Robert Benchley Society Announces Semifinalists in 2014 Humor Contest

February 22, 2015, the Robert Benchley Society Announces the Top-Ten Semifinalists in 2014 RBS Humor Writing Competition (in alphabetical order)

• Barb Best, of Malibu, Calif., for Risk,
• Con Chapman, of Boston, Mass., for Take the 40 Million-Years-Without-Sex Challenge,
• Lowell T. Christensen, of White Rock, N.M., for How to Help Children with Attention Deficit Disorder,
• Cy Creed, of Hamburg, N.Y., for Just The Socks Please, Nothing But The Socks,
• Nancy Crochiere, of Amesbury, Mass., for I’ll Never Lube This Way Again,
• Eileen Mitchell, of Palatine, Illinois, for The Science of Stumbling,
• Kathy Myers, of Petaluma Calif., for A Brief History of Writers,
• Valerie Peterson, of New York, N.Y., for Letter to Santa,
• Dorothy Rosby, of Rapid City, S.D., for What Hath Bell Wrought?, and
• James Smart, of Philadelphia, Penn., for The Origen of Some Christmas Customs

These top ten essays have been forwarded to humorist Mark Russell, who will decide on the final four, ranked in order from first place. The winners will be announced on April Fools Day, and the awards will be presented at the Robert Benchley Society Annual Awards Dinner, at the University Club of Washington, D.C., at a date to be determined.

This year's preliminary judges were:

• Horace Digby, 2005 Benchley Society First Place Award Winner, President of the Longwood, Washington "We Only Came to See if There Really is an Award" Chapter of the RBS, and West Coast Vice Chairman of the RBS,
• Matt Hahn, President of the Washington, D.C., "Lost Locomotive" Chapter of the RBS,
• Eileen Forster Keck, a Director of the RBS,
• Sharon Lyon, a Co-Founder of the RBS,
• Dan Montville, author of Disabled Fables, 2008 1st place winner of the RBS Humor Writing Award, and Director of the RBS,
• Chris Morgan, East Coast Vice Chairman of the RBS, and
• Ed Tasca, 2009 1st place winner of the RBS Humor Writing Award, and Director of the RBS.

Celebrate the Year of the Goat with the Boston Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, February 19th, beginning at 5:30 p.m. It's also the start of Chinese New Year and Executive Sous Chef Steven Boothroyd will prepare delicious complimentary appetizers.

Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

"There is an old Chinese proverb which says: "There are more ways than one to wear out a pair of shoes," and I think it is a very good motto for each and every one of us to take as a guide for our daily lives." --Robert Benchley, from the essay "Wear-Out-a-Shoe Week," as published in My Ten Years in a Quandary and How They Grew (1936).