I imagine you’ve all heard about this, but it seems a tailor-made (no pun intended) opportunity for anyone just out of school and furnishing their first post-dorm rooms.

From the press release:

National Search Launched for the Ugliest Couch
Sure Fit Scours America for Biggest Eyesore

NEW YORK, NY, August 21, 2008 – Sure Fit Inc., the leading provider and marketer of ready-made furniture covers, announced today the launch of its 2008 Ugly Couch Contest, the search for the ugliest couch in America. Photo entries for the contest will be accepted until September 30th at www.SureFit.com and by mail for a chance to win a $5,000 living room makeover by designer and host of HGTV’s Myles of Style Kim Myles, courtesy of Sure Fit Inc.

If it’s old, worn, unsightly, revolting, repulsive, lumpy, grumpy or just plain ugly, Sure Fit wants to see it. As the leading creator of stylish, easy, affordable decorating solutions to quickly transform your home, Sure Fit created the “Ugly Couch Contest” to illustrate that Sure Fit slipcovers can turn any couch into a stylish sofa.

“Every year we look forward to sorting through the hundreds of hideous entries, searching for the ugliest of the ugly,” said Laura Hilburt of Sure Fit Inc. “But Sure Fit covers couches nationwide, and we can give even the ugliest couches a total transformation.”

This year’s judging panel features guest judges Kim Myles, designer and host of HGTV’s Myles of Style, Natalie Warady, Style Director for O at Home, Jacqueline Gifford, Features Editor for OK! Magazine, and comedian Sean Kent, seen on E! Entertainment and NBC’s Last Comic Standing.

The panel will select 20 semi-finalists from around the nation before opening up voting to America on www.SureFit.com on October 13th. Each semi-finalist will receive a Sure Fit slipcover of their choice, ensuring that no ugly couch goes uncovered. The grand-prize winner of the $5,000 living room makeover will be announced on November 15th.

The criteria for choosing the ugliest couch includes the ugliness of overall design and fabric pattern, offensiveness of color, inappropriateness of fabric and inappropriateness of the combination of fabric, color and design as it relates to any period in the recent history of furniture. The uniqueness of the couch as it relates to the above-mentioned criteria will also be taken into account.

How to Enter:

Contestants must send a good quality color photo of their ugly couch to: Sure Fit Inc., c/o “Ugly Couch Contest”, 6575 Snowdrift Road, Allentown, PA 18106. On a separate piece of paper, include full name, address, phone number and email address.
You can also submit an entry online at www.surefit.com. Simply click on the “Ugly Couch Contest” button located on the homepage, and follow the instructions to attach photo.
Official rules and privacy policy can be viewed online at www.surefit.com.

Sure Fit products are available via mail order catalog, select major retailers, online at www.surefit.com, and by phone (800) 305-5857.

The New York Times. August 20, 1968

Imagine my shock.

There we were on The Outer Banks of North Carolina, beginning a week’s worth of fun and sun, nothing to stand in the way of a completely invented, self-contained escape from reality. We knew no one, didn’t expect phone calls, brought along “A Dance to the Music of Time” on DVD and a couple of books… . The 21st century, as we are coming to know it, would not intrude.

The house had high speed internet. Well, DSL anyway. Fine, I wouldn’t actually check email or the daily headlines. I determined to only read those blogs that I so enjoy, reveling in the chance to “take some time off” from my obsession over daily posting.

Morning dawned sweet and cool for August. I looked down at the driveway, following the hopping lope of a rabbit and saw…. a Sunday newspaper. “Hmm,” I thought. “That’s sort of nice.”

You see, I don’t fit the demographic of the newspaper reader. I am younger than 65, for example. I no longer work in any sort of important job or live in an important city. As I mentioned in a glancing blow above, I get my headlines via the New York Times online. (Odd, you would figure the Washington papers’ electronic editions would be more my cuppa… but they get awfully serious. When I worked for the government, I would read The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post — no Washington Times then, The New York Times and Jane’s Defence Weekly.) Papers today seem a waste of time.

But that Sunday “Virginia-Pilot” was right there with news of Michael Phelps’ incredible achievements, the fencing scores, the headlines and more. How nice of my landlords to have a Sunday paper delivered! I enjoyed a half hour’s respite on the deck with my paper as the sun rose and began to burn away the evening’s haze.

Monday morning there appeared another paper! And Tuesday’s edition was waiting the next day….

Reading the daily paper was a ritual that our parents shared with their parents. A free press is taken for granted by Americans. But we’re losing that connection to the paper — maybe it’s the ink that coats your fingers…. (I understand that having your gentleman’s gentleman iron the paper will set the ink.) The daily paper is fast becoming a relic of a slower time, one in which two editions a day covered “all the news fit to print.”

If you truly wish to embrace a more elegant lifestyle, I suggest finding time to peruse the newspaper. Reading the news whilst having your freshly brewed coffee each morning, just before you step out the door. Pull that off and you will have slowed time to a pre-internet pace. But, it won’t be easy.