“You’re never going to win it,” they said to me, as I put aside work, friends, and two fairly notable family emergencies (my absence at which “…won’t be forgotten.”) to stay nose-deep in some ”Redwall” books.

And it turned out I didn’t, because I “didn’t have a teacher to nominate me” and “…have been told, hundreds of times, that it is a contest solely for school children.”  So because of their “rules,” somebody else walked away with a Phillies Shane Victorino backpack, a Phanatic T-shirt, Phanatic doll, a book, and tickets to a game. (more…)