Gatherings, History, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

A Winner

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It was on this day in 1934 that Ella Fitzgerald headed to the Apollo Theatre in New York for Amateur Night.  It was a weekly event that had only been started earlier that year and to get onto stage, your name had to be drawn from a hat.  Ella was just 15 and had gone on a bet with two friends.  She had intended to dance, but the act preceding her was a dance duo; she didn’t think her dancing would measure up, so on the spot she decided to sing instead.  She sang “The Object of My Affection” and brought the house down. 

Within a year she joined Chick Webb’s band with whom she scored her first big hit “A Tisket A Tasket”.  The rest is jazz history.      

Have you ever won a drawing?

72 thoughts on “A Winner”

      1. It was when he was working for International Computers in the 1970s. He was organising a sales conference in Monaco (as one does!) and they booked Ella as the entertainment. So he met her for lunch to discuss the programme for the day. 😊

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  6. Well, I feel most days like I won big time with my spouse, children, job, my life in general. I rarely ever enter drawings. Husband and daughter once won a nice baking dish as a door prize at a New Year’s Eve ice skating party put on by our municipal parks and rec department.

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    1. These days drawings are usually used to collect your personal information. So I have not entered one in years. My daughter Lily used to win things like that a lot as a child and teenager. Never big things. Her two children were winners at Disney venues. They took the kids to Disneyland. Disney World, and Disney Cruises. Twice they had the kids invite a friend, one who had not been to a Disney venue and were not likely to be able to. They would pay for that child too. If they were at a place where a child got picked out of the crowd to come up on stage for something, they almost always got picked.

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        2. Mr. Tuxedo is 15. 6′ 2′ and still growing. Tall uncles on both sides. His 5′ 4” sister is jealous. Went on a healthy eating and diet with his mother and slimmed down. Has survived pandemic by getting into food, which I think will keep him slim. He makes his own sauces and rubs for meat, mostly for BBQ. Likes to master simple things, like perfect scrambled eggs. Into acting and speech, and sadly will not be doing that this year. Straight A student. Has no set idea for college, maybe food science.

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  7. It sort of boggles my mind you’ve never entered a drawing. There are just so many opportunities to drop your name in a bucket or enter some contest, It’s pretty amazing you’ve been able to avoid that.

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    1. I can’t say with any certainty that I’ve ever entered a drawing, except for the occasional raffle ticket I’ve bought for some fundraiser. Drawings are transactions where, usually in exchange for personal information that the holder of the drawing will get some value out of, you presumably have a chance to win some prize. The prizes have never been appealing enough or the odds good enough for me to accede to that transaction.

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  8. I have a friend in Superior who does radio call ins and drawings so often, she doesn’t even need to identify herself – they recognize her voice. She has won many, many times. I did win a raffle prize at a music fundraiser. It was a patio umbrella. Since I have no patio and no patio table, I donated it elsewhere. As a high schooler I entered a basketball tournament bracket contest just on a lark (knew nothing about the teams) and ended up winning the pot. I never buy lottery tickets – seems like a waste of money.

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    1. I will say that while I don’t ever consider myself to be lucky in terms of drawings, I was lucky with Radio Heartland. I think I won three of those drawings for free concerts-it was a lot of fun. I did actually think at the time that the reason I won so many of them over the course of a couple of years is that probably not a people lotta people were entering the drawings.

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  9. A radio station in Duluth in the 70’s and maybe into 80’s asked a trivia question each night. They asked it once each night until someone answered it. (Maybe they copied this from WCCO.) I knew the DJ a bit. I usually heard it in the car driving to night school in superior. I never intended to call in and could not in a car in those days. But one question this time of year went on for a more than couple of weeks. So I decided to call to put the poor question to rest. It was before the Internet to answered all of our questions. When I called in and answered the question, the DJ chatted a bit and then recognized me in part by what I said. I thought he would hide we knew each other a little bit. He did not. The prize was a record I would not ever play. So he donated it to a raffle he knew of. Only call in I ever made. After that I would give him questions to ask.
    Questions was: who was the youngest person to have the number 1 recording in America?

