The essays, reviews, histories, ruminations, reportages, position pieces, and whatnot that fill this space week after week are written thoughtfully and with fervor, but they get a little tiring, do they not? And you are broke, are you not? And you like books, do you not? Of course you do.

As the holidays approach, now seems as good a time as any to run another contest. The last contest run in this space, while very doable, was a dismal failure--no one participated. A friend pointed out that perhaps the problem was that there was no prize. So, for all you literary money-grubbing contest enterers, I've whipped up a fat financial prize this time: a $50 gift certificate to Bailey/Coy Books (414 Broadway E, 323-8842) for the first person who can identify what all of the following words have in common:

obverse

unguent

cosh

equerry

adumbrating

tumid

estuary

tutelary

sempiternal

senescent

sequelae

pusillanimous

eructed

pecuniary

valetudinarian

surplice

ablution

farinaceous

cenotaph

refulgent

conscript

cowl

sward

afflatus

pellucid

otiose

maquillage

A clue to the origin and logic of this list appeared in the books section of The Stranger within the last 10 weeks (so those who've been carefully reading these pages are better off, but only somewhat). Calling the friendly staff at Bailey/Coy is not going to help you, because they don't have any idea where this list came from. The first person who e-mails frizzelle@thestranger.com with the correct answer wins the gift certificate. Starting now. Good luck.

frizzelle@thestranger.com