Winning second place is, as they say, like kissing your sister. Since I don't have any sisters, I've never really been able to verify this empirically... but I still get the point. So then here's a question for you: What's it like when you win second place, except the first place team gets disqualified due to an eligibility issue, so you get first place anyway? No, seriously. Look what I found in my inbox this morning:
Due to an eligibility issue, Red Hat has unfortunately had to disqualify the first place team in the Red Hat Challenge. As a result, your team has moved up one place in the overall competition rankings.Drat! They want me to do math first thing in the morning?! Let's see here... second place plus one place equals third... No. That's not right. Um... second place up one place (yes, yes, up is a mathematical operation, but only in the morning) equals first place. Wait? First place? As in: GRAND PRIZE WINNER?! But wait! Don't pop the champagne yet! We're only winning because the first place winners were disqualified. So it's kind of like... kissing your sister... except that she's not your sister anymore since those other guys got disqualified. So... she's your... sister's friend. Yeah. That's it. Your sister's hot--no, really hot--friend. Who's got $20k and a ticket to the Red Hat Summit--with backstage passes. (JC, our Montreal-based team member, will attend the conference.)
While it could have been better--nothing's sweeter than an outright win--it's definitely worth savoring. Just wanted to share the news!
4 comments:
what? dont get it, you won another competition and $20k???????????
can i be part of your next competition team? i think it is more profitable than anyjob!!!
congrats! OMG!
Congrats! And thanks for making me laugh (again).
Congratulations!! Winning first place through disqualification is like kissing your hot second cousin. It's not the girl you thought you'd go home with, but there's really nothing wrong with it, so who the hell cares?! You got some! Man, that looks a lot crasser when I type it. Anyway, I'm still proud of you. Way to get some!
You may be contest winners, but your analogy is all wrong.
The kissing your sister phrase should be used only in a sports context.
The precise phrase is: "A tie is like kissing your sister."
Per Wikipedia: "The earliest known use of the phrase was by Navy football coach Eddie Erdelatz after a scoreless tie against Duke in 1953"
Winning money and prizes in intellectual contests doesn't draw a close correlation between tying a college football game. Plus, college football now has overtime - guaranteeing that nobody has to kiss their sister anymore. So the analogy is totally meaningless (except in Alabama).
I guess the next contest that you should enter should be the Washington Post's Bad Analogy Contest.
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