parables of a prodigal world

The winner of the Alternative Atheist Bus Slogan Contest is... Well done, Mofast . Send me your info, and the name of the book, to claim your prize. Grace and Peace, Raffi

OK, since you guys all sucked pretty hard at my last contest , I thought I'd come up with one that someone actually has a chance of winning. So everyone's probably heard about the "There's Probably No God" bus slogan campaign in London by now. The other day, I ran across this fun little site where you can generate your own bus slogan. You see where this is going... Yep. That simple. Create your own religious bus slogan. Best one wins the book of her/his choice (under $20, please) from Amazon . One entry per person. Deadline is midnight Tuesday, February 24th. OK, here's the thing. The website for the slogan generator recommends that you upload the image somewhere else ( Flickr , Picasa , etc.) since, although it's possible to link to the created images directly, they will be compressed to a smaller file size and will vanish after 24 hours. So it's up to you. You should probably upload the picture and send me the link, since it might otherwise disappe...

Jonathan alerted me to the " 25 Things You Might Not Know About Me " meme. I'm not big on memes, but this one seemed like a great way to open up a bit. But I thought I'd spruce things up a bit. Here's what I came up with. 24 of the following personal facts are true. One is completely fabricated. The first one of you guys that can guess which one wins the book of her/his choice (under $20, please) from Amazon . One guess per person. Deadline is Friday, January 30th. I'll keep the comments hidden until then to keep things fair. Simple enough? OK, here we go. 1. I'm not very social in the brick-and-mortar world. 2. On five separate occasions, I should have died. 3. Serj Tankian , lead singer of System of a Down , was my childhood friend and played keyboard in my band in the early 90's. 4. I'm an attorney. 5. My favorite food as a kid was boiled cow tongue. 6. I've never been to Europe. 7. I caught a foul ball from Reggie Jackson in the 1977 World...

And the winner (by TKO) of the Too-Ridiculous-to-Respond Contest is.... (Drumroll...) (Drumroll...) (Long drumroll...) This gem from Mofast : All right, this letter probably couldn't actually be sent, however it seems the logical way to do it. I'm guessing I won't be the only one who tries in this style, but here goes: My Dearest Gschwandtner, I do wonder what Slubgob is teaching these days. I must say that I am not entirely encouraged by your latest attempt at spreading discord among the humans (the disgusting bipeds). Are you really chasing down occurrences of the term “selling power” through internet searches, and then threatening blogs? Did you really fail to notice that usage you questioned was a citation from a book published in 1942, well before you even had the idea for your magazine? That despicable book, “The Screwtape Letters,” is horrible enough without you drawing attention to it with pointless, threatening letters. What is your plan, bringing that detestable ...

Wanna win a 1-year subscription to a pretty cool magazine? Then keep reading. My allegiance to Jesus notwithstanding, I gotta be honest: sometimes I just don't like people. I received the following comment in response to something I posted last week called Screwtape on Election Year Issues: God Bless Democracy? Dear Mr. Shahinian: I just ran across an article you wrote for Parables of a Prodigal World entitled Screwtape on Election Year Issues: God Bless Democracy, posted on September 13, 2008, http://www.parablesofaprodigalworld.com/2008/09/screwtape-on-election-year-issues-god.html, and I would like to raise an issue that is of concern to Selling Power magazine, which is the use of our trademark. The word "Selling Power" is sometimes erroneously used as a synonym for sales effectiveness. For example, your article states: “You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power.” We do not condone such uses of our trademark. As a pract...