We received 127 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Spendthrift in the July issue.
“‘For the record,’ I want to ‘express’ how ‘impress’-ed I was by this fake ad!” writes Carina Zhur, “especially by the W: the ‘u’ after Lycra directly followed by the ‘you’ in ‘you, for the record’ creating a double u/you, to spell out ‘CraW.’ And of course the ‘Cra’ comes from Lycra, and ‘forth’ comes from combining ‘for’ and ‘th-’ (‘for the’). Everything about this ad is ‘dress’-ed to the ’90s: from the stretchy fabric of LYCRA®, the tape player and the retro colorful jacket ensemble, to the nostalgic address of 1995. The fake ad, for the nonpareil pre-owned apparel located at the nonexistent 1995 Third Avenue, can be found on page 46.”
“‘This isn’t Lycra U’ is very cute,” writes Steve Worden, “and using a U and you for (w) for the record, is one of your cleverer name arrangements. Nonpareil indeed.”
The Fake Ad also included the /S symbol at the beginning of the store name, since a spendthrift would be unlikely to shop at a secondhand store. We’ve noticed /S used online to denote sarcasm, but we are unsure of its origin. Perhaps U-M professor Anne Curzan would like to weigh in?
Our winner was Deborah Burch. She’s taking her gift certificate to Zingerman’s Bakehouse. To enter this month’s contest, find the Fake Ad and let us know at the address above. Hint: The ad always contains the last name of the previous month’s winner in some form.