Carnival of Squid

Topics: Third week of November

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:37:00 +0000

Monday: The Sound of Music
Tuesday: Homemade Bread Day
Wednesday: Push Button Phone Day
Thursday: "Have a Bad Day" Day
Friday: Pesticides

Topics: Second week of November

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:46:00 +0000

Monday: Guinness World Records Day
Tuesday: Sesame Street
Wednesday: Veterans and Remembrance Day
Thursday: Immigration
Friday: World Kindness Day

Topics: First week of November

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:56:00 +0000

Monday: The Dakotas
Tuesday: Comedians
Wednesday: King Tut
Thursday: Guy Fawkes Day
Friday: John Phillip Sousa

Topics: Third week of October

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:53:00 +0000

Monday: Stock Market
Tuesday: Teen Read Week
Wednesday: Light Bulb
Thursday: Parachutes
Friday: National Mole Day

Topics: End of September

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:32:00 +0000

It's a split week this week. Three days of September, two of October. Not confusing at all for Carnival purposes. Ha!

September

Monday: Love Note Day

Tuesday: National Honey Month

Wednesday: Gone Too Soon

October

Thursday: Late Night TV

Friday: Peanuts (the Charles Schultz kind)

Daily winners: Fourth week of September

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:40:00 +0000

Monday we celebrated Stephen King's birthday with some of our favorite horror stories. And you picked as your favorite the Sookie Stackhouse series from naturegirl7. (Didn't know they were books before coming to HBO. Squidoo is good for the brain!)

No submissions related to spies on Tuesday. Really? I was ready to be fascinated by what you guys came up with. Sigh.

We love quotations and the number of submissions for Wednesday certainly proved that! And we have a new face to welcome to the Carnival since the top vote-getter was Brookelorren with a lens of patriotic quotes.

In honor of Jim Henson's birthday, we visited the Muppets today. And the top vote-getter in what was no contest was an ode to MiMi by JaguarJulie, a song she created in tribute to Beaker.

And since she was on a musical bender already, Julie had the two lenses that tied for Friday's topic - one-hit wonders. Quite the contrasts she submitted - What is Love? by Haddaway and Spanish Flea by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Topics: Last week of September

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Monday: Horror stories

Tuesday: Spies

Wednesday: Most quotable

Thursday: Muppets

Friday: One-Hit Wonder Day

Daily winners: Third week of September

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:54:00 +0000

We're back with some really nice lenses this week on some crazy topics. (I know. Every week has crazy topics here at the Carnival. But we get really random this week.)

Monday we highlighted Library Card Sign-Up Month and hlkljgk provides a nice run down of why you should get a library card and her own library experience. Subject dear to my heart since I can't afford my book habit and rely on the library weekly!

Lots of submissions for favorite color day, but the hands down winner was JaguarJulie's lens on little red dresses. Had to be the intro photo, which I want to see a shot of Julie wearing. :-)

We went on a train trip Wednesday and this was by far my favorite day because I discovered puzzlemaster's fabulous lens about her first trip by Amtrack. This lens is jam packed with not just her experience, but tips, information and gobs of pictures to make your train ride great. This is my idea of almost perfect lensmaking. (Gotta leave wiggle room there, ya know!)

We see that same thing again with the two top vote getters on deafness. Christene shares her personal experience with and reasoning for teaching her daughter ASL as a baby and how they still use it. AJ2008 gives us a through lesson on otosclerosis, including her story of diagnosis, related anxiety and progress.

And wrapping up the week was JaguarJulie again with her lens on who is Jimmy Hoffa and what did they do with him?

Thanks to all who participated!!

Daily winners - many apologies

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Well, dang. I was going to do a bunch of posts back dated for the past month (and a half!) that I've missed here at the Carnival. But October's Carnival is calling and so I'm just going to do a "mark all as read" on that time and start fresh. Apologies to those you who won't get featured. Sometimes life intrudes and we just deal, right?

(I hate these kinds of posts. But I feel uber guilty on this one. Sigh.)

Topics - First week of August

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 14:03:00 +0000

Monday: Opera
Tuesday: National Mustard Day
Wednesday: American Bandstand
Thursday: Poetry
Friday: Purple Heart

Daily winners - last week of July

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:18:00 +0000

We had some fun topics this week and some fun lenses to go along with them!

