You know Sara Lee, right? Purveyor of tasty cakes that you find in your grocer's freezer?
Well, now she wants to be known for her deli meat.
Sara Lee commiserates with you and, as a nice gesture, is sponsoring a contest where you, Ms. Harried Mom-Type, can find a sympathetic ear -- and win free lunch meat for a year! Plus a visit from some famous lady chef! (OK, it's Alexandra Guarnaschelli, who has worked under Daniel Boulud and is executive chef at Butter in NYC.) Better clean your kitchen before she comes, right?
Tell your story of triumph in the face of absurdity. Testify about your feat of ingenuity over the evil forces of noon-hour naysayers! You only have 100 words, so keep it brief, but tell Sara -- how did you do it? How'd you pacify those persnickety pipsqueaks? And where'd you get all those scratches?
Sara Lee's bold new Social Media Initiative (that's what it's called) announces the grand-prize winner of the contest on November 3, which, as we all know, is National Sandwich Day. Yes, there's school that day. Quit panicking!
Here's an example of what sort of essays Sara's been getting. This one's from a mom named Kristy:
"My husband loves sandwich meat, mostly 'cause of the fact he's a truck driver. My son is a finicky eater, but one day he popped up and asked, 'Momma, can I have some ham on a stick?' So I rolled up some and stuck toothpicks through them and you woulda thought I had invented it!"
Now, that doesn't mean you should also go all high-tech, experimenting with meat-on-a-stick technology. Far from it.
But you get the idea.