We received 133 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for the Longest Yard Sod Farm on page 53 of the July issue.
“I discovered Jonathan Sill’s last name in the ad, which uses the last letter in ‘grass’ and combines that with drawn blades of grass to spell out his name,” wrote clever Fake Adder Janine Shahinian, “but then I got the joke when I learned that 4004 E. Arkona Rd. is the address of the federal prison in Milan.” (The Longest Yard is a movie—first made in 1974 starring Burt Reynolds, and remade in 2005 starring Adam Sandler—that featured a football game between convicts and prison guards. The 1974 version featured several former professional football players, including Ray Nitschke and Joe Kapp, the only player to play quarterback in the Rose Bowl, the Super Bowl, and the Canadian Football League championship game, the Grey Cup. But we digress.)
“When you can’t see the forest for the trees … you can’t see the ‘sills’ among the weeds (or blades of grass)!” wrote Eileen Hoekstra. “Very clover—I mean clever!”
Our winner was Heather Burrows, who is taking her gift certificate to Downtown Home and Garden.
Order The Fake Ad Book and I Spy: Ann Arbor Architecture at annarborobserver.com/books.