When Weth wins, we all win
Weth wins often, but collecting prizes is not his goal. He’s a prize philanthropist of sorts, and he’s constantly giving things away — books and DVDs to his friends, kids’ stuff to Toys for Tots. He couldn’t even let me leave his house without a bag of assembled goodies.
Several years ago, when he won a trip to Nashville and Gisselbrecht was unable to accompany him, Weth was forced to choose a lucky friend to be his traveling companion — and thus the joys of contesting turned meta. He had a friend set up a Web site, winwithweth.com, where he now re-prizes things he’s won. He asks friends to submit haikus or limericks, based on self-appointed themes, and awards prizes accordingly.
Weth also spreads the word about his contests and winnings on the Boston-based message board Lemmingtrail, where his postings — including details about a year’s worth of free shows at Great Scott — have themselves won a sort of cult following. “[T]his is probably my favorite thread ever!”, Lemmingtrail user danshea noted. “KUDOS! to you and your mission!”
“Last year Weth had a Summer Haiku Contest [Weth’s Summer Haiku Madness Contest Series],” says Roger Lussier, another Lemmingtrail user, “which was based on the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Virtues. To win, you had to submit a haiku (in standard 5/7/5 format) that related to the prize,” a .51-carat un-mounted diamond. Lussier’s entry — “OMG I WANT/GIMME GIMME GIMME PLEASE/MINE ALL MINE ALL MINE” — successfully and hilariously tackled the concept.
On a page titled “Weth Wins in 2007!”, Weth posted all his winnings for that year in a set format, with a knowing cheekiness, even specifying whether or not he’d be giving the prize away on his Web site. Example, from early this past year:
PRIZE 13 Coupon for a free 1.75 ounce Butterfinger
SPONSOR Nestlé USA
CONTEST Nestlé Butterfinger Online Instant Win Game
ENTRY METHOD Online
PRIZE DELIVERED BY US mail
SPONSOR’S VALUE Up to $0.79
VALUE TO WETH $0.50
DISPOSITION OF PRIZE You have to know that Weth is totally going to chow down on that Butterfinger.
SPONSOR’S CUMULATIVE 2007 DECLARED PRIZE VALUE $170.55
WETH’S CUMULATIVE [TO DATE] 2007 PRIZE VALUE $55.65
The list was long, and ventured beyond candy bars — Prize 94 was four Green Monster tickets, with a chance to watch the first inning from behind the Fenway Park scoreboard, and 97 was $31,000 in cash. On another page, called “Weth wants to give you Ice Cream,” he organized group meetings at Cold Stone Creamery so he could chip away at a $1000 gift certificate.
This year, in lieu of posting his winnings, Weth is providing links to interesting contests so that others may enter. Up for grabs are four trips to Hawaii, 1000 Blockbuster rental memberships and 350,000 packs of popcorn, a chance to record a song for Epic Records and perform it live in Times Square, and 8000 one-day lift tickets for Stratton, Vermont. The prizes are alluring, but Weth’s not worried about increasing his competition. “Weth can’t win every prize,” he says. “Weth has already snagged seven bags of Blockbuster popcorn, but there’s plenty to go around.”