Daniel Handler's 44th Birthday - Page 5, final preparations.

[Dante]

Dear 667ers,

Every year, this forum collaborates on a project to celebrate Mr. Handler's latest birthday and has it sent to him. It's been a great success that brings us all together, Mr. Handler included, so of course we're repeating it this year. Mr. Handler will be forty-four years old on February 28th, so our project needs to be finished by then (although sometimes we've run literally to the last minute!). As in previous years, since this is a project everyone should have the chance to work on, everyone has the chance to suggest what it should be, and that's what this thread is for. Have a look at some past projects - we've had elaborate birthday cards, reasons to be concerned, and wrong questions - and post what you think we should do. Try and involve both text and art and come up with something we can realistically complete by the 28th of February.

We'll accept and debate suggestions for a week or two (no formal deadline, let's see how it goes) before deciding what we're doing and how, so you have time to think about your idea and everyone else's. Don't be shy - we want to hear from you!

Post your idea for 667's birthday project for Mr. Handler here.

[BSam]

how about a collaborative story?

[Dante]

Har har har. Something with shorter individual entries and less formality like the 667 Exquisite Corpse Adventure might suit, though.

[Christmas Chief]

The Snicktionary: A compilation of forty-four unique, semi-obscure words, like Snicket's "bombinating." Each submission could be formatted like a dictionary entry, with the occasional accompanying illustration, and each entry would use the word in a sentence in an ATWQ/Birthday themed way. Bonus if the sentences or words are somehow ordered to form a "story" (in the same spirit as the questions last year formed a "story" - that is, they related to one another and showed some form of progression without necessarily being a narrative).

[B.]

Jan 11, 2014 9:51:30 GMT -5 Christmas Chief said:

The Snicktionary: A compilation of forty-four unique, semi-obscure words, like Snicket's "bombinating." Each submission could be formatted like a dictionary entry, with the occasional accompanying illustration, and each entry would use the word in a sentence in an ATWQ/Birthday themed way. Bonus if the sentences or words are somehow ordered to form a "story" (in the same spirit as the questions last year formed a "story" - that is, they related to one another and showed some form of progression without necessarily being a narrative).

This is one I'd very highly endorse.



I had an idea that we could submit possible titles for the next book(s), with entries ranging from highly credible, to downright silly. Accompanied by illustrations and graphics too, of course.

[MisterM]

i like bee's idea.

[Dante]

I like Bee's as well, but it's worth noting that it would still work next year, so it can always have a second shot at the spotlight if it doesn't win out this year.

[Anka]

I think Bee's idea is cool but somehow similar to last year (because we can assume that the title will be a question).


We could also do something with alliterations, because 44 is kind of the samw with numbers.


I also like the exquisite corpse thing idea, but I don't know if we have time for that, because we can't do it all at the same time, only one after the other.

[Dante]

I think we can probably work in alliteration as a motif, no matter what we end up doing. Hark back to the days of ASoUE - well, not even that far, since we have Ink Inc. and various alliteratively-named characters in ATWQ.

[Teleram]

4 can mean "death" in some counrtries, and 44 is how old DH is going to be, so we can do something related to death, though it won't be very nice to give a person in their forties a birthday present that is related to death. Any person, actually

[Dante]

I think we're downbeat enough in his birthday missives without outright reminding him that he's going to die one day. That is a line I have been trying very hard not to cross.

[The Duchess]

Maybe we can do something with palindromes?

[Agathological]

We take pictures of the V.F.D eye pasted on important landmarks in our countries. So on an A4 sheet of paper we print the eye with V.F.D at the top and 'The world is quiet here' in the language native to our county at the bottom.

I dunno, something silly I guess

P.S Was there ever a discussion on the 2013 birthday about which answers coensided with which question?

[Skelly Craig]

I actually kept thinking about ATWQ having 4 volumes, and secondly, ASoUE starting out with four books, when I saw that DH is turning 44. Maybe this could be used as inspiration for a project, like a list with (44?) things that are related to the number 4, and it being a conspiracy á la "The 23 Enigma."

Things in the list could include the 4 elements, seasons of the year, divisions of day, cardinal directions, number of movements in a symphony, suits of playing cards, 4 cardinal virtues, and then later things like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, 4 corners of the earth, the fourth letter in the alphabet being "D" and four letters after that "H", etc. I'm just spitballing, but it may have potential.

[B.]

Jan 11, 2014 19:15:04 GMT -5 Skelly Craig said:

I actually kept thinking about ATWQ having 4 volumes, and secondly, ASoUE starting out with four books, when I saw that DH is turning 44. Maybe this could be used as inspiration for a project, like a list with (44?) things that are related to the number 4, and it being a conspiracy á la "The 23 Enigma."

Things in the list could include the 4 elements, seasons of the year, divisions of day, cardinal directions, number of movements in a symphony, suits of playing cards, 4 cardinal virtues, and then later things like the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse, 4 corners of the earth, the fourth letter in the alphabet being "D" and four letters after that "H", etc. I'm just spitballing, but it may have potential.

I like this idea, though i'm confused about the elements? 92 naturally occur on earth.