Sometimes, things look a lot different in the distance than they do on your front lawn.  I’ve always considered blogger-to-blogger awards to be trivial and chain-lettery.  (You MUST give this to 17 people or your firstborn will be mauled by a bear!!!)  But, upon receiving one such award the other day, I got really excited.

The award I received was the Lemonade Stand Award from Zoe at Playing by the Book.  Why am I so excited?  First of all, I didn’t even know she read my blog, so I’m exceedingly happy about that.  Second, I’ve found myself in really good company among the other blogs she issued the award to, and it’s given me a chance to read some really cool stuff.

Now, being a children’s librarian is typically a whole other ballgame from working reference, but I played an adult reference librarian for several years, and I love doing research.  In that spirit, I decided to figure out the origin of the Lemonade Stand Award.  Seeing as every ten seconds someone forwards it on to ten people, it was no small feat…but I have a hypothesis, based on these events:

• October 20, 2008 – The Lemon-Aid Stand presented a “Gratitude with Attitude Award” to MS Maze (and others), accompanied by the image on the right.
• October 20, 2008 – MS Maze presented the award, under the same name, to Chronic Chick Talk (and others); due to technical difficulties, she was unable to upload the image.
• November 9, 2008 – Chronic Chick Talk presented the “Lemonade Award” to others, displaying the same rules and conditions as the Gratitude with Attitude Award, along with as the above image.  She also thanked MS Maze for the award and apologized for the time lag.
• Thereafter – The Lemonade Stand Award spreads like the best of memes.

What do you think?  Did I nail it?  I suppose I could contact Chronic Chick Talk and ask her to confirm or deny, but where’s the fun in fact-checking?!  And by “Where’s the fun?” I mean I’d be really disappointed if my hypothesis were disproven. ^[1]  Also, I don’t want to bother anyone, least of all someone who is chronically ill, with my inane questions.

Back on point, I must admit that I’m not properly accepting this award, because I’m not spreading the love to others.  But I do want to properly give thanks to Zoe, which I guess is what this long, digressive post is supposed to be accomplishing.  Reader, I’d be thrilled if you went and explored Playing by the Book.  I think you’ll like it there.

^[1] And that’s why I’m not a scientist!  But I do love science, regardless.

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