Contest: Monday-morning mystery and mini-prizes
Welcome to Week 2! $27,312 right now. All hail the weekend warriors of awesome.
As you have probably gleaned from reading the comments lately, Tomato Nation has an intern. The Mystery Intern has tired somewhat of the “TMI” nickname (heh), and has written a poem/riddle revealing her first name. The first reader to guess TMI’s first name in the comments wins a prize: $15 donated by TMI to the project of that reader’s choice.
But really, we’ll ALL be winners — because TMI is cooking up a way for us to search and sort the TN page’s projects. She did this without my asking, by the way. Love.
The poem is below; post your guess in the comments, and make sure your email works. We’ll contact you directly to get the project info.
More mini-prizing later today. For now: verse.
First is a letter often alone,
Two thirds of A-ha and an exclamation well known.
Next, a trio of letters united –
The meaning of Adam and an individual knighted.
Fifth is a grade that you don’t want to get
Not quite a failure.. just the next thing to it
The last is the first, and the beginning’s the end
The middle of rivalry and the first of amends
Now piece them together and what have you learned?
The first name of TN’s newest intern!
Go.
Tags: contests poetry in something resembling motion TMI
Amanda
Amanda!
Amanda!
…Generous AND smart!
(Maybe I’m just overtired from contest org, but I looked at the poem and was like, “‘Albert Anastasia’? I think it’s maybe too hard?” Amanda: “The thing is that you KNOW MY NAME ALREADY BOSS.”)
Danielle wins Amanda’s $15 — and I’ll throw $15 each at projects picked by Laura and Ashley, just for funsies.
I knew the added exclamation mark would sway you :)
Too slow on the posting this morning! Welcome to our NON mysterious intern Amanda! :) We’re glad to have you! Also the exchange between you and Sarah above sent me into giggle fits. Maybe I am also overtired!
And Danielle, Laura, and Ashley beat me. Fantastic poem Amanda!
Thank you, Sars and TILMI (The Increasingly Less Mysterious Intern) – I’ll match your donation, to the same project, when I get home and into the company of my credit card tonight.
Amanda!
…Damn, too slow. Oh well. Yay for more donations!
Hooray! Amanda, I’ll let you pick a project, because I’m at work and don’t have a ton of time to look through them right now, but if there’s something music-related, that would be great.
Thanks, all!
I must be tired – my first reading through the verse resulted in me thinking that “Asirda” is a really unusual name lol…
Aw, I was too slow! Oh well – Hi, Amanda!
Mary, I thought the same thing!
@tulip: No worries, I almost got granola up my nose from laughing when I read the Albert-Anastasia bit. Ahhh. This is why I come here. Well, that and the Awesome.
@Mary: ME TOO. I totally got hung up on that “individual knighted” clue and was all “Sir? Lord? Esquire? I don’t…what?” At least I’m not alone. Heh.
Welcome, Amanda! Did you by any chance read the ‘Redwall’ series as a kid?
@Mary – I was there too. Then I thought ‘that can’t be it, need caffeine.’
heh, Mary, I had the same “Asirda” problem. Yay for riddletastic interns!
Um, ok, I’m dense. Can someone please explain how that poem adds up to Amanda?
@Colin: I was thinking of Book 4 of the Harry Potter series.
A = 2/3 of a’ha
MAN = the meaning of Adam, an individual knighted
D = the grade that’s not quite a failure
A = the last’s the first
I’m glad I’m not the only one sitting here trying to figure out why someone would name their kid Asirda. Amanda works much better!
@Colin: Yes, yes I did.
@Ferretrick: And also the Harry Potter series. (The poem is very definitely inspired by J.K. Rowling, can you tell?) Heh. Here’s a quick breakdown:
First is a letter often alone,
Two thirds of A-ha and an exclamation well known.
The first sentence admittedly doesn’t make tons of sense, but “a” is an article. The second is really where it’s at – the letter “a” is two-thirds of A-ha. Although “exclamation” may be too kind a word for “AAAAA!” = “A”
Next, a trio of letters united –
The meaning of Adam and an individual knighted.
Three letters. The name “Adam” means man. (There’s also some argument that it means “red.”) To my knowledge, women don’t get knighted outside of fiction. = “Man.”
(And yes, I heard “A man, duh!” a lot in 1993.)
Fifth is a grade that you don’t want to get
Not quite a failure.. just the next thing to it.
Fifth letter. In the American grading scale, F is the worst grade you can get unless your teacher’s a real nasty piece of work and gives you an L or something just to make a point. D is the next grade up. (I wonder why they skipped E? Did they think students might think it means “excellent”?) = “D”
The last is the first, and the beginning’s the end
The middle of rivalry and the first of amends.
The last letter is the same as the first one. As for the second line: rivalry, amends. = “A”
Now piece them together and what have you learned?
The first name of TN’s newest intern!
A + man + d + a = Amanda
Also, quick guessing, guys! Danielle, I’ll pick your project here shortly. Finally, the sort method is juuust about done – it is not perfect by any means, but it will make everybody’s life a bit easier, I hope.
Amanda, I think they skipped the “E” grade for two reasons: one, I’ve seen grading scales that are E/S/U (Excellent/ Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory) and using two letters for two ends of the grading scale might cause confusion; and two, a kid could easily change an F grade to an E with the flick of a pen.
Cute puzzle!
It’s a traditional sort of British puzzle/riddle. Lewis Carroll wrote tons of ’em. I love this sort of thing and got it right off, but was way too late. (Like, by hours.) Well done, Amanda!
I’m so sorry it took so long to get this up, but the $15 has been donated to Marching for Glory. Woohoo band nerds!
@Amanda
I just couldn’t quite add it up-I think the two line clues threw me off. I thought each line was a single clue.
I definitely notice the JK Rowling…the poem sounds very like the riddle the Sphinx gives Harry in the maze in Book 4. Have you read the Percy Jackson series? You’d probably like those too.
In other news, I have read the Harry Potter series too many times.