Monday, for National Take Your Houseplants for a Walk Day (I swear there's a holiday for everything!), we got to see the story of Herbie the Houseplant. Did you get to meet Herbie? He's worth getting to know.

For National Day of the Cowboy, the top vote getter was actually my favorite cowgirl, Annie Oakley! naturegirl7 tells us all about the woman who was one of the first true superstars of American culture. (Eat your heart out, Brittany.)

We visited royal families as well this week and MsSnow4a's look at Prince William got the top votes. No surprise. He's such a cutie!

GypsyLyric gave us a great look at Francis Scott Key for Thursday's topic on national anthems. It's a gorgeous lens with tons of pictures and things you never learned in school about our flag, Mr. Key and the anthem.

Rounding out the month was the birthday of Harry Potter. thefluffanutta makes his first appearance at the Carnival with the most votes for his lens on the Potter Puppet Pals. These videos are a hoot and a great way to kill that extra time you don't have. :-)

Slow summer - July winners to date

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Apparently lots of lensmasters are having a sleepy July. Very few submissions or votes this month, so I've been breaking a little too. But here's a recap of what's happened in the first couple of weeks of July.

Way back to start the month (actually, end June), SusannaDuffy showed off her lens on collecting meteorites as part of Meteor Day. MsSnow4a's lens on homemade vanilla ice cream helped us celebrate National Ice Cream Month back on July 8.

Embrace Your Geekness Day was quite popular! Of course, there's a lot of ways to be a geek these days. Karla (chicandsavvy) had the top lens with her salute to her favorite geek - husband Normand.

Naturegirl_7 took us blueberry picking at Dawson's Blueberry Farm and shared great brownie recipies, monarch13 told us horse legends, kab introduced us to the game show 1 vs. 100, and susan52 revealed her love affair with Alex Trebek.

Thanks to those who've been playing as the summer slowed things down. Keep an eye out for the September Carnival lens soon!!

Topics - First week of July

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:50:00 +0000

Monday: iPhone
Tuesday: Meteor Day
Wednesday: Hong Kong
Thursday: Hot Air Balloons
Friday: Air Conditioning Appreciation Day

(Have tried 14 times to leave a comment on this post and can't for some reason. Boo. So Veronica, here's my answer to you comment: Any Squid can participate in the Carnival. Just submit a new or old lens in an appropriate topic. We love lenses created just for the Carnival! That's why we're here - help you with ideas for new lenses!!)

Daily winners - fourth week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:48:00 +0000

Monday: Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Looks like the original fun girl Cyndi Lauper has a challenger - Isabel!! Salonhair did a lens for Isabel's first birthday looking back at some of the fun this girl had over the past year. Let's just say it involved a wild party, Cheerio frustrations and some monkeys.

Tuesday: Pink Flamingo Day
Seems we couldn't decide between the plastic and real versions of these guys, so we have a tie. MiaBellezza brings us a gorgeous collection of photographs of real pink flamingos in the wild, while funsocksgirl takes us on a romp with tongue-in-cheek with the tacky plastic kind.

Wednesday: UFO Day
If you want to know about UFOs or the paranormal, RickPhillips is your guy. And he came through this time with his lens - Anomaly Man, which provides daily links to related sites. Worth a look!

Thursday: Under the Sea
I knew I would love the entries coming in through this category. And Stazjia didn't disappoint with her dolphins under threat lens. She provides great details about the dolphins, the threats against them and what you can do to help.

Friday: Roller Coasters
On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of roller coasters. But I am a fan of Barrie's lens on the Expedition Everest coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Great photos, background information and videos make you want to jump on this ride. Almost. :-)

Topics - last week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Monday: Girls Just Want to Have Fun
Tuesday: Pink Flamingo Day
Wednesday: UFO Day
Thursday: Under the Sea
Friday: Roller Coasters

Daily winners - third week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 23:12:00 +0000

Monday: Smile Power Day
If you were feeling blue this past Monday, we had plenty of lenses to knock you out of it - 20 in total. And topping the heap was a fabulous entry from aj2008 with her Top 10 quotes from the TV show M*A*S*H. (One of my faves!) She actually ends up supplying far more than 10, each one a gem destined to make you chuckle. If you've seen the show, that is. :-)

Tuesday: Comedy Teams
We were still looking for yucks on this topic. And it became one of my favorites because I had never heard of any of the duos submitted. (Making me learn stuff! Side effect of this project!) Leading this topic was a lens by tirial about the team of Morecambe and Wise, who had a TV show in England in the 60s. (I'm blaming the videos on how long it's taken to write this post!)

