Last night I ran an impromptu contest over at Successful and Outstanding Bloggers, spurred on by discussions of Fawlty Towers. That link goes to a great summary of most of the submissions and the fun that was had. More people really should join in. Anyway, I have to announce the contest winner. (drumroll please...) Cat said, "I cook like I dance (both of which I love). So at times it may be slow and easy. Others, fast, fast, fast." We could have very easily taken Cat's contest submission, removed the word "dance" and really left it up to the imagination, and it's for that reason that she's won. There's just too much packed into that second sentence, "slow and easy" and "fast, fast, fast..." to go unnoticed. Congratulations Cat! Now of course, Cat lives in East Asia, so my shipping costs are going to be about $10,000 because I'll be sending her the Fawlty Towers Complete Collection (DVD). It's a great couple hours of entertainment. Cat: I'm not sure if Fawlty Towers is even your cup of tea, so if you'd like, you can pass your prize to someone else. Starbucker showed particular interest during open mic night, as an afficionado of Monty Python. And who knows, maybe if you pass it to Starbucker, he'll send it to one of the other participants after that, and the Monthy Python collection can cross the globe a few times over. Here were the other participants from open mic night: * Joe (who recently switched from Blogger to Wordpress - kudos Joe!) * Chris Cree (who likes Arnold Schwarzenegger and beafsteaks...don't ask...) * Trisha (who worked all night to come up with a contest entry, and did a great job!) * HART (who came in late, after I'd gone to bed, but still snuck in his entry and a link to his famous chili recipe) * Liz also participated, but as host of open mic decided not to really throw her ring in the contest-hat. Still, I recommend you visit her site and look at her turkey references...very...interesting. I hope I didn't miss anyone! Spontaneous contests are a blast, hysterical fun and a great way to build community. I really think there's something there for bloggers...although you might want to run contests that last more than 1 night, the potential for a contest to catch on is a great way to generate some buzz. If I may, I'd point you to my ongoing writing contest for finding the funniest bit of mock news. We have a ton of great prizes. Contest ends July 14th. (Technorati Tags: contests, writing, liz strauss, blogging, viral) ***** EDIT: Cat did get in touch with me via email; she wasn't able to post a comment on the blog for some reason, but here's what she wrote: Apologies for coming in late. I'm off-station at the moment so not online as often. Thank-you for the win. I do indeed love Fawlty Towers, but know the expense of sending a package to Thailand so please pass it on. Again, thanks. So Starbucker -- the prize is yours if you want it! I'll need you to email me with your contact information. And we can talk about how to possibly pass the prize on after you've enjoyed it, so Chris Cree, Joe, Trisha, HART and Liz can all enjoy the DVD collection (and anyone else that it might go to.) Also: I'll be sending you a FREE subscription to IGotNewsForYou.com as an added bonus, so you can have some fun with that.