How was Betty Crocker born?

We’ve all heard of the recipe maven Betty Crocker but few of us know that she is an invention of department head Sam Gale of the Saturday Evening Post which ran   jigsaw puzzle contest in 1921 and offered a  Gold Medal Pincushion to the contestants who managed to unscrabble the puzzle. When 30,000 people sent in their entry, the staffers at the newspaper did not want to sign a man’s name to their correspondence with the contestants. That is why Sam Gable chose Betty because the name sounds friendly and as last name he came up with Crocker to honor the outgoing director W. G. Crocker.

Radio made Betty Crocker famous. In 1920 only 5000 homes had one which changed to 2.5 million in 1924. Betty, who was portrait by several different woman, was an expert on recipes, marriage counseling, financial advice and patriotic cheerleading. Her baking tips garnerd 7,000 letters a day. In 19445 she was named the second most popular woman, next to Eleanor Roosevelt. Betty’s best selling cookbook has sold over 30 million copies since it was published in 1950. She is always dressed in red and white and her image changes to keep up with the times. In 1996 she was painted by John Stuart Ingle who incorporated a digital composite of 75 diverse essay-contest winners. Not bad for a woman who was conceived as part of a contest.

THERE IS NO FAILURE, ONLY A DELAY IN RESULTS. (HELEN HADSELL) 

I Won

Today came my first T-shirt from FedEx that I won from the Hungry-Man Racing Team. It has a car on it. So now I can visualize the car I want to win. This first prize came after about 3 months of sweeping but I’m not giving up. This also starts my list of winnings for this year with the FMV = Fair Market Value of each item I win. Hopefully by the time I win a big item I will have figured out how to do it.

I feel like a found my vocation. What could be better than winning prizes and writing about it while I learn everything about sweping and am able to pass it on to others and hopefully they can pick up some tips to help themselves. Sounds like a win win situation.

My Swiss compatriot Carl Jung said it right when he wrote that we get another chance to find our vocation during the crisis of mid-life which can serve to wake us up to our dreaming undiscovered Self and the rest of life can provide the opportunity for its development. I just hope sweeping and contesting is my dream come true because I am running out of space to store the books of all my dreams come true in the past. I am grateful that I could change directin in life quite a few times till I found happiness with what I am doing now. To the people who are helping me now with discovering the ins and outs of my hobby, I say THANK YOU. Just this morning Sandra Grauschopf put some info on her website that I was looking for. What a lucky coincidence!!

SOMEONE’S OPINION OF YOU DOES NOT HAVE TO BECOME YOUR REALITY. (Les Brown)

Did you know?

Morgan Freeman was a shy-type guy, even though he had a comedic personality. His English teacher, Leola Gregory Williams, recognized his talent and challenged him to enter regional drama competitions, where he won prizes.

HEAL THE PAST, LIVE THE PRESENT, DREAM THE FUTURE. (Mary Engelbreit) 

Enter To Win

Go to www.historychannel.com/nyc  for a chance to win a trip to the Big Apple. This is a 4day/3night history themed tour of NYC

www.thepriceblog.com gives you contests to enter

www.contestbeat.com has also contests to enter

IF YOU LIVE IN THE PRESENT, EVERY MOMENT IS A NEW BEGINNING

Tidbits

Sometimes we need to send in a code or have a code ready to put into the computer to be eligible for prizes. I have gone to the grocery store and bought frozen TV dinners and canned vegetables with sweepstakes information on it and when I got home I discovered that the code has expired and the food’s expiration date was outdated. So, not only did I get old food but also unusable sweepstakes entries.

When sweeping or contesting, documentation is invaluable. As soon as you receive notification of a prize you should make copies of all the paperwork you send in and in the rare case that the sponsor cannot be tracked down to award the prize, find a consumer reporter connected with a local TV station or newspaper that might be able to look into your situation. Tom Martino in Denver comes to mind.

VALUE IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Tidbits

This is the age old question that has no standard answer. Ruth Minshull talked to judges about it and they could not reach an unanimous decision. So it stands to reason that we give this question some consideration. Of course the answer is “yes” if we believe the claim of some people that all the envelopes are thrown out by the postoffice that don’t have return addresses since the Antrax scare a couple years ago. The second “yes” goes to the people who want their envelopes and postcards returned if the PO Box does not exist which has happened even to myself after only sweeping for 2 months. Some of the sweepstakes recommended in the newsletters are bogus, believe it or not.

