Announcing the CollegeConfidential Writing Awards for 2004-2005

Parent Cafe
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<p>Great idea, Digmedia. Here are my nominations:</p>

<p>Best oldtimer’s thread: “College Looks Fun,” begun by Strick11, on typewriters and other ancient technologies, at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=32939[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=32939&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Best post by a newcomer (from My-3-sons, who has been posting on CC for all of three days, at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52964&page=2&pp=20[/url]):”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=52964&page=2&pp=20):</a>

Smartest poster (both IQ and EQ): Marite.</p>

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<p>I suspect that this thread was originally intended to honor individual pieces of writing, yet the impulse to acknowledge a larger body of work is also strong. </p>

<p>I have two nominees for “lifelong achievement” (was there really life before college applications?):</p>

<p>For Grace under Pressure (Student Category): Frecklybeckly
For Grace under Pressure (Parent Category): Andi.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the warm welcome. I would show this to my family, but they always go running from the room when they see CC on my screen. LOL</p>

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<p>Stardardized Testing: Xiggi</p>

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<p>Ivyqueen: <em>blushes</em>: thank you for this totally underserved encomium.
editrix and bluebayou: Second the nominations!</p>

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<p>Everyone has their favorite posts or two but here are a post and a responsive post that win two categories-Best Post by Someone Truly Insane and Best Comeback To A Post By Someone Truly Insane-this was soon after my entry on the board, during a far simpler time (last fall).Oh, for the days of my CC youth…

Very inspired. Concise. On target. Brief.Truly wonderful. I remain in respectful awe (of both,actually.They are both at the top of their craft.). Later on after a post of mine on that thread I was introduced to TheDad by a well meaning friend :eek: and well, the addiction became complete.</p>

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<p>Good memory cur. That one got me again.</p>

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<p>My personal all-time favorite CC thread: The Pencil Thread:
<a href=“http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/messages/4/13889.html[/url]”>www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/messages/4/13889.html</a></p>

<p>I miss MorganTruce. :(</p>

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<p>Carolyn–thank you for posting the link to the Pencil Thread. It’s pure genius!</p>

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<p>Sorry to keep popping up on this thread, but the more I think about it, the more I think we need to award two Cowards for Grace Under Pressure (Parent Category)–to Andi and also to Soozievt :).</p>

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<p>NOMINEES for–</p>

<p>–Most belly laughs in a CC thread: </p>

<p>(1) Title was something like “Bad college Essay Ideas” – it was hilarious.</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=19427&highlight=Essays[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=19427&highlight=Essays&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>(2) The one about the regional differences around the US, with all the lists like “You know you’re from New Jersey when…”</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=9210&highlight=regional[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=9210&highlight=regional&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>SBmom, I don’t even have to look. I remember my favorite essay-“Poor People Have Feelings,Too-They’re Just Worth Less”.</p>

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<p>These are great! I like this thread. </p>

<p>Another nomination for the CC Peace Prize Award-Musical category</p>

<p>Lastbastion</p>

<p>“I won’t say there aren’t any Harvard graduates who have ever asserted a superior attitude. But they have done so to our great embarrassment and in no way represent the Harvard I know.”
–Derek Bok, president of Harvard 1971-1991</p>

<p>Or, as Aunt Eller put it in “Oklahoma”:
“I don’t say I’m no better than anybody else, but I’ll be danged if I ain’t just as good!” </p>

<p>No need to go bashing each other, people—the farmer and the cowman should be friends.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Doddsdad! (Hmmm, perhaps there’s another fine essay title: “Harvard people have feelings too…” ;)) </p>

<p>Now that you mention a musical category, I feel compelled to quote my favorite lyrics from “Avenue Q” (as sung by the puppet named Princeton):

</p>

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<p>[I loved this thread on “The Lower Ivies”, this would be a team award as a few posters contributed (full disclosure: I have a connection to one of the posters, but I’m not a contributor myself). It is always nice to see questions of prestige treated as comedy]</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=44012&page=1&pp=20[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=44012&page=1&pp=20&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<br>

