Punny Business

Yesterday was the 30th Annual O.Henry Pun-Off World Championships. Being an aspiring punster and a huge O.Henry fan (I read the Gift of the Magi at a very young age), I decided to go check it out. I made it just in time to hear the first of 32 2-minute punny presentations. The winning contestant was far and away the best - he did a riff that included most (if not all) of the names of the Presidents of the United States. I couldn't af-Ford to miss it, even if I had to stand over in the Bushes. (ok, I'll stop now) I think they said they were going to transcribe the speeches and post them on the website.


One guy did a candy bar riff that was hilarious -- and very naughty -- although I knew I'd heard a lot of it before (scroll down to The Birth of a Candybar). The judges didn't rate him terribly highly, but at the end of the day he won the mmMVP award by vote of his peers.


I also bought a couple of books while I was there (funds benefit the O.Henry museum, so that's not a bad thing). First is the Graphic Classics: O.Henry Illustrated. It's a comic-book style telling of the O.Henry stories by a bunch of different artists. I also bought The Best Short Stories of O. Henry. (I probably didn't need to buy both, but the comic book was just too cool to pass up!)


I know a few people who would do very well in this contest... Dad, Bry, MZ, Jeff... I wonder if any of them would like to make a special trip down to Austin to be in the game next May? :)

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