Books, Arts & Manners: Wrapping Up

Here they are: the results of this year’s Great Delectations Contest. Contestants were asked to come up with six (6) entries of totally imaginary LAST WORDS OF FAMOUS REAL people, living or dead, in 25 words or less. Well, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Delectations readers did, and their entries have now been judged by your totally just and incorruptible judges. But before I go into the contest results, let me tell you how touched and gratified I was by the many contestants who wrote me such kind personal notes, as well as by those—and there were a great many—who thanked national review for the fun they had making up their entries.

Four contestants, all men, stand out from the crowd. Neal S. Fredericksen (St. Louis, Mo.) shines with six winning entries, as follows: Walter Cronkite: “So this is the way it is.” Madalyn Murray O’Hair: “Well, I’ll be damned.” F. Lee Bailey: “The defense rests.” A Soviet Premier: “Next!” Will Rogers: “Until you, Wiley Post, I never met a man I didn’t like.” Alexander Haig: “I guess this means I’m no longer in charge.”

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Nika Hazelton

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Here they are: the results of this year’s Great Delectations Contest. Contestants were asked to come up with six (6) entries of totally imaginary LAST WORDS OF FAMOUS REAL people, living or dead, in 25 words or less. Well, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Delectations readers did, and their entries have now been judged by your totally just and incorruptible judges. But before I go into the contest results, let me tell you how touched and gratified I was by the many contestants who wrote me such kind personal notes, as well as by those—and there were a great many—who thanked national review for the fun they had making up their entries.

Four contestants, all men, stand out from the crowd. Neal S. Fredericksen (St. Louis, Mo.) shines with six winning entries, as follows: Walter Cronkite: “So this is the way it is.” Madalyn Murray O’Hair: “Well, I’ll be damned.” F. Lee Bailey: “The defense rests.” A Soviet Premier: “Next!” Will Rogers: “Until you, Wiley Post, I never met a man I didn’t like.” Alexander Haig: “I guess this means I’m no longer in charge.”