First, the news: 187 entries correctly identified last month’s Fake Ad for Marquees of Queensbury signs on page 51. Theresa “Treese” Roth won our drawing and is taking her gift certificate to Better Health Market.

Now, the important part: we also received a letter from Al Slote, the beloved local author whose “Arborville” universe inspired April’s Fake Ad for the Arborville Restaurant. The Fake Ad Czar has a vivid memory of sitting by a window in the second floor library at Burns Park Elementary on a spring day in the 1970s reading one of Slote’s books: maybe Stranger on the Ball Club or Hang Tough, Paul Mather.

Imagine reading about kids’ baseball games in Arborville’s Sampson Park, knowing those stories were set right below that window, that the characters were the kids and parents in your neighborhood; that you could look out on the park, past the flagpole, out toward the big hill, and see those stories jump off the pages in your hands, coming to life right before your eyes. Could there be a better reading experience than that?

Thank you, Al, for your kind words. Heck, thank you for all your words.

To enter this month’s contest, find the Fake Ad in the June issue and enter using the address at the bottom of the Back Page. The ad always contains the name of the previous month’s winner in some form.