My birthday is on the 27th of this month!

Well, the time has come to put this contest out of its misery. Interestingly enough, this puzzle (that I thought was the easiest to solve) was the least attempted so far...oh well. The solution, for those of you who care, is found by paying attention to the line "And now it's time for my game to start...you scope th'title should do." This should have led you to investigate the title of the contest which was "An Enigma"...the same title as a famous poem written by Edgar Allan Poe (his name is, incidentally, also hidden in the poem). Further investigation would have uncovered the fact that Mr. Poe had hidden a name within the poem by using the first letter of the first line, the second letter of the second line, and so on. Were you to have gone through the same process with the contest poem, it would have revealed the message, "Check the second letters of every fifth word." From there, it was a simple matter to do as directed which would then give you the final instructions: "Responses should incorporate two numbers, all letters of the alphabet and the name of any country." All four respondents fulfilled these requirements and thus became eligible for the grand prize drawing. The first correct respondent was AlineM ...she'll be getting her two points as soon as I finish posting this message. One point is also being awarded to dichroic whose 11th hour entry struck me funny. Finally the ten point grand prize (ooh...ahh) goes (after the highly scientific method of assigning each respondent a number between 1 and four and having my daughter pick a corresponding card) to Maverick62 (copious applause and whistles). I hope y'all had fun with it. Given the poor turnout (in numbers, not in quality), I'm not sure if I'll be doing another puzzle anytime soon. Happy New Year everybody, and thanks to AlineM, peter, Maverick62 and dichroic for playing!

Contest players, gather ye around for this latest challenge here...
Christmas time soon coming is, then New Year's will appear.
As ends the year, so too this game...yea until the midnight tolls...
Erected is within this poem what's needed to join the rolls.
Use skills of concentration, maybe ask a psychic friend,
Parse the secrets in cat entrails...you can use whatever ends,
But with the ending (in old Japan) of January one,
I'd like very much to finalize and post the winners and be done.
The prizes score will be all in total three...the chooser...me!
Prize one belongs to the appointed best response creatively...
'Tis not a blockbuster prize, I grant, but an acknowledgment smooch.
Having given out that one, attention goes to two.
The second boon goes to first at sleuthing...perchance someone new?
Swept has "peter" done every contest mine...will he win anew?
Points award? Lowly two...but bragging rights abound.
Finally, I'm much pleased to speak about the third prize round.
Ten points go to the triumphant soul among responders correct...
As wins random selection, winner can from me collect.
Now please attend as we move along from pedestrianity...
The remains all of ugly rhyme (this here poem, don't you see)
Stores within its artless lines at least enough for to get a thread.
Eye the writing, seek out words and assemble in your head
Data found in clues herein, for of help'll be in goal attaining...
Getting past primary hurdle the, follow then step two (hee, hee).
After that, you'll have a third (very easy, I'll admit)...
Remaining tasks...response append (employing, I hope, wit).
Ah, anticipation time...awaiting responses...yahoo!
Let the games begin (about darn day)! Participants, "salut"!
Lest I forget, the time it almost is for the maker of the puzzle to
Announce the beginnin' clue...but add I will first an other word or two.
Now's the start of my third year here (of course this in ref. to site).
People far and near I've met...Americans, Teutons, Thais...
Obliged I be in gratitude to all for the help I've had.
Efforts theirs have got me many books I'd wanted bad.
And now it's time for my game to start...you scope th'title should do.
Enough to start are those words, but I have written you another clue.
If it's not at all for ye enough, are you, friend, outta luck. Bye you!

The time has come to provide a solution to the puzzle (for those who remain stumped) and to announce a winner (for those who've been kept waiting for so long). I apologize for not posting this in as timely manner as I would've liked...sometimes life interferes with even the best laid plans.

For the solution, it was necessary to start with the poetical section and discover that which was missing. If you looked at it long enough, you might have discovered that every letter of the alphabet was used at least once except for the letter "A". This was the thing that was missing.
Then, as per the lines that read:
"Zero in its number here,
Look to words before this text
Where here be none..there every fourth
Word with should give your clue next
Quickly then…just four, eight, twelve,
Continue to the end…"
participants were to go to the first part of the forum message (before the poem) and look at "every fourth word with" the letter "A". In so doing the participant's would find the following message:
"Answers necessarily contain an author's name and name's anagram, a palindromic 'palavra', and a quotation."
From there it was just a matter of following the directions.

