Yep, it’s a new contest. This contest will reward those of you who, like me, have wasted spent invested countless thousands of hours exploring the hidden treasures of European culture, broadly defined.
This contest is not designed to increase traffic to my site. It’s designed to reduce it.
Here are the rules. I ask one or two questions. The questions relate to one particular work of art (remember — broadly defined). The first person to answer these questions correctly, either in a comment or in an email to me, wins the contest. Your answer has to identify the work of art that provides the answer to the question.
Don’t go thinkin’ you can just Google up an answer. The questions are all going to be Google-proof, I guarantee you (at least the English and German versions of Google…)
What does the winner win? They win a few DVDs, lovingly created by me, filled with huge amounts of beautiful music. You win, you give me your address, and you’ll get the DVDs. Promise. I’ll ship them anywhere in the world. Restriction: Nobody who knows me gets to play!
Simple, eh? So here are the first two questions:
1. What do you have to trade to get the Pink Austrian Mercury?
2. What other colors from that set did the old man have when he died?
Yes, these questions have answers. In fact, you can answer both of them in 5 words.
No, I won’t give any clues. Good Luck!
German Joys 
1. a kidney
2. yellow, blue, red (scarlet?)
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Yes! We have a winner! Congratulations, Mr. Schorn. You have won a bunch of DVDs full of gorgeous music. Just write me a little email with your address and I will send them off. No kidding, it really will happen just like that.
For all you others, the reference is to the tenth and final episode in Dekalog, a series of ten films very loosely based on the Ten Commadnments which were produced for Polish television in 1988 and 1989 by the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski:
http://my.dreamwiz.com/jyjung71/eng/kie/bio.html
Kieslowski is best known for “Three Colours.” I admire those movies, but I love Decalogue. Perhaps you will, too. Everyone has their favorites, mine are nos. 5, 6, 3, and the sublime number 2.
Summaries here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A722242
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I won! I won!
I have to admit that 10 is the only film by Kieslowski I have seen.
(Watching all the parts is on my ToDo-list now.)
I had to google for the colors of the stamps (nice page at Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinnoberroter_Merkur) though.
What else is there to say?
Just Thanks and I really like your blog (even before I knew you would send me stuff)!
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