Then we have the advocates for a “no” answer. Some people who enter 100 times the same sweepstake tell themselves that they don’t want the judges to see their name on multiple envelopes they send in. The second group of the “no” answer say that the INSIDE of the envelope is our ENTRY, not the envelope itself.

When in doubt, always check the official rules of each sweepstake. Many specify exactly if labeled or mechanical labels are accepted. Some clearly state that no labeled entries, rubber stamped entries or meyered mail is accepted. When it says – No Mechanical Reproduction -NMR for short, that seems to exclude Address Labels because the return address is part of a handwritten address if we put logic to the test.  Apparently some judges don’t make a big fuss over this technicality and will not discard these entries when they pick them out of the mailbags. As long as judges don’t agree of the winning process, the more our luck factor increases.

THE ONLY VALUABLE PRIZE IS THE ONE THAT YOU ENJOY.

Enter To Win

Three new sweepstakes for the weekend:

www.bhg.com/dietcoke win $ 1ooo for a party of ten of your friends, 1 entry per household

www.TravelMeredith.com/winSC  escape to luxury in Charlesto, SC, 1 entry per household

www.ge.com/rightlight  enter daily till March 31, 2008, win $ 25,000 Decor Cash, over $ 100,000 worth of prizes in all, also weekly giveaways – $ 500 Home MakeoverMoney

www.ge.com/weekendprojects

ENTERING SWEEPSAKES YOU’VE GOT EVERYTHING TO GAIN AND NOTHING TO LOSE

Enter To Win

I’m back from my job with the Census Bureau which pays for my sweeping hobby. As my last three blogs show, I’ve been reading the AARP Bulletin today. Here is their new contest.

Go to aarp.org/mydreamjob for official contest rules. Tell them what you would like most to do. The winner will get advice from a professional career consultant, a laptop computer, a $500 American Express gift card and a travel and lodging at the 2008 AARP Life@50+ National Event & EXpo.

Contestants must be 50 or older and reside in the USA (including the District of Columbia) No purchase necessary. The deadline for entries is Dec. 1. 2007.

THE PURPOSE OF LIFE IS A LIFE OF PURPOSE. 

The Hobby That Pays

Like any other hobby, sweeping and contesting requires start-up costs and weekly expenses to keep it up. Sometimes we have to debate if we want to indulge ourselves in a good, meaning expensive cup of coffee, or if we want to suppress our urges and drink a cup of tap water to keep our sweeping hobby going.

George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburg has this to say. He contends that we will most likely buy the expensive cup of coffee but we will probably not fully enjoy it.  Because humans are trained to feel negative emotions such as guilt and fear when we give in to temptation, each sip will serve as a reminder that we indulge ourselves and that keeping our hobby going,  remains elusive.

We know this because researchers in the field of neuroeconomics have been able to scan people’s brains while they are given the opportunity to buy products. The pain of spending shows up  in the resulting brain images. Subjects in the study are first tempted with an item such as candy displayed on a computer screen. If they like the item, a part of their brain called the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which processes pleasant sensations, shows up as a bright spot on the scan.

Next, they’re shown the price. If the price is high, a part of the brain called thei nsula, which processes negative emotions, kicks in-another bright spot on the scan.

Finally, our subjects are given the option to buy. Now, the two parts of the brain have to duke it out. If the NAcc wins, they buy the product. If the insula wins, they don’t.

The insula, the naysayer, plays an important role in shopping. It’s our first line of defense against buying things we can’t afford. The problem is the insula is activated even as we ultimately decide to buy. We spend the money but feel the pain.

Fortunately, there is a relatively simple solution. Establish a personal spending plan. Establish what to spend your money on ahead of time and avoid exposing yourself to temptations. The point is to understand what brings you pleasure. Ideally you won’t even think about the things you buy, especially if you’re on target with your investment goal for your hobby.

DOING THE BEST AT THIS MOMENT PUTS YOU IN THE BEST PLACE.

Tidbits

People have a choice nowadays, how long they want to work. Some work into their eighties and some retire at 65 and collect social security and keep themselves busy with different activities and one of them is volunteering. This pursuit of helping others brings me to the articles I have read about the National Contesters Association of the earlier days when some of the members volunteered to help other members with entering sweepstakes and contests without getting paid. Apparently this included ex-military personnel, homebound and bedridden people who needed help with finding the seepstakes and contests and did not know the process of sweeping and preparing the contest. This is a good way of keeping other people company and sharing a constructive activity with them.

DEAL WITH THE FAULTS OF OTHERS GENTLY AS YOUR OWN