Winning lie spurred by visions of 2011 blizzard
By Jennifer Eisenbart
Staff writer
After a snowstorm of epic proportions left people stranded on Feb. 2, 2011, it seems only fitting that the winning lie of the 2011 Burlington Liars Club contest turned out to be as epic – at least in the minds of the judges.
“The Ground Hog Day 2011 snowstorm was so severe that by the time I dug my car out of the snow, I had to put antique plates on it,” was the winning lie penned by Gary Gitzlaff of Kenosha.
His entry – one of many having to do with the snowstorm – was judged the best by the liars club in its annual contest. The winners were announced last week.
“It’s the one we liked the best,” said Liars Club Vice President Ed Impens. “I thought it was one of the funniest ones myself.”
Gitzlaff said he’d seen the annual announcement in the newspaper, and decided last year to get an entry together.
“After I thought of it with the snowstorm, I put it on my computer so I’d be able to remember,” said Gitzlaff, who said he was surprised.
“I kept telling my wife I was going to win, but that was just for fun,” he said.
The annual contest drew lies from not only around Wisconsin but North America. Club member Joel Weis confirmed that entries were received from as far away as Arizona, California and Canada.
There were close to 500 entries this year.
“I thought they were good,” said Impens. “By far, the most we get are from Wisconsin.
“But they’re kind of from all over.”
A year after taking some heat for the authenticity of the winning lie, the judges checked the Internet this time around to confirm originality.
“The winners were good,” Impens said. “We checked them out on the Internet. We found there were some really good ones, but they were on the Internet, so we didn’t take those.”
The runner-ups were named in the contest – Dennis Busch of Wheatland and Frank Seurer of Fond du Lac.
Busch’s wrote: “The other day, I attended my first baseball game. All through the game, I kept hearing a dog barking. Finally toward the end of the game, I asked the person next to me what was with the dog barking.
“He told me, ‘The home plate umpire’s sight is so bad he has his dog to help him. One bark is a strike, two barks is a ball, one quick howl is an out and a long howl means the runner is safe at home.’”
Busch is an area baseball umpire.
Seurer wrote: “I have an unwanted collection of chairs. It seems that every time I visit to a doctor’s office, the receptionist asks me to please take a chair. So I do.”
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