Category: Competitions

THIS WEEK’S CONTEST:

Recreate a famous work of art, and nominate one for Professor Kung to do too! Folks all around the world have been recreating works of art using household items (see examples here and here), and you can too! Here’s what you’ll do:

1. Find a work of art that you think you could recreate using household items
2. Gather the household items you need
3. Stage that photo and submit it below!

There will be two ways of earning tokens during this contest. First, you can do the re-creations yourself– the best recreation will earn TWO townhouse tokens. But you can also nominate a picture for Professor Kung to recreate! These submissions will be judged on a balance of do-ability and funniness, and the nomination we choose will be awarded with one townhouse token. Submit here: forms.gle/7e4tFzHvhNATJAzn8.

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS:

Last week’s contest was a short story contest, and the winner is Matthew Oberstaedt! Congratulations Matthew! His story was as follows:

One otherwise inconspicuous Wednesday, Jacky is cleaning out her childhood bedroom. She’s basically just throwing all her childhood memories into a big black trash bag, because, you know, who needs them anymore when you’re in college, right? So in go her beloved stuffed animals, her soccer trophies, her prom photos, and so on. But then, she comes across something really, really sentimental for her – a self-portrait her grandmother had painted just before her death. Jacky feels a tear come to her eye, then wipes it away, shrugs, and throws the painting out.

Ha! I bet you, the ignorant reader, thought that portrait was going to be the thing that changed Jacky’s life, right? Nope! I just totally subverted your expectations, and I feel pretty darn good about it, too!

Anyway, once she throws away the portrait, Jacky comes upon a portal to another dimension that she had made as a kid and forgotten about. Then she enters it and I guess some kind of life changing experience happens in there. Not sure what exactly; I didn’t come up with the specifics. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Anyway, it inspires her to become an animal rights activist or something else cool like that.

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

I live for but a single breath.
Any touch could spell my death.
A rainbow spins within my eye.
Make me right, and I can fly.

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

Yesterday’s riddle was:

It’s been around for millions of years, but it is never more than a month old. What is it?

The answer was: the moon! Bri Mirabile was the first to get this, congratulations Bri! And the most creative incorrect answer goes to Sydni Nadler with “a month-old T-Rex fossil.” Congratulations to you both!

TODAY’S RIDDLE:

When you need me, you throw me away.
When you don’t need me, you bring me back.
What am I?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

Yesterday’s riddle was:

My life can be measured in hours,
I serve by being devoured.
I bring joy where e’er I go,
Yet wind is my foe.
What am I?

The first correct answer was Bri Mirabile with a candle! The most creative incorrect answer goes to Rachel Zemil with sand! Congratulations to you both!

THIS WEEK’S CONTEST:

This week, we are hosting a VERY SHORT STORY contest! I would like you to write short stories of 200 words or less following the following prompt:

“While doing a quarantine cleaning of your childhood bedroom, you stumble upon something you had forgotten long ago, and it changes your life in ways you could not possibly have imagined.”

The genre on this can be literally anything– high fantasy, sci-fi, comedy, horror…(just keep things relatively PG, this is an official school platform after all!). You can comment it below or send one in to uhp@gwu.edu! Excited to see what you submit!

LAST WEEK’S WINNER:

Last week’s contest was a limerick contest, and the winner is ETHAN GOLDBLATT with the following limerick!

There once was a digger named Gary
who most people found quite scary
but if you’d go and check-in
he’d greet you with a grin
then you’d be the next one that he’d bury.

Congratulations Ethan!

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

I go around in circles,
but always straight ahead.
I never complain,
no matter where I am led.
What am I?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

Yesterday’s riddle was:

I cannot speak.
But when spoken to,
I always reply.
What am I?

And our first correct answer was from (yet again) Cindy Y. with echo! The second goes to Sydni Nadler with “Me in origins having no idea what Plato is talking about but Dr. Ralkowski asks me a question anyways.” Congratulations to you both!

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

I cannot speak.
But when spoken to,
I always reply.
What am I?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

Yesterday’s riddle was “Feed me, I live. Give me drink, I die. What am I?” Sydni Nadler won the first correct answer with “fire,” and Maria Tapias won the most creative incorrect answer with “thirst.” Congratulations to you both!

