i'd never seen stephenfry [Wiki] in anything
but i'd seen references to his twitter hegemony [50k followers]
and yesterday morning i got intrigued
by references to a contest he'd posted [only 34 Favrds?]
"L=50 in Roman. The best tweet containing exactly 50 Ls will win. All tweets to contain the tag #L and none to exceed 140 character limit SF"
quickly clarified:
"There's the competition in a nutshell below. Star it for reference. The prize will be good and sent anywhere in the world."
"It is to celebrate 50,000 followers. Hence the #L theme."
"OK - good question all: the #L tag does NOT count as one of the 50!"
"Deadline for submissions is Saturday 24th January 1200 GMT"
"So many questions! Open to all following me, whether or not I follow you. Enjoy yourselves. Can be funny,sad,trenchant,silly.x"
"Incidentally, you're all doing brilliantly in the #L competition. Immensely impressed by your efforts"
"RT “ @spkr4thedead51: @stephenfry you can keep track of them all here http://hashtags.org/tag/l ” Thanks @spkr4thedead51 x"
"Ax many entries as you like, by the way x"
"It's all right. If you have submitted an entry and can't search for it, I will find it. Despite #L not seeming to work - there are ways x"
i loved challenges like this in my youth
especially in 'new york' magazine [games thread]
a quick twiiter search showed nothing yet for "#L"
(not even sf's announcement, which should have made me suspicious)
so i dug out a wildcarding searchengine bookmark [OneLook-eg]
and diddled around until this fit:
Lily, Tallula & Lolita Liddell all loll jollily/sillily in Lilliput lalaland, lulling fell allies Ellul, Hillel & Llull w/lullaby lollies #L []
i panicked when the #L search didn't show mine either
and visited @stephenfry for the 1st time--
sheer chaos
a little research turned up an L-shaped special character [left floor]
that could have fixed things
but everyone ignored my proposal
(some of sf's followers were already flummoxed by '#'!)
sf claims he's got it under control
somehow mysterious
but just scanning for decent entries
seems a fulltime job
my faves []:
#L Sulla's pal Lucullus/Illyrian hill dweller'll dillydally, loll/Trill Lillibullero till all pall, fall ill/Till fell chill hell bells toll []
I'll tell all: shills—all bull—willfully lull dull fools. Illegal pills sell—all will fall ill. Law will prevail—hellhole cell walls call #L []
Well silly Bill fell ill on Pall Mall.He'll tell Lilly who'll chill & Bill'll swill lil pills til dull Elle's call tells Bill all's well #L []
#L Illiberal dullsville hillbilly Lilly dillydallied globally till Lilly fell willfully ill in Hull. 'Hull' libellously labelled Lilly silly []
#L I'll tell all loyally: Bill'll love Lilly til all lilacs fall, all gulls fly, all lollies melt. Bill'll still love Lilly til Hell chills []
Willfully (illegally) tell-all Elle idyllically spills all locally sellable blolly jelly, lollingly lulling Lillibullero polysyllabically.#l []
Li’l yellow lily falls ill/Lilliput bell lolls/Lull/Li’l yellow lily rallies/Lilliput bell pulls level/Lull/Lala llama lollops/Falls/Oops #L []
Dull Bill yells shrill villanelles (illegal in Lille). Pallid Lilly Lill flails&lethally falls pell-mell; Lilly'll lie still&Bill'll flee #L []
A silly hillbilly'll illegally sell gullible Lilly&dull Bill smelly jelly.Smelly jelly's vile smell'll kill Bill&Lilly&hillbilly.Farewell #L [same author] [more]
@stephenfry #L Lil Lilly Sillwell of the dell of Killwilly fell in love w/ Golly Gilly of LLwellyn Hall n all will call her Lady Lilly Gilly []
@stephenfry #L elle swills ale well she'll swill till hell chills lil Bill Sillwells balls Bills balls will now fall on jills swell hills [same author] [more]
@stephenfry#L All bills call lilly small, bills lovely lullaby will lull lilly. Lilly is lulled, bill will toll all bells, lilly yells bully []
most literary:
@stephenfry preparing to launch my 'Joyce's Ulysses in 140 characters and 50 Ls'. This has been a massive timewaster - brilliant. Here goes []
#L LB luvs Molly/lil Milly/stroll willynilly/mull hill/swill bellyfull/ill/Bello kill L?/SD fall/call Plod/all ill till Molly'll yell I will []
a near miss:
#L Lily Allen - Lilting voice & lovely locks bring lingering lecherous leers from legions of lustful lads, alas her lyrics lack lift or lit. []
nifty utilities people created: [simple] [ditto] [ditto]
Scrabble database-sort
amazing all-in-one utility
Fry has faved two that seem ho-hum to me (consonant-vowel-L-L is so 15minsago...)
postmortem
after a week on tenterhooks
for hundreds of people who'd spent
thousands of hours
crafting entries
stephenfry got bored
after reading some 200 entries
and picked a winner at random
[announcement] [reactions]
not a fan
.
