We're very pleased to announce the winner of this great sweepstakes sponsored by Virgin Atlantic Airways and Purpleskirt.com. Drumroll please:

Grand Prize Winner
Jacalyn Arnold
Westfield, NJ

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Salon's Holiday Giveaway 2000

This was a fabulous sweepstakes, with lots of prizes. Thanks for entering, everyone!

So far:

Prize winner of Exploratium gift certificate:
June Tapp
Roseville, CA

Prize Winner of the TiVo Personal Video Recorder:
Kathy Millard
Berwyn, IL

Prize Winner of the gift certificate from Luxlook.com:
Lillian Bryan
Broken Arrow, OK

Prize Winner of the Salon.com Book Collection
("Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real life Parenthood," Salon.com's Wanderlust: Real-life Tales of Adventure and Romance," and "Salon.com's Readers Guide to Contemporary Authors.")
Shari Weir
Cleveland, OH

Prize Winner of the gift certificate from Zappos.com:
Michele Maine
Raleigh, NC

Prize Winner of the gift certificate from ArtMecca.com:
Kelly Planer
Old Zionsville, PA

Grand Prize Winner of around-the-world travel tickets from AirTreks.com:
John Enright
East Elmhurst, NY

Prize Winner of the Rio Portable Player:
George Panotopoulos
Pasadena, CA

Prize Winner of the Pashmina Shawl from Forzieri.com:
Jennifer O'Neill
Milmont Park, PA

Prize Winner of the Simon & Schuster Audio Books:
Gail Stuart
Kittery, ME

STAY TUNED! As we confirm the winners, their names will be posted here. Congratulations, winners!

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Winner of IdeaExchange's Promotional Trip to Hawaii

Jennifer Walsh

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Congratulations to Melissa Hantman of Coral Springs, Florida who is this year's "Brilliant Careers Essay Contest" winner! sponsored by Lexus.com. Melissa's rose above this year's competitive field with her profile of Helen Gurley Brown. Thanks to the more than 200 talented writers who submited their work. An excerpt of the essay is as follows:

"On the one hand, Helen Gurley Brown defines being sexy as being feminine and equates that, in turn, with adoring men. "You can look like a Dresden doll and still hate men. That isn't being feminine. You can have halfback shoulders and adore men. That's feminine!" Other times she naughtily exhorts her cadre to crush their crushes, who are lambs "to be shorn and worn by her." The wisdom swings like a pendulum, urging women to use sex appeal now to exploit, now to entice."

Click Here to read Melissa's winning essay!

Grand Prize:
Melissa Hantman
Coral Springs, FL

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Kudos to our winner of the "Enter to Win Your Own Salon.com Presidential Figures" contest sponsored by SpeakOut.com. We asked readers to submit an original and clever caption to this photo of Senator John McCain holding his very own life-like action figure.

The winning caption: McCain: "Damn it! Bush's doll has bigger pockets!"

The winner will receive a set of four limited edition presidential contender action figures created exclusively by Salon.com, featuring McCain, Vice President Al Gore, Governor George W. Bush and Senator Bill Bradley.

Action figures ... don't know what we're talking about? Well, just click here to view our TV spot starring the Salon.com Presidential action figures. Plus, for the best political coverage on the web, visit Salon's Politics2000 site.

Grand Prize:
Katheleen Conti
Boston, MA

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Congratulations to the winner of the Salon Talkies.
Our winner will receive a copy of the best-selling book "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-life Parenthood", a groovy Salon.com T-shirt, an artfully designed Salon coffee mug and 12 oz. of gourmet Salon blended coffee and a set of exquisite note cards. Enjoy!

Grand Prize Winner:
Lauri Ames
Los Angeles, CA

Plus we just got a note from Lauri:

"Just wanted to let you know I received the package with no problems and am very happy with the prizes! The mug is adorable, I'm brewing some of the coffee right now, and love everything else ... thanks!" --Lauri

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Okay ... so it took us a little while to tabulate the results of our 1999 Reader's Choice Poll. We told you what our favorite books of 1999 were, and invited you to tell us yours, remember? Below are the top five entries in both fiction and non-fiction categories.

And a warm congratulations to our winner (chosen by random drawing). She has been sent a copy of "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real Life Parenthood", a scrumptious box of chocolates, 2 Salon designer coffee mugs and a supply of specialty Salon Coffee. Sounds like a dreamy package to curl up on the couch with...doesn't it?

Grand Prize Winner:
Catherine Bernard
New York, New York

The results of our poll:

1999 Best Fiction:
"Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King
"Hannibal" by Thomas Harris
"Ahab's Wife" by Sena Jeter Naslund
"A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks
"White Oleander"by Janet Fitch

1999 Best Non-Fiction:

'Tis: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
"The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory" by Brian Greene
Woman: An Intimate Geography" by Natalie Angier
"Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man" by Susan Faludi
"Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith" by Anne Lamott

Thanks everyone for participating!

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Keep those cards and letters coming!

"Dear Salon, I saw the article