sweepstaking
n.— «Brown is a devotee of the strange hobby of “sweepstaking.” Some 20,000 dedicated groupies, predominantly middle-aged women and their husbands, have turned prize giveaways run by companies to promote their brands into a pastime.» —“Jeepers Creepers, Where’d You Get Those Sweepers?” by Fred Meyer Slate Oct. 14, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...