Deck of Cards. The album contained in the longbox does not have that song, alas.
So now, it is time for THE CONTEST!
The first person who can email me the answer to this question will be the lucky recipient of this longbox in all its splendor!
The question: Why is Grant Petersen such a big proponent of bike overnights?
No, don't make it up. The answer is contained in an entry that was posted sometime this year. Yes, you must repeat it to me verbatim.
If you know the answer, please email it to me INCLUDING YOUR MAILING (POSTAL) ADDRESS. (Entries with no mailing address are disqualified.) Yes, I will send this longbox overseas, but THIS CONTEST IS OFF-LIMITS TO CANADIANS, sorry. This is because I know that every Canadian citizen is required by law to own the full discographies of Crash Test Dummies, Rush, The Tragically Hip, and BTO. (They relaxed the law when it comes to Gordon Lightfoot, now all they need to own is Gord's Gold to be compliant.)
UPDATE 11/23/12: We have a winner! Congradulayshuns to Nicholas Carman of Gypsy by Trade, who correctly answered the question. The answer? Here:
Yes, my friends, it is the day of the American holiday popularly known as "Thanksgiving", but if you are into "bicycle culture" at all, you inevitably call it Cranksgiving. Yes, there are historical implications for this holiday, but nowadays it's just a way to watch football and eat lotsa foods.
But I want to give thanks to you, my dear readers, for following this blog for longer than you probably should. And this thanks translates into a contest for a prize!
But first, a little backstory: back during my stay at the Grand Lodge before the Verboort Populaire, I visited the local Goodwill, as I am want to do. Small town thrift shops can be a rewarding experience, as they tend to not be as picked over as the city ones. And besides, I am clothed as if Grant Petersen went on a shopping spree at Goodwill, so it is my imperative to check out any thrift shop in my path. Anyway, at the Forest Grove Goodwill, I was duly rewarded with...
A LONGBOX!
Okay, if you have no clue as to what I'm talking about, let's go back to a simpler time, the late eighties into earlier nineties. Bush One was in the White House, grunge was starting to grungulate, Grant Petersen hadn't yet been let go from Bridgestone. This was the era when the Compact Disc was ascending to the preferred format for music storage, but not yest ascendent, as cassette tape was clinging to its short-lived (and not that deserved) supremacy. The era of the LP wasn't long past, though. Record stores needed some way to display CDs (this was before special CD racks were predominant). The easy solution was to display them in LP racks, especially since record stores had plenty of LP racks and little to no LPs anymore. The answer: the longbox, a carboard box 12 inches long and 6 inches wide, with the CD inside and badly butchered record cover art on the front of the box.
 |
| Not one but TWO Carly Simon longboxes? Wow. |
The album? The Ghosts That Haunt Me, the first album by Canadian folk-alt rock band Crash Test Dummies. Of course you all know the Dummies from their smash hit "Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm" from their second album, God Shuffled A Deck of Cards. The album contained in the longbox does not have that song, alas.
So now, it is time for THE CONTEST!
The first person who can email me the answer to this question will be the lucky recipient of this longbox in all its splendor!
The question: Why is Grant Petersen such a big proponent of bike overnights?
No, don't make it up. The answer is contained in an entry that was posted sometime this year. Yes, you must repeat it to me verbatim.
UPDATE 11/23/12: We have a winner! Congradulayshuns to Nicholas Carman of Gypsy by Trade, who correctly answered the question. The answer? Here:
