GISHWHES winners announced!
Dearest, Darlingest Devil Spawn,
Last year we announced the victors on Christmas day. However, it has come to our attention that the Mayan calendar (and the world with it) ends tomorrow, so we thought it would be best to let you know who takes the cake this year in advance of the apocalypse.
But before we get into all of that, I would like to thank you all for an incredible Hunt. I was alternately moved, inspired, dumbstruck and disgusted by the thousands and thousands of submissions this year. Not only that, but this year - though it's still not official - it looks like we broke not one, but two Guinness World Records. One for doing what we do best - scavenging - and another for collecting the most charitable pledges… ever. Here's a little story someone sent us a couple of days ago which, in and of itself, made the whole thing seem worth it…Random Act of Kindness at K-Mart.
I'm also pleased to say that your Acts of Kindness videos (Item #106) were similarly bountiful, incredible and likely world-changing. In fact, Gishwhes did a clean sweep of Random Acts' Semi-Annual Awards for Random Acts SAARA. Congratulations to those teams and everyone else who took the time to do and film a Random Act of kindness.
Now, for more good news - we pretty much quadrupled our contribution to Random Acts 501c3 this year. You all bought a bunch of stuff at the Shwop and were generous at registration, so we were able to donate $41,638. In sum, not only did we encourage young people the world over to skip school in order to craft dinosaurs from maxipads, we also created hundreds of random act videos, handed out thousands of coats to the homeless, presented dozens of sock puppet shows to sick children, gave hundreds of long-time couples the chance to share their wisdom about relationships, got 100,000 people to commit pledges to perpetrate acts of kindness and are collectively contributing a ton of cash to help carry out good works worldwide. So I say this was a raging success that we can all be proud of (or at least not ashamed of).
Blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring. You don't really want to hear about all that crap. I know what you're thinking: "Shut up Misha! Am I going to Scotland or not?!" So, without further ado, the answer is, "Yes!… If you're on team Badwolf." There were several teams that were neck and neck this year and it was an absurdly difficult call, but in the end, we were smitten with Badwolf, their creativity, antics and enthusiasm. Congratulations! I sincerely hope you do not prove to be sociopaths. For the other teams that were so close, we are going to award a Gishwheshean Honorable Mention this year. We will be sending something "Gishwhes Official" to each member of the runner up teams: Widdermacker, (Sc)Avengers, Subtext, ROBOTHEAD, QuicklyHuge, Babysharks, VaticanCameos, fandom-orgy, SuperWhoLockers, and 270WinchesterLoveswishbone.
We have one more individual coming to Scotland... chosen from the Schwag Shwop purchasers. We'll be sending out that announcement in one lucky Shwop package in the New Year.
For the rest of you: This was an excellent warm-up. If the world doesn't end tomorrow, let's endeavor to emotionally scar the entire world with Gishwhes III. See you in the summer of 2013!
Happy Holidays from your friend and tormentor,
Misha
Source: my email