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        5. I remember the song well, but had no idea who sang it – until I looked it up. Of course, this was long before I came to the US, so I know absolutely nothing about Little Jimmy Boyd.

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  10. Rise and Submit your Name, Baboons,

    I don’t win much of anything. However, I have learned the hard way not to submit my name at the State Faur—really a marketing ploy. I have not won the lottery, mostly because I have not remembered to buy a lottery ticket for years and years. But I just do not have that kind of luck.

    I did make it into the Master Gardener program, however. But it was more than a drawing.

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  12. I’ve written about this before, but trust most baboons won’t mind if I repeat. While I was working in the IDS building in Minneapolis it was not unusual for something to be going on in the Crystal Court during lunch time. One day some charitable organization or another, don’t remember which one, was selling raffle tickets for prizes donated by local businesses. I bought a book of five tickets and forgot all about it. A couple of weeks later I received a phone call at my office, I had won a sweater from a boutique in the Crystal Court. Half an hour later I got another call, I had won a gift certificate for dinner at the Minneapolis Athletic Club. About an hour after that I received yet another call, this time apologizing profusely that they kept calling me, but I had won yet another prize (tickets to a something I think, perhaps a Timberwolves game?). Whatever that third prize was, it wasn’t something that I wanted, so I gave it away, but I assured them that they could keep calling, but I didn’t get any calls after that. Winning on three out of five raffle tickets was a once in a lifetime stroke of luck.

    More recently, Radio Heartland would often have tickets to various musical performances to give away. All you needed to do was send them an email to register for the drawing. I did this numerous times. Over a period of several years I won tickets to hear Joan Baez, Mary Black, Tom Paxton and Janis Ian, Lyle Lovett, Jerry Jeff Walker, Aaron Neville, Keb’ Mo’, and the Red House Folk Festival among others. I would usually enter both my name and husband’s, and more often than not, he’d be the winner, although in the case of Joan Baez, we both won.

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  13. OT – A friend of mine just posted this on Facebook. A timely reminder, I think, from one of tim’s favorite authors: “Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”
    Kurt Vonnegut.

    Also, a few days ago Kate DiCamillo posted this, which made me smile: “This morning I woke up thinking about a fifth-grade boy who came through a signing line at a bookstore in North Carolina.
    I signed his copy of Despereaux and he said, “My teacher said fifth grade is the year of asking questions.”
    “Really?” I said.
    “Yeah,” he said. He took out a notebook. “Every day we’re supposed to ask someone different a good question and listen really good and then write down the answer when they’re done talking.”
    “Oh,” I said, “I get it. I’m someone different. Okay, what’s your question?”
    “My question is how do you get all that hope into your stories?”
    “That’s not a good question,” I said. “That’s a great question. Let me think. Um. I guess that writing the story is an act of hope, and so even when I don’t feel hopeful, writing the story can lead me to hope. Does that make sense?”
    “Yeah,” he said. He looked me in the eye. “It’s kind of a long answer. But I can write it all out. Thanks.”
    He picked up his copy of Despereaux, and walked away—writing in his notebook.
    This was years ago.
    Why did I wake up this morning and think of this child?
    Maybe because this is a time to start asking good questions, a time to write down the answers, a time to listen to each other really well.
    I’m going to get myself a little spiral bound notebook.
    I’m going to listen and hope.”

    So, that’s my PSA for the week: Be soft and ask good questions.

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    2. kurt had an uncle who would note
      “if this is not wonderful i don’t know what is “
      to make a point to be in the moment ant realize life is good
      i think he took it to heart
      thanks pj
      i saw the kate similitude story this morning and loved it
      life can be beautiful but being soft listening completely and asking good questions is all part of realizing it is so

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  14. Almost forgot – I was one of the lottery winners for the opportunity to buy up to 4 tickets to “Hamilton” before the sale to the general public started. And I took the opportunity!

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  15. OT-DIL is feeling worse today. Her Covid test won’t be back until Monday. I attempted to improve their moods by talking Christmas cookie requests. We are now up to ten varieties, including Lebkuchen, Speculaas, Springerle, pepparnotter, krumkakor, Jam-filled Brussels, Russian tea cakes, and Marty Boe’s Swedish Ginger cookies. I will expect Spitzbuben to be added to the list by someone.

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      1. No, she meant spritz. I am making the spitzbuben and chocolate shortbread. Now I am up to 12 kinds, and I am sending some to my DIL’s parents.

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      2. The next time I marry I’m going to make sure I get someone like you for a MIL. My first MIL hated me before she ever met me, and my second MIL died twenty years before I married her youngest son. So no cookies from either, ever.

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    4. We only have one overlap in cookie varieties this year. The speculaas. However I’m guessing you actually make yours in molds and I’m way too impatient for that. I roll mine out and then decorate them with royal sugar. Usually I use my reindeer cookie cutter for the speculaas . Not sure why I started that tradition but it seems to be that now.

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  16. I once won an artsy item from a raffle at the Landmark Center’s Holiday Bazaar, can’t now recall exactly what it was. Joel won a Pound Puppy (with pup-house) at a Cub Scout event…There must be something else – Oh, I’ve guessed the Question of the Day more than once at Caribou Coffee…

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  18. I’ve won quite a few things over the years. I won a TV once, only they didn’t actually have the TV on hand. I asked if it had a remote, since the TV I was using at the time did not have one. They suggested I just take the money instead, which was $75, and that was fine with me. Won tickets to see Blues at the Barn, and Amos Lee. Won a Wii Fit. Won a $100 Cub gift card. Won a $50 certificate for a fancy Minneapolis restaurant, which I don’t think is around anymore. Won several raffles at Landmark Center’s holiday bazaar. When I was a kid I won a really big stuffed rabbit from some promotion the local newspaper was doing. Never won anything really high-value, but I still think I’m pretty lucky.

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  19. I won a ‘planter inspection’ one winter day. By the time they got done with the “free Planter Inspection” It cost me another $3000 in new parts.

    Kinda like the free sweatshirts Kelly and I got when we bought some machinery this fall. Paid a lot of money to get those Sweatshirts. Got a new hat too. And a travel mug but it’s pretty cheap.

    One year at a theater convention I “won” a free sweatshirt. It was kinda funny, I registered, walked away, came back later to see a guy getting a sweatshirt and I commented that he won my shirt. They said no he didn’t; what’s your number? And I showed them my ticket which still had the two halves attached. We all laughed. I was in a hurry the first time and they didn’t take their half. So left them their half and an hour later there was another drawing and what do you know; I won!

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  20. Two years in a row YA won a large blow up cow at the Kemp’s booth (you automatically get a ticket if you go for the free Kemp’s tattoo, which we always do). The first year we dragged that cow all over the fair, dragged it home and after a couple of months deflated it and gave it away. The second year she gave the winning ticket to the child in line behind her.

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    2. He has always been like that. He is no different than most GOP guys his age, though. It is s so sad here. I think it is a result of the turmoil of the oil boom. Everything and everyone is unsettled and adrift spiritually and emotionally.

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  22. At Husband’s work back in maybe 2001 or ’02, some ceo (or something) who had season season hockey tickets couldn’t attend, and Husband won the in-office drawing of FOUR tickets. So he and I, son Joel and his housemate went, sat right up front behind the goalie. It really was thrilling, and a bit scary when the players would bang into the perimeter.

    And last year he tied in the football prediction pool in the local rag – about $60.

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  23. i feel like i win the lottery every day
    i get to go for it with every hope of making my vision happen

    i’m betting 2021 is the golden year

    i am lucky to have such great vision and great ability

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