By: Mark Fitzgerald By a margin of more than ten to one, Chicago Tribune readers would rather have a Chris Farley bobblehead than a free New York Times-branded Frisbee.
As the
current print issue of Editor & Publisher reports, the Tribune's Sunday Q section announced its second annual Features Department Giveaway contest Jan. 22 to clear out the swag that accumulates in the newsroom of a major metropolitan newspaper.
Readers were asked to write an e-mail explaining why they deserved any of 20 "lots" of tchotchkes such as a measuring cup promoting ABC's "Desperate Housewives" or a foam wig designed to look like the distinctive high-rise orange hairdo of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey clown Bello Nock.
Sunday, reporter William Hageman, who founded the contest last year in an attempt to simply clean off his desk, announced the winners -- and disclosed that the bobblehead likeness of Chris Farley, the deceased "Saturday Night Live" comic and "Tommy Boy" actor, was coveted by 104 readers, while just nine readers bothered to request the New York Times Frisbee.
The Farley bobblehead went to Jim DeLapp, who told the paper that it would be displayed with pride in the trophy case of the Chicago Griffins Rugby Club. Farley, who got his start in the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, was a member of the club in the 1980s.
The Times Frisbee, it turns out, also went to an athlete. Thea Christou successfully requested it for her son Nick, who co-founded the St. John's College Frisbee team in Santa Fe, N.M.
As for the "Desperate Housewives" promo items, Hageman wrote that the judges' choice was unanimous. Kari Shoemaker wrote the paper: "Talk about desperate: housewife, mother of 6-month-old triplets and a 3-year-old boy. Little help."
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here