‘Twilight’ Countdown: Welcome to Forks
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5 more days...
Before I get to the winner of this week’s Caption This! contest, I’d like to direct you to a front-page story in today’s L.A. Times about the effect ‘Twilight’ has had on the real Forks, Wash., visited by more than 7,000 of the book’s fans this year alone. (That includes the Countdown fave Geo from Twilighters.org, who blogged her experience on TwilightRoadTrip.com. If you’re planning to make the trek to Forks yourself, Sunset Traveler has a helpful guide.)
Times staff writer Sue Carpenter made the trip to the tiny town and writes:
Sydney Conway and two of her teenage friends, on a school holiday, got into a minivan and drove four hours -- to stare at the nondescript brick building that is Forks High School. There’s a weathered wooden sign announcing it as ‘the home of the Spartans,’ but otherwise it looks like most other high schools in the country. Sydney, Alexis Miller and Rebekah Hamilton got out of their van, stood in front of the school -- oblivious to the cool mist that was frizzing their hair and chilling their pedicured, flip-flopped feet -- and screamed, ‘Twilight!’ [...] Travel toward Forks’ one lighted intersection, and tourists can eat Twilight sandwiches at the sub shop or rent Bella’s Suite at the Dew Drop Inn. Many locals have played along with the themes in the Twilight books -- and business has boomed. ‘It’s not that hard to put [Twilighters] over the edge,’ said Julie Hjelmeset, the inn’s manager. She transformed the double-queen bedroom in this otherwise run-of-the-mill hotel by swapping the white linens and towels for racier black-and-red versions and resting imitation long-stemmed roses on the beds. Bella’s Suite fetches double the rate of a regular room -- $149 per night versus $74.
Read the full story here, and take a look at our Forks photo gallery.
On to the winner. There were many amusing entries this week and, quite frankly, more fart jokes than I was prepared for. This simple one from Antonette was clever and made me laugh out loud. I don’t know how else to explain why, except to say I’d get annoyed, too. Turns out mind reading isn’t always a perk:
Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rose: (Thinking: EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD EDWARD...)
Edward: WHAT?!?
Jasper, Alice, Emmett and Rosalie: NOTHING!!!! (laughter)
Congrats Antonette! The runner-up came very very close. Kudos to Carol Torres, who got creative and made this image of her caption. Love it.
Catch up on past Countdown interviews: Robert Pattinson (Parts 1, 2 and 3), Kristen Stewart, director Catherine Hardwicke (Parts 1 and 2), screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg, Peter Facinelli, Edi Gathegi and Taylor Lautner.
-- Denise Martin
Related:
Complete ‘Twilight’ Countdown coverage
Complete ‘Twilight’ coverage on Hero Complex