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

What can you hold in your left hand but not your right?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

The first correct answer from yesterday’s riddle once again goes to Cindy Y. with “post office,” and the most creative incorrect answer goes to Clarissa Boyd with “epistolary romance.” Congratulations to all on your tokens!

THIS WEEK’S CONTEST:

This week, we are hosting a LIMERICK contest. Yes, that’s right. I want you to write limericks. Because they’re really, really fun. They can be about anything, but bonus points if they’re about something positive in the midst of the existentially strange time we’re all existing in right now. You can submit them below in the comments, or in an email to the UHP!

Don’t know how to write a limerick/know what a limerick is? That’s alright! A limerick is a type of poem that’s got a delightful jovial energy to it. It bounces back and forth throughout the stanza. They’re all five lines, with a rhyme scheme of AABBA (lines 1, 2, and 5 rhyme, and so do lines 3 and 4). They also all have a pretty specific rhythm. Check out the following limericks for some examples, or visit this website for a more in-depth exploration!

There was an Old Man with a beard,
Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!
Two Owls and a Hen,
Four Larks and a Wren,
Have all built their nests in my beard!’

-Edward Lear (famous for popularizing the limerick!)

There once was a man from Nantucket
Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.

-Anonymous

LAST WEEK’S WINNERS:

We received some truly incredible submissions to last week’s contest, so deciding this one has been rather difficult. In the end, we decided to award two winners. One for beauty, one for creativity (of a horrifying kind). But we’ll post all the responses below! Congratulations to Sara Iagnemma with the UHP Raven and Matthew Oberstaedt with the eldritch abomination Brainy McBrainFace. Both of these came with original drawings:

.

Sara’s mascot is the Raven, because they’re both some of the smartest animals on the planet as well as omnivores!

Matthew’s was, well, as follows:

“Meet the new UHP Mascot: Brainy McBrainface! Brainy is a walking, talking, personified brain, and they are, like, totally jacked from flexing all that intellectual muscle UHPers are famous for. Brainy can usually been lifting weights with one arm and a beaker in the other, demonstrating the careful balance between taking care of one’s body and mind. Brainy has a big, goofy laugh that annoys pretty much everyone, but is endearing to the right people, and they can’t shut up about politics! Brainy’s spinal cord is basically their body. They typically wear shorts, a graduation cap, and shoes… BUT NO SHIRT, because, I repeat, they’re totally jacked.”

Congratulations to you both on your tokens!

Honorable Mentions:

That’s not to say the other entries weren’t excellent though! Here are the other wonderful submissions we received:

Cindy Y. with TWO mascots, for the two campuses we exist on! A buff-colored doe for the Vern, and a blue rat (who are omnivores!) for Foggy Bottom. And she drew them too!

Sydni Nadler came in with the delightful recommendation of a badger named Martha who carries around a little pile of books and wears a UHP-logo-colored scarf!

Mason Hubbell had the excellent suggestion of a studious hippo reading a book, with glasses or a mortarboard!

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

What has two words

but thousands of letters?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

As always, tokens will be awarded to the first correct answer and the most creative incorrect one. Friday’s riddle was “By night, we arrive without being called for. By day, we are lost without being stolen. What are we?” Andrew Butt scored the token for first correct answer with “Stars.” Meanwhile, the most creative answer goes to Sydni Nadler with “my sleep paralysis demon in the shape of the George statue in UYard.” Keep up the great guessing!

TODAY’S RIDDLE IS:

By night, we arrive without being called for.

By day, we are lost without being stolen.

What are we?

YESTERDAY’S WINNERS:

As always, tokens will be awarded to the first correct answer and the most creative incorrect one. The first correct answer to yesterday’s riddle (My beard is powerful. I shave every day, But it remains unchanged. What am I?) goes to Mason Hubbell (a barber), and it was a very close call for most creative incorrect one! But we’re going with ‘Not Tyler Kusma’s’ answer of “Tyler Kusma” Congratulations to you both!