Wednesday: Eat Your Vegetables Day
Squids love their vegetables! There were 39 lenses submitted (wow), enough to make you really hungry. naturegirl7 came out on top of the pile with her great lens on the Rabbit Hill guide to sustainable gardening. Learn about moles, composting and slugs here. So now you can grow all the vegetables you can eat! (And more. I like tomatoes and squash, BTW.)

Thursday: Women in Space
Sometimes it takes just one lens and one vote, but when its quality, that's all you need. lisadh loves lenses featuring great women and her lens on astronaut Sally Ride gives us a look at the first U.S. woman in space.

Friday: Saints
I was excited to see what we might get with this topic because it's so different. And wow. Taking this category was Aquavel's great lens telling the story of the Dog Saint, Saint Guinefort. (It's dogs! You know I'll like it!) This is a really fascinating story about a very obscure saint told really well.

Topics - third week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:52:00 +0000

Monday: Smile Power Day
Tuesday: Comedy Teams
Wednesday: Eat Your Vegetables Day
Thursday: Women in Space
Friday: Saints

Daily winners - second week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Monday: Best Friends Day
My best friend lives really, really, really far away from me. But that doesn't change the fact that we're BFF! And our top vote getter for today by a_willow celebrates the long-distance relationship with great tips building and maintaining those friendships. (I personally bless the inventor of the webcam daily!) Check out the use of borders and frames throughout the lens, which chunk the information up nicely while adding additional visual elements. (Oh, and a_willow would be one of my long-distance friends made via Squidoo!)

Tuesday: Johnny Depp
Not only is Johnny Depp gorgeous and a fabulous actor, he's actually a nice guy in real life. But on the screen, he often plays characters we aren't quite sure we understand. paperfacets introduces us to Johnny in one of his more obscure roles, Dead Man. Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either, but after reading her lens, it's on my list.

Wednesday: Iced Tea Day
There are many days in Dallas where there just isn't enough iced tea in the world to make you feel cooler. But it's the perfect summer drink throughout the south. TwinsMama makes it simple for you with directions for the easiest way to make iced tea. Go vote on your favorite way to take your iced tea. (Mine is definitely sweetened!)

Thursday and Friday?
Well, there were a couple of lenses here but no votes! Sigh.

Topics - second week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:47:00 +0000

Monday: Best Friends Day
Tuesday: Johnny Depp
Wednesday: Iced Tea Day
Thursday: Horse Racing
Friday: Perfect Games

(Come on, someone give me a great baseball lens for Friday!)

Daily winners - first week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:46:00 +0000

We had some crazy topics this week, from cat hugs to economics. But we are so not about ordinary or normal here at The Carnival!

Monday: Hug Your Cat Day
I knew we had a lot of cat lovers (and cats!) on Squidoo, so it didn't surprise me that we had 17 lenses submitted for this one. But Vladi earned the most hugs, err, votes for his philosophical biography that tells of his adventures with the tiger snake, thoughts on food and position on beauty contests (AKA cat shows).

Tuesday: First Ladies
We had a tie on this one, and I'm not entirely certain we could have gotten two more different women if we tried! First we have rwoman's profile of Abigail Adams, admired for her wisdom and support of her husband John. Then we have Brookelorren sharing about Mary Todd Lincoln, better known for her mental illness and disdain for her husband. What a pair!

Wednesday: Great Love Stories
Get out the hankies. Great love stories are prone to bring out the tears in some fashion. And mysticmama delivers with her personal story of tragedy with her husband's accident. I'll let you read it straight from her.

Thursday: Stamps, Postage and Mail
Another tie! (We need more voting, apparently!) We cross the international divide with Treasures-By-Brenda's lens showcasing postage based on the Anne of Green Gables series (love those books). Naturegirl7 brings us back to the U.S. to share options available for stamps with butterflies, birds, bunnies and more.

Friday: Economics
I expected this topic to be dead in the water. I really did. But you guys surprised me! We had nine lenses submitted and the winner by a long shot was tandemonimom with a nice explanation of money, debt and how our financial systems work. Send it to your congressman.