Congratulations go out to all those of you who completed the puzzle correctly (the names of whom are somewhat familiar to me at this point)...eligible responses were received from (in order of so doing):
peter
Mary H
Maverick62
dichroic
AlineM

Employing the ultra-random and infallibly objective method of getting my son to draw one of five face-down cards (numbered in order of response), the winner of the contest is ... peter! To this veritable rock of puzzledom, I will be sending forthwith a total of 14 points to do with as he pleases. I will also await with breathe abated (not literally as I enjoy living) the naming of the charity which he has chosen to gift with the other 7 points.
Again I thank Mary H for co-sponsoring this puzzle and thank everyone who participated for their time and attention...(malevolent grin unfolds) the next one won't be so easy! (sinister echoing laugh fadeds slowly away)

Once again the time has come to offer up a contest. Answers are welcomed from one and all. I must, necessarily and unfortunately, place limits on how long the contest is to run, in order to contain the number of responses somewhat (this has never been a problem before, but I believe in being an optimist). Responses will be accepted until the end of Father's Day (June nineteenth) in the contest author's (c'est moi) country of residence (Japan).

Fourteen points will go to the winner with seven more going to support the charity of his or her choice. Ineligible responses will not be included in the prize drawing. If your name is drawn as the winner, I will contact you and send you (and your charity) the awards. If your name's not drawn, then know you have my condolences (Hey…"condolence" is an anagram of "cloned once"…a random thought…here's another: if a vegetarian only ingests vegetables then humanitarians…gets you thinking, eh? Oh, then palindromic words like "level", "bob" and "toot" exist in English…but what is the longest one? Just thought I'd share in the joys of the "palavra" (that's Portuguese for "word")…enough of this randomness…back to the rules). I might give smooches out during the course of the contest, but it is not for sure.

The puzzle shouldn't be too difficult and it might even be fun. I hope you enjoy yourselves. A shout goes out to Mary H. for donating the bulk of the points…"A bit of fragrance always clings to the hand which gives the rose." (quotation is a Chinese proverb). Use your imagination in responses. Good luck to all…

Here is the text to begin with:

Here within this piece of text,
The clue for which you seek…
'Tis not to do with rhythm, rhyme,
Or hidden words to peek.
Look for something missing,
Yes, for something found not here
Conspicuous being included not,
To next clue it'll you steer.
Zero in its number here,
Look to words before this text
Where here be none..there every fourth
Word with should give your clue next
Quickly then…just four, eight, twelve,
Continue to the end…
Thus this summer puzzle goes,
Write response to here, then send!

I was somewhat disappointed that there weren’t more participants in this contest, but such is life. As it is now February throughout the world, it is time first to provide the solution to any who would like it and then to announce the winner of the contest.

As for the solution, participants were to begin by answering the eleven clues and then to arrange them in a pyramid (like Khufu’s of old) with the shortest response at the top and the longest at the bottom. As the answers are as follows:

- Kelvin's zero description…backwards ETULOSBA
- A day for pranks and lying APRIL FIRST
- "The Silver Bullet"…bottoms up! COORS
- Mbomou and Eule's child UBANGI
- Bond’s boss M
- He lives under the name "Mr. Sanders" POOH
- Bingham's lost city MACHU PICCHU
- Crichton's referent to my residence RISING SUN
- Demi's Jane or Hasbro’s Joe GI
- One of Bennie's band buddies JET
- Matthew's "Crash"…Track 2 TWO STEP

Then the pyramid would look like this:
M
GI
JET
POOH
COORS
UBANGI
TWOSTEP
ETULOSBA
RISINGSUN
APRILFIRST
MACHUPICCHU

After completing the pyramid, it then fell to the participants to
“Approach it from the right-hand side
And climb it to the sky.”

While climbing, they were to examine the “steps” to find the name of a sailor. This sailor’s name is “UTNAPISHTIM”, a “Noah” analogue from “The Epic of Gilgamesh”.

Upon finding this name, participants were required to do a little research into this epic and find in which tablet (for the epic is divided into tablets) his name is first mentioned. After examination, they would find him first mentioned in Tablet 9. Using this number, the participants were to code the name UTNAPISHTIM in their responses according to the directions given.

All five respondents eventually completed these steps and are, therefore, all eligible for the final prize. The first correct response was that of “peter”, so to him I’ll be sending 5 points. All others will get one point for being the next 4 correct responders. Also, I’ll be awarding “Simon M” with an additional point for his first (and my favorite) response…it may have been incorrect, but it was very well done.

