Yep, we got this website for free!
What,
pay for a website?!?!? Fahgettaboutit! We are Cheap Bastards after all,
we don’t pay for anything. So when we read an article in AM New York (a
free daily newspaper, of course) about something called The Small
Business Challenge we jumped at the opportunity. Not only were we sure
we would walk away with goody bag full of swag (and we never pass up an
opportunity to bring home the swag!), but the contest was sponsored by
Network Solutions and they were giving way a big old grand prize that
included the a custom designed website with all the bells and whistles
you could ever dream of along with a fat $10,000 check. And here is the
kicker: all you had to do to win it all was toss some bean bags. Sign
us up!
On the morning of October 17, 2006 in Battery Park at the
southern tip of Manhattan, a slew of small business owners gathered to
take part in the Challenge. The participants included Board Game
Designers, Gourmet Bakers, P.R. Firms, Match Makers, Coffee Shop
Owners, and of course a team of Cheap Bastards. Playing for the Cheap
Bastard’s(tm) Guide were Rob Grader, author of The Cheap Bastard’s(tm)
Guide to New York City and his brother Stu Grader, a proud Cheap
Bastard(tm) in his own right.
The game was something called
Corn Hole, evidently a popular pastime in the Midwest. How do you play?
It is basically Horse Shoes played with bean bags full of raw corn. The
tournament started of with 50 teams and, through successive rounds, was
whittled down to two teams going for the Grand Prize. The stage was set
for a fierce toss-off between Paradox Communications Marketing and the
boys of The Cheap Bastard’s(tm) Guide. The Cheap Bastards started the
10 minute game strongly with some impressive tosses, but in the final
moments Paradox pulled into the lead with a number of high scoring
tosses of their own. In the end Paradox came out on top by a few
points.
Rob
and Stu congratulated the Paradox team on their
victory as well as each other on a well played tournament. The two were
about to pack up their bean bags and head home when they were shocked
to find out that there was a second prize, and it was not something to
sneeze at. They won a package of web services from Network Solutions
(worth about $3000!) While the second prize did not include all the
bells and had a few less whistles than the grand prize package (not to
mention no bit fat check), it did include the makings of a pretty nifty
website; the very one you are looking at right now.
Rob and Stu are now considering careers as professional Corn Hole players.
Special
thanks to Champ Mitchell, Brad Miller, Jeff McCullough, Doug Yokoyama and all the folks
at Network Solutions for their help and generosity in putting together
this website. Also, thanks to Jillian Teets, Devon Wade and everyone at
Maloney & Fox for putting together such a wonderful event and to Farnoosh Torabi of AM New York for writing about the event in the first place.. And,
finally, many thanks to Stu Grader for his great tossing and being one
heck of a good guy. Happy Birthday! | |
