I'm still waiting to hear back from the winner of the random draw so that I can announce who it is (and send out the calendar, for that matter). But I suppose there's no harm in my telling you now who won the essay portion of the contest. Not really a surprise, it's Ruth Berman. Ruth is a longtime Oz fan; in fact, she is one of the original sixteen charter members of the International Wizard of Oz Club. In her winning entry, she not only wanted to visit, she wanted to do some research! But here, let her tell her own story right here:
What I'd like to do in Oz — well, having a fondness for the Munchkin Country as the part of Oz we first met, and considering the various questions that the books leave unanswered about Munchkin appearance and government, I think I'd like to spend the year wandering around the Munchkin Country. I could: find out if all Munchkins adults are no taller than children (of whatever age Dorothy was when she landed) or only some; find out if the kings of Seebania and Sapphire Island are cousins to each other and represent a family argument over which one had the best claim to rule all the Munchkins, or whether their lines were originally kings of two countries, North Munchkins and South Munchkins, with both lines trying to unite the two countries under one line's leadership; and (most important?) find out if Munchkinland is the east or the west quadrant of Oz. Oh, and if the Yellow Brick Road does as per the movie start in a double-spiral with a red-brick road for the second spiral, I could see if the red-brick road goes only to the town stables, or if it would go to some interesting previously unrecorded Munchkin townships (and maybe curve into the Quadling Country?).
Sad to say, Ruth doesn't get to go to Oz for a year to find out the answers to these burning questions, so she'll just have to settle for the 2010 Wizard of Oz wall calendar, courtesy of the fine folks in the publicity department at Andrews McMell Publishing. If you'd like to spend a year in Oz, too, just follow
2 comments:
There was an issue of Oziana a few years ago that was MGM-based, and there was a story in it about that red brick road. I want to say it was written by Fred Otto, but I'm not 100% positive about that.
"Follow the Other Brick Road" by Fred Otto, Oziana 1989. Yeah, I remember that story, too. It would be nice if someone could publish a Best of Oziana anthology book.
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