<br>

<p>…you meant geographically, right?</p>

<p>Hope that helps.”
…………………………………………………….
“fountainsiren… aren’t the “higher ivies” harvard, princeton and yale ?”
………………………………………….
“absolutely not. do you have a map lying around? If not ask a friend, then find Canada and start moving your finger down as if you are headed to the south pole or your belly button. As you move your finger across the map you will first notice Hanover, New Hampshire (along the Connecticut River), then to the west (that would be your left) if you move just a little ways you will see Ithaca NY (Cornell). Continue, and you will eventually pass through Boston (Harvard), Providence (Brown), New Haven (Yale), NYC (Columbia), Philadelphia (Penn) and then, the lowest Ivy of them all in Princeton NJ.”
…………………………………………….
“i think a more accurate ranking would be in terms of elevation from sea level”
………………………………………………
“I hadn’t really thought about it that deeply but, by God I think you’re right; sea level would be the only true standard by which to judge one school’s rising above another.”
……………………………………………
“We could also use school colors. Start with red, because it has the longest wavelength, and work our way down from there. But I suppose that’s more horizontal than vertical. No, you guys are right. Elevation from sea level is the best judge of all this.”
……………………………………………
“Brown better hope global warming is a myth because when the glaciers melt, Brown will be the first one to become part of the ocean. Thus, by this new objective criterion, Brown would be the lowest ivy followed closely by Columbia =)”
…………………………………………
“This may be true, however im afraid im going to have to rebut this. In the case of our sun going supernova Brown will remain intact the longest because it will take the matter from our exploding sun longer to reach Brown than other ivies. Clearly Brown is superior in this sense. i guess its a matter of personal preference”
…………………………………………
“don’t discount the likelihood that aliens may very well be repulsed by New Haven at “First Contact” (as are so many) and use it as an example to the rest of the Ivy league by eradicating the acid-washed Oxford wannabe walls of that venerable and cherished Connecticut institution.
That being said, I’d prefer to be at the Ivy the furthest away from Yale (say Dartmouth or Cornell) and by virtue of this alone Yale must be considered the "lowest Ivy” --in addition to the most dangerous-- and seeing as Brown is just a run-of-the-mill-dime-store-ray-gun shot away its place in the pecking order would only be improved by one alien-gradient over Yale. Certainly, any aliens with the wisdom and technology to reach earth will know what we all already know about New Haven; for god’s sake, Aliens have huge brains in those green veined and bulbous heads, they’ll take out Yale soon-as-look-at-it.”
……………………………………
“I think this is LEAST likely to happen there! The denizens of New Haven seem to all be armed well enough to fight off any such attack.”</p>

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<p>SBMom - thankyou. Belly laugh it is. That first post had my endorphin count through the roof and I can still feel the laugh tears in my eyes. Second the nomination!</p>

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<p>I absolutely love it!</p>

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<p>LOL, I haven’t been nominated for anything in years - I’d forgotten all about that post!</p>

<p>Unfortunately with me absentmindedness is a lifestyle, or a chronic condition. I don’t know why.</p>

<p>When I get up in the morning, I run downstairs, turn on the news on TV, make coffee, always exactly in that order. The other morning though I woke up late, and had a lot to do - so I ran downstairs, turned on the news, made coffee, then ran outside to turn on the lawn sprinklers because I’m trying to get the jasmine really really growing (it’s flowering now and smells incredible), and decided at the same time I had to make a phone call too, right away. </p>

<p>Dialed the number while running out the front door to turn on the sprinklers while the coffee was still brewing. Held the device to my ear waiting for the connection and ring, and with my other hand I turned on the sprinkler system.</p>

<p>Sprinklers came on just fine, but no ring tone in my ear - my call didn’t got through. So I dialed again and put it back up to my ear. I checked on the jasmine while I waited for the call to connect. Still no connection, went to hang up, redial again. </p>

<p>Only then did I realize I’d been trying to place a phone call using the remote control for the TV. I was dialing away using the channel buttons. No wonder it felt weird against my ear. </p>

<p>Speaking of writing awards, I really enjoy everyone’s - that’s mostly why I come here. I like nearly anything written by Marite, Blossom, Curmudgeon, Soozevt (sp?), and there are many others. Oddly, I am far less interested in any of the subject matter than I am in the quality of the use of words, and the construction and expression of ideas and points of view - the interesting use of humor even. It would be very difficult to nominate just a small handful.</p>

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<p>Exclamation Coward: berurah
Best Coward Metaphors, Use of Cowpie Imagery etc: Cur
Best Threadmaker Coward: digs
Best Empathetic Coward: jamimom
Best Coward Researcher: carolyn
Champagne Coward: SBMom
Best Touchy Feely Coward: slugghugg
Best Single Reply Coward: “Are you the Unabomber?”
Inside Manhattan Coward: sybbie
Patience Coward: momsdream</p>

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<p>On the serious side:</p>

<p>The **Should-Be-Required-Reading-for-All-Seniors Coward: TheDad, for Outcomes After EA/ED Rejection Last Year<a href=“%5Burl%5Dhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=15378%5B/url%5D”>/b</a></p>