R father

A SHIP OF FOOLS COMPETITION

Mobile We're pleased to announce the winner and runners-up in the Ship of Fools biblical text-messaging competition.

The competition was for re-writing the Lord's Prayer for the mobile phone, using just 160 characters or less. It was judged for Ship of Fools by the Churches' Broadcasting Conference. The task itself was not easy. The traditional version of the Lord's Prayer is 372 characters long, so whittling it down to 160 characters meant cutting the prayer by more than half but without losing anything important.



THE WINNER – out of a strong field of over 100 entries, Matthew Campbell, a history student at York University, came up with the winning entry, which is...
In 1st place: Matthew Campbell, York, England
dad@hvn,ur spshl.we want wot u want&urth2b like hvn.giv us food&4giv r sins lyk we 4giv uvaz.don't test us!save us!bcos we kno ur boss,ur tuf&ur cool 4 eva!ok?
Congratulations to Matthew, who wins a £30 gift certificate from Amazon. Congrats are also due to our two runners-up, Steve Seymour and Rev. Stephen Moore, who submitted the following prayers...
In 2nd place: Steve Seymour, Bristol, England
r pa in evan, respect 2 u, may u rain ear as in evan. giv us r needs, 4giv rsin as we 4giv r nmes. resq us from the evil 1. 4 ur always the most xlent dude. yo
In 3rd place: Rev. Stephen E. Moore, Bellevue, Washington, USA
God@heaven.org, You rule, up and down. We need grub and a break. Will pass it on. Keep us focused. You totally rule, long term. Amen.



SPECIAL MENTIONS – some entrants took a refreshingly cavalier approach to the competition, and both the longest and shortest entries deserve special praise. Andy Keulemans from Wrexham in North Wales took an extreme shortcut with his 48-character prayer...
Shortest entry: Andy Keulemans, Wrexham, Wales
Hi Fr., Mat 6:9-13 again pls. Cheers. c u in ch.
Meanwhile, the longest entry, which at 357 characters was more than twice the acceptable length, was written by Sheila Locke from Norwich, and says...
Longest entry: Sheila Locke, Norwich, England
Hi Dad, still in the same old homestead? Dig your name ol'fella. "Thy kingdom come" (what's that mean?). Anyhow, expect me sometime in next twenty years (or earlier) - still trying to be good. I like bread - the more the better, but will try not to get too greedy. Overlook any little naughtiness won't you and will try to do the same, but am only human. Bye.
Thanks to everyone who took part. For the Times (London) report on the competition, click this.



Book cover LOOKING FOR some tips and ideas for the coolest text messaging shortcuts? Check out the authoritative "ltle bk of txt msgs" from Amazon.

To browse and order in the UK click here, and for the US click here.



Top | Archive | SOF Home

© Ship of Fools 2001