Monday, August 21, 2006

The dePaola Coda: A Contest


No, it’s not a typo. This is our coda to The dePaola Code. One last hurrah for the series of posts that launched our blog into a slightly higher stratum of the blogosphere. A lot of ridiculously cool things have happened to us because of The dePaola Code, so we’re offering to rub some of that coolness off on you!

As you may have read, we met Tomie dePaola at the recent SCBWI National Conference. We came prepared with a printed booklet of The dePaola Code, presented it to him, and he loved it! End of story? No. We had a few more copies on our persons and nervously asked Mr. dePaola if he would be generous enough to sign them. We told him that some copies were for us while some were for...our readers! That’s right, we’re giving away two copies of The dePaola Code autographed by The Man himself. As a bonus, they were also signed by--not one--but all three Disco Mermaids.

We know!!!

Okay, so how do you get one of these extremely rare literary masterworks? There are two ways. One, write something that makes us laugh. Or two, draw something that makes us laugh.

FOR AUTHORS: Write the funniest Disco Mermaid joke and an autographed copy of The dePaola Code is yours! “Why did the Disco Mermaid cross the road?” We don’t know…tell us! “How many Disco Mermaids does it take to screw in a light bulb?” We give up! “Three Disco Mermaids walk into a bar…” Good. Keep going! You can e-mail us as many jokes as you want. To find our address, click View My Complete Profile beneath the kissy-kissy picture near the top right corner of our blog. We’ll post some of our favorite jokes before choosing a winner. And if you really want to brown-nose us, post about this contest on your blog. Since there are three of us, if we have a tie, your post will be the tiebreaker.

FOR ILLUSTRATORS: Design a Disco Mermaid logo and The dePaola Code is yours! A mermaid in a Saturday Night Fever pose? Great! Three mermaids in a conga line? Terrific (we especially like the way you put a goatee on one of the mermaids)! You can e-mail the logo to us, but the same tiebreaker rule applies here. So send us a link to your post and we’ll link to your blog.

How long does it take three Disco Mermaids to make a decision? Ooh...sounds like the beginning of a great joke! But don’t worry, we’ll give you ample warning to submit any last minute jokes or to finish your logos.

Good luck…and have fun!

15 comments:

Paige Keiser said...

WOW! Cool contest!! I'm TERRIBLE at logos and all things graphic design tho - I'll try to come up with a story/joke then :-D Thanks for putting this on.

Greg Pincus said...

I am terrible at graphics and worse at jokes.

I will attempt bribery.

Don Tate II said...

WEll, well, well. I might just have to partake. Since I was too freaked out to actually speak to him in the person. Not the malemaid...er mermaid, but dePaola.

Disco Mermaids said...

Paige, you submitted the very first joke. Nice twist on a classic!

And yes, Greg, we do accept bribes. It won't help ya...but we do accept them.

Don't worry, Don, I was too freaked out to talk to Tomie deP all by myself, too...I needed Robin and Eve there for moral support. He turned out to be so fun and warm and generous. Though I had to ask him to repeat one of his jokes cuz my mind was too busy flipping out. In my head I was thinking, "I can't believe Tomie dePaola is talking to me!"

- Jay

Alison Ashley Formento said...

Ah, come on...can we just say, PLEASE! I'm one of those that never remember jokes or punch lines. How can I write one? Again, PLEASE. Now, this...you will thrill the kids in this household who have read every dePaola book. See, I'll shamelessly use my young ones to ask again---PLEASE?

MotherReader said...

Harried Mom almost had it, but in any case she inspired this:

Take the Disco Mermaids...Please.

Maybe it needs to be real aloud. By Jackie Gleason. Or Carrottop.

Well, I tried.

Disco Mermaids said...

Harried Mom, it's so tempting to give it up knowing you're a mother (me, too) and apparently you're also harried (me, too!) I have a feeling if you asked one of your KIDS to write a joke, it would be a zinger! They always say the darndest things.
Yesterday, (and I'll stop soon) we were trying to teach my son what "strangers" are. He shook his head and said, "No, mom. They're not strangers, they're just people!"
So true!
-Robin

Alison Ashley Formento said...

motherreader's got the right idea. Okay, Robin. I'll try to come up with something since PLEASE isn't getting me anywhere. My son did have one about Captain Underpants in a fight with Strega Nona, but it involved a lot of pasta and poopy diapers. I told him the Disco Mermaids are bit too sophisticated for that sort of humor, right?

Disco Mermaids said...

Too sophisticated? You called the Disco Mermaids too sophisticated for poopy diaper humor?!?!?!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

It's a tad early to declare a winner in the joke contest, but that one was was tempting.

Oh man, I'm drying my eyes.

- Jay

Lisa Yee said...

Rats. I can't write jokes. Knock knock, or otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Okay mermaids, you can see it here.......

http://artistq.livejournal.com/

Thanks for letting me play!
Laura

Anonymous said...

www.http://artistq.livejournal.com/

oops.. there this link should be LIVE!

Anonymous said...

Okay, lets see if I can make this work...
Here's my entry.
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/kdarby_illo/kdarbyshirediscomermaids.jpg
Love and Kisses,
Kristen

Anonymous said...

Ooops.
Second try.
Kristen
[URL=http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/kdarby_illo/kdarbyshirediscomermaids.jpg][IMG]http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/kdarby_illo/th_kdarbyshirediscomermaids.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Anonymous said...

Okay, this is gonna work this time. I can feel it. kdarbyshire entry
Kristen