This month, Janine Shahinian was drawn as our Fake Ad winner for a
record-breaking third time. Her response, while delighted, was also selfless.
“I’ve been imagining that you must have a secret rule that players can’t win more than twice,” she writes. “I mean, what more can you do with Shahinian that hasn’t already been done?”
This altruistic act was enough to convince us to retire her name. For all time, the name “Shahinian” will hang from the rafters of the Observer offices. At least it would, if we had rafters.
Previous Shahinian wins: Godzillow & Del Sur South American Market
Shahinian was one of 143 people who correctly identified the Fake Ad for Rose Valley Nursery on page 55 of the February issue. “The main giveaway to me was the address, 1759 N. Liberty,” writes Dean Draayer. “Whether it’s Liberty Street or Liberty Road … it is an east-west road; going north on it may very well lead to a loss of liberties.
“The ‘1759’ in the address refers to the year of publication of Voltaire’s Candide (one of my favorites), from which the quote ‘We must cultivate our garden’ (one of my favorite sentiments) was lifted.
“As for the name of the previous month’s winner, Elaine Rosenthal, the ‘Rose’ in Rosenthal makes its appearance in ‘Rose Valley Nursery.’”
After rummaging through old German textbooks, Draayer says, he realized “‘valley’ in English can be translated as ‘Tal’ in German—I’m quite sure that’s what happened here. So those high school German classes over 40 years ago have (once again) paid off—wunderbar!”
Janine Shahinian will still receive a gift certificate, but to diversify the name pool, we also drew a second winner, Yi-Li Wu. Both chose Argus Farm Stop.