Topics - first week of June

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:41:00 +0000

Already lots of entries in this week's topics. Hooray! Just need to come vote for your favorites among them.

Monday: Hug Your Cat Day
Tuesday: First Ladies
Wednesday: Great Love Stories
Thursday: Stamps, Postage and Mail
Friday: Economics

Daily winners - fourth week of May

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sat, 30 May 2009 23:56:00 +0000

We're closing out the first month of the Carnival! Thanks to everyone for getting this project kicked off and on to a great start.

Monday: Trumpets
Just one entry, but it's a doozy. Not-Pop takes us into the world of jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. Mel takes us through the different styles Wynton plays and a lovely description of why he loves Wynton's music.

Tuesday: John Wayne
No winner. Poo.

Wednesday: Bridges
Bridges were a hot, hot topic with 17 lenses in the running! But it was JaguarJulie's recounting of the facts and hazards of driving the Buckman Bridge that took the final prize. Julie's great example of a highly local lens certainly has me avoiding this bridge when planning a trip through Jacksonville!

Thursday: Dragon Boat Festival
This is one of those cool holidays from cultures outside the U.S. that we don't hear much about. But thanks to Jimmie's winning lens on the Dragon Boat Festival, you'll know everything you need to. Beautiful pictures of the boats and food involved in the festival are just a few of the delights to be found here.

Friday: Mt. Everest
Our first SquidVids winner! Nice! Silver_Lotus brings together great videos of the climb up Mount Everest, summit and Sir Hillary along with stunning pictures to give us a nice overview of just what it is that compells people to tackle this peak.

Topics - fourth week of May

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:16:00 +0000

We're closing out the month with some interesting topics. Know what seems to do well? Lenses created specifically for the Carnival topics! (Hint. :-)

Monday: Trumpets
Tuesday: John Wayne
Wednesday: Bridges
Thursday: Dragon Boat Festival
Friday: Mount Everest

Good luck!

Barker's Best - Kupe the Navigator

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Congratulations to susannaduffy! Her lens on the legendary discoverer of New Zealand was my favorite of the week. (Although I have to admit it was a tough choice this time!)

The lens has at least two things going for it that make it stand out from the crowd. First, Susanna chose a compelling topic, one that draws on legend and research and allows Susanna to tell the story in her own words. There won't be 40 lenses on Kupe to compete with; she owns this topic.

Second, check out the art she uses. The pictures vary in scale from big "look at me" to small "I'm here to help" sizes. They're dramatic, they're beautiful, they support the content.

Stop by and check out her fantastic lens!!

Daily winners - third week of May

noreply@blogger.com (lewister) — Sun, 24 May 2009 14:39:00 +0000

Monday: National Pizza Party Day
We ended up with a three-way tie for this one! All around making pizza at home and two were on making pizza in a healthy way. (Hmm. Does that defeat the point of pizza?) Starting us off was rms with the best homemade pizza recipes, including directions for a margarita pizza or a Brooklyn style. Next was legbamel with making pizza healthy using homemade ingredients and AmandaBB with another option on healthy pizza made at home.

Tuesday: Dusty Hill
Also known as Guys with Beards Day here at the Carnival. And they showed up in force with lenses on Abraham Lincoln, Santa, Chuck Norris and ZZ Top. But the winner was susannaduffy's tribute to the beard itself, complete with great stories on the controversial history of the beard with a tip of the lip to the mustache.

Wednesday: Trans-Atlantic Flight
Driftero658 gives us the story of Charles Lindbergh, AKA Lucky Lindy, who took the Spirit of St. Louis across the Atlantic in one jump for a $25,000 prize. My favorite thing is how he financed the trip and made it a reality. We need more dreamers like him!

Thursday: New Zealand
Susannaduffy makes a second appearance, this time with the story of Kupe the Navigator. The legends say Kupe discovered New Zealand, carving the land with his adze and following the whales. Love it!

Friday: Sherlock Holmes
Holmes is one of the world's most loved fictional detectives. Heck, characters. (So excited about the movie!!) While my hubby loves to read Holmes, I'm a huge fan of the offshoots, inspirations and alternative Holmes stories. Drifter0658 (again!) takes us on a journey of one of the more interesting ones, an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Data plays Holmes to solve a case involving the villainous Moriarty.