As for the grand prize, I assigned the respondents the numbers one through five alphabetically according to their Bookmooch user names like so:

1. AlineM (Norway)
2. Andy Batangantang (Philippines)
3. dichroic (Finland)
4. peter (South Korea)
5. Simon M (Serbia)

I then shuffled some corresponding number cards and fanning the cards, I employed my son to draw one of them. He drew the number 1. My congratulations go out to AlineM and to all the participants…I hope you enjoyed the contest. Points will be distributed immediately after posting this message. To AlineM, I await your notification as to where you would like me to send the 25 charity points. Finally, I’d like to again thank Cara and Michelle for donating the bulk of the points (I hope you weren’t disappointed). Have a great day!

Enter to win one of the following books:
Jose Saramago : Blindness (Harvest Book) (sticker residue on front cover)
Cormac McCarthy : The Road (Oprah's Book Club)
Michael Pollan : The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Stephen Chbosky : The Perks of Being a Wallflower (deep fold-crease on front cover, remainer mark on bottom edge)
All are used books with minor spine/cover creasing and edge wear.
Worldwide entries welcome!

2-step entry process:
1. Smooch a point to BM Charity herculesinvictus Hercules Invictus
2. Write a comment here to confirm you’ve completed Step 1.
Enter as often as you like: one smooch = one entry

Contest ends January 7, 2011
When it's no longer January 7, 2011 anywhere on earth, I'll toss the names of all entrants in a hat and pick a winner who can then choose one of the four books listed above.

The small print:
Mooch ratio is important -- I will add the owner’s pick to my BM inventory for mooching and immediately smooch back your point(s).

Happy New Year everyone!

p.s. Hercules Invictus is MY charity of choice to benefit from this contest; they cannot answer questions about the contest. Any questions should be posted here or send me an email. Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for participating. I had fun reading your creatively eclectic entries. There were a total of 14 entries and seven entries were correct. The solution is as follows:

The first letter of each word spells out a book title from the Hardy Boys detective series that I enjoyed reading in my younger years. (Actually, I still enjoy reading the series, but I probably shouldn’t admit that.) Also, there is one sentence for each word in the title. Everyone managed to get the first part of the puzzle.

The ten clues in order spelled out the titles of the following books from the series: #1 #4 #1 #5 #9 #2 #6 #5 #3 #5

As you can see, these are the first ten decimals of pi (ie the ratio of a circle’s circumference to the diameter). So, for example, if you want to submit clue #83, you would need to spell out the title of book #2, since the 83rd decimal of pi is 2.

Congratulations to the following people who submitted successful entries:
1. Rebel Sun (thanks for your additional “ineligible response”)
2. Aline
3. dichroic
4. Andy Batangantang
5. Alicia
6. Simon M
7. Jovan

Each person has been randomly assigned an NFL team from one of four games to be played on Oct. 24th. I wrote the names of eight NFL teams on slips of paper and then drew them out one at a time from a ceramic cup. I specifically chose these four games because NFL writer Peter King predicts these four games to be close games on this weekend’s schedule: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/peter_king/10/21/week.7.picks/index.html?eref=sihp. Whichever team wins by the largest margin will win ten bookmooch points for the person who was assigned that team.

1. Rebel Sun (Arizona Cardinals)
2. Aline (New England Patriots)
3. dichroic (Seattle Seahawks)
4. Andy Batangantang (Chicago Bears)
5. Alicia (Washington Redskins)
6. Simon M (San Diego Chargers)
7. Jovan (Tennessee Titans)

Your Task: Peruse the clues below. You need to submit an additional clue that corresponds with these ten clues. You may submit clue #11 or another clue of your choice. Please note that clues #32, #50, #54, etc…will not be accepted. The winner will be chosen randomly from the successful entries. The winner will receive ten bookmooch points. The contest will end on October 23rd. Good luck.

Clue #1: Twelve hippos eat. Tiny owls whistle early rhymes. Thin red eagles and sparrows use rusty erasers.

Clue #2: Turkeys howl energetically. Mary is singing songs in nice gardens. Cold hens use muddy shoes.

Clue #3: Tom hops excitedly. Tim only watches early ravens. Tammy rarely eats apples sitting under red elevators.

Clue #4: Harry unties new ties inside new gutters. Fred orders rutabaga. Hank is dutifully dividing extra nickels. Glowing ostriches lie down.

Clue #5: Take heed everyone. Giant rabbits eat awesome tomatoes. Ants in rubber pants orbit round telescopes. Manny yodels seriously toward each red yak.

Clue #6: Two hens evacuate. Harvey only uses soft easels. Owls nibble. Thomas has everything. Cats lick icky fluffy flamingos.

Clue #7: Turkeys hop everywhere. Some hawks on rocks eat. Really old aardvarks dance. Maybe you should try eating raspberry yogurt.

Clue #8: Hogs under nests twirl into nesting geese. Fred’s orangutans rebel. Happy iguanas don’t dance every night. Good old llamas dance.

Clue #9: Twisted helicopters elevate. Some elevating choppers really elevate telepathically. Orioles flap. Toads have eggs. Orange leopards dig. Magical invisible lions levitate.

Clue #10: Howard usually nibbles tiny inflatable nesting geese. Fred objectifies radiators. Howard is dizzily destroying edible nutrients. Giraffes on leaves demonstrate.

Well, maybe I overestimated the interest in puzzles. I thought there would be a few more responses, but I guess the puzzle was more challenging than I had imagined it would be. Oh well, c'est la vie!
As for the solution to the interdisciplinary puzzle, here goes:

Step 1: The given clue for this step was “NE15cN9dE8cNE8pE7eSE7cSW7s(S5-3r)NW9iS2-5-4dW9c”. I was hoping that people would be able to see in the clue a pattern of capital letters followed by numbers followed by lower case letters. Looking at the capital letters, puzzlers should have been able to recognize standard abbreviations for the 8 principal compass directions. Using these directions (N = up, S = down, E = left to right, etc.), the numbers (the number of letters in the words), and the lower case letters (with which the words begin), puzzlers could use the “photo” from my bio page (I'll keep it up for the next week) to come up with the following message:
congratulations – discovery – continue – progress - examine – contest – sponsor - (rebel sun) – inventory - da vinci code - condition

Step 2: Using this last message, puzzlers were to go to my inventory, select “The Da Vinci Code” (I have two copies listed, but the clue was only on one of them), go to the first step in mooching and then search through the available copies (many, many, many) for the one listed under my name and then read the clue listed in the condition notes therein. This clue read:
“(Β, 17) (Ρ, 67) (Σ, 53) (Ο, 29) (Π, 5) (Ω, 2) (Χ, 47) (Θ, 31) (Λ, 71) (Ν, 41) (Τ, 43) (Υ, 3) (Ε, 59) (Δ, 37) (Υ, 61) (I, 11) (Β, 7) (Σ, 23) (Ξ, 71) (Φ, 59) (Κ, 23) (Η, 29) (Θ, 11) (Ψ, 2) (Η, 53) (Ξ, 13) (Η, 3) (Υ, 67) (Α, 41) (Κ, 37) (Π, 31) (Τ, 13) (Ω, 59) (Ο, 11) (Ψ, 23) (Χ, 31) (Ζ, 47) (Φ, 71) (Μ, 37) (Ζ, 17) (Ξ, 7) (Ε, 53) (Υ, 71) (Ο, 43) (Ρ, 2) (Λ, 13) (Η, 5) (Γ, 67) (Θ, 59) (Σ, 37) (Χ, 53) (Β, 5) (Ψ, 19) (Υ, 29) (Μ, 61) (Δ, 2) (Ν, 23) (Ι, 53) (Α, 23) (Ω, 7) (Α, 71) (Φ, 17) (Η, 37) (Ξ, 53)”
At the top of the “photo” there is a line offset from the rest of the puzzle that, if read from left to right, says, “x = nth ltr & y = nth p#”. I was hoping that, using their powers of deduction, puzzlers could figure out that the letters were Greek letters (of which there are 24), and that the numbers were the first 20 prime numbers. The “photo” is a 24 x 20 grid, and using the clues above as x, y coordinates, the following message can be parsed:
“Answers must be 23 words long containing an author's 7-letter surname & a # >50”
From there it was as easy as following directions. Unfortunately, there were only two officially qualifying answers: the first from "peter (South Korea)" and the second from "AlineM (Norway)". There was another response from "dichroic (Finland)" that only faulted on the 7-letter author's name…I decided to include his/her name in the drawing for the winner as well. Using the highly scientific method of assigning a colored crayon to each name and then waiting for my daughter to come draw a picture with one of them, the winner was chosen. Congratulations go out to "peter" and the purple crayon. "peter" was also the first to answer the puzzle correctly and got the two points for that as well. I will wait for him to let me know which charity he wants to get the designated points.

The bonus question was probably the easiest to decipher, but it was almost impossible to answer unless you were well on your way to solving the puzzle. The question is in what is called an “Alphabet Shift Cipher” and was simply a matter of realizing that B = A, C = B, etc. As such, the question “XIBU TUBS XBST DIBSBDUFS JT BOESPNFEB MPDBUFE JO?” translates to “What Star Wars character is Andromeda located in?”…(as an English teacher, I almost phrased it with an “In which…”, but decided to bow to colloquial convention). To answer this one, puzzlers had to know (or discover) that Andromeda is also known as “M31”. Thus, using the same x,y coordinate system that was used in the puzzle, people could locate the letter “n”, and with a little looking, could find that the “n” was part of the name “Lando” in the puzzle (referring to “Lando Calrissian”, a character in “The Empire Strikes Back”and "The Return of the Jedi"). An apology goes out here to “peter” who assumed that my comment in the Da Vinci Code condition notes (that the Star Wars references in the puzzle were red herrings) also applied to the bonus question…I'm sorry that I wasn't more clear about that. The only correct answerer of the bonus question and the winner of the 2 points thereby designated was "dichroic".

Finally a thank you goes out to our "corporate" sponsors, "Cara" and "Becca", for providing the points for the contest. Thanks to all those who attempted the puzzle...I'll try not to make it so complicated next time.

First of all, a "thank you" goes out to becca and Cara for providing points for the prizes.

OK...I've tried to make this one a little more challenging. I don't think you need any clues to get started, so I'm not going to give any.

The running time for this contest will be from now until the end of the day on August 28th (no special reason except that I have a little more time on the weekends to write). For anyone still interested at that time, I will post the solution at the end of the day (Japan time) on the 29th.

At the end, a 10 point prize will go out to a randomly selected eligible participant ("eligible" meaning that the response fulfilled all the necessary criteria...please try to answer in such a way that you do not give away the answer to others). 10 points will also go to that person's choice of charity. 2 points go to the first correct response and 2 more for the first one to correctly answer the bonus question (please email me with the answer to the bonus question so as to not give it away to everybody else). There is 1 more smooch point available in the contest. I also reserve the right to smooch anybody with an especially creative eligible response.

All right, enough of the administrative stuff...

Please use my bio photo for this contest (you will probably have to copy it and blow it up...and maybe print it out as well). Using the "photo", here is the clue to start the ball rolling:

NE15cN9dE8cNE8pE7eSE7cSW7s(S5-3r)NW9iS2-5-4dW9c

and the bonus question:

XIBU TUBS XBST DIBSBDUFS JT BOESPNFEB MPDBUFE JO?

Good luck all, and may the force be with you!

Alas, the time has come to end the "cryptic message" Bookmooch contest. Eleven participants came up with correctly coded responses. They were (in order of qualifying comments):

peter (South Korea)
ylef (Germany)
Aline M (Norway)
Jon Maloney (USA:SC)
Alicia (USA:NC)
dichroic (Finland)
GarethM (United Kingdom)
autumnrose (2-for-1) (Canada)
becca (USA:ME)
Eunira (Brazil)
MaryBeth (USA:CA)

The solution of the puzzle is as follows:

1. As mentioned in the paragraph, there are two hidden messages. The first is found by looking at the first words of each line. This message reads, "Look at the third letters after the keys to find the next hidden message".

2. Written in the second sentence, it mentions that the third line in the paragraph is "of note"...especially the part about "punctuation is key". Hence any and all punctuation marks are then considered "keys" to finding the next hidden message (as written above).

3. By looking at the third letters after each punctuation mark, you come up with the following message: "The name of the author of QBVII"

4. If unknown you then just have to look up the answer (Leon Uris). Then, send it as a comment using the same code. All of the responses were very imaginative...I encourage you to go back and read some if you haven't already. Also, I made a note to answer each correct response, and used the same code to send another short little message to each correct respondent. Take a look if you have some time.

I really enjoyed doing this..it was a lot of fun for me...I have another puzzle in the works if there is any interest (it should be a little harder than this one), but the prize will likely be smaller...I will be down to just over a point after I send out the winnings.

That being said, let me announce that the winner (determined by the ultra-scientific method of drawing numbers from a hat)...lucky number 7 was drawn, granting the prize to GarethM, our poetic participant living in Britain. 10 points have now gone to him and 5 to his choice of charity, Hercules Invictus . As for my copy of "The Da Vinci Code"...for the time being I am still burdened with it. Thanks to everybody who played...hope you had as much fun as I did!

First of all, I want to thank Lola for creating this forum...I think it is a lot of fun. I look forward to any and all future contests.

There is a multi-faceted paragraph below. If you can (and I don't think it is so difficult that you cannot) piece together the final message, it will lead you to your goal.

Step One: Read the paragraph, and using the clues therein, read and define the hidden phrase.

Step Two: Take the answer indicated by the hidden phrase and, using the same code, send the answer IN CODE as a comment to this thread. Messages not encoded correctly will be ineligible, and, if necessary, I will ask the forum administrator to delete any messages "in the clear" (not in code) and/or messages that reveal how to read the messages (please don't ruin the contest for other people).

The prize:

- 10 points for the winner
- 5 points for a charity of the winner's choosing
- a free copy (provided by me) of (and you may need to sit down for this one) "The Da Vinci Code"! (oooh, aaah, wow, gasp, snicker)...OK, I know, but if you want it, it is yours.

The contest will run for one month (until the end of the day on July 20th...I'll close it down on the evening of the 21st, Japan time), and the winner will be decided at random from among all of the correct responses. In the very unlikely event that nobody comes up with the correct response, all points will go to a charity of my choosing (And I will list the book *sigh* in my inventory).

*******************************************************************
The solution will be posted just after closing down the contest.
*******************************************************************

(If anyone wants to run a concurrent contest, please don't be dissuaded...I like participating in them, too.)

Here is the paragraphic challenge (edited on June 21st for clarity):

Look closely at all of the words herein,
at the letters, at how it is written, even
the punctuation is key. Of note is the
third line in this paragraph. Read the
letters, ruminate on words, chew them up. Anon or
after (before being difficult) get to know
the layout of it all. In here, where the cryptic
keys are found, available are the hints you need
to solve the puzzle. Clues are written. In them
find what you need to continue. Other than
the obvious memo, two more exist. Unravel one and the
next will not (I hope) be far off. Requires this (to break
hidden codes) revelation or patience. Quit not and the
message will come to you. I wish you all luck.

Enter for a chance to win 10 points plus 5 points for your favourite BM charity!

Thank you to everyone to entered my little limerick contest. As we already know, Bookmoocher talent knows no bounds!

Before I announce the name of the lucky winner, I’m going to explain my extremely complex and high-tech method for choosing said winner. First, I keyed the names of the 11 entrants. Yes, that’s right: 11 phenomenally talented bookmoochers not only dared to reach for the stars, but were willing to bestow the fruits of their sublime artistic endeavours upon us lesser mortals. Next, (this is the high-tech part), I used MS Word to sort the names into alphabetical order AND to number the lines from 1 to 11. Bet you didn’t see that coming, ha!

Then, (this is the complex part), I hollered through the wall to my colleague in the office next door to choose a number from 1 to 11. After hollering a couple of times, I phoned him. He chose #8 who, BTW, didn’t select a favourite charity leaving that decision instead up to yours truly.

Of all the charities named in this contest thread, bio:comics4kids has the lowest point count at only 8.3, so I will be charity-ing 10 points to bio:blue_windchime and 5 to bio:comics4kids. If you’re feeling so inclined, I’m sure they would appreciate a smooch or two.


And now, back to our winner, an expert limerick writer who skilfully provided us with not one, but three limericks -- a bona fide triple play!

Dear dear bio:blue_windchime, it’s time to start acquiring some of those books on your wishlist. Enjoy your bookmooching spree and, if you manage to score a copy of Maria V. Snyder : Storm Glass before I do, can I have it next?

To enter the contest, all you have to do is write a limerick, but you do have to post it here on the forum. You've got a week to compose your masterpiece. When it's no longer June 19, 2010 anywhere on earth, I'll toss the names of all entrants in a hat and pick a lucky winner to whom I will charity 10 points.

Include the name of your favourite BM Charity and I'll donate 5 points to the winner's charity.

Good luck!

Never again, said John Buckman
This forum work really does suck, man
It’s never quite right
There’s no end in sight
Please bring me more coffee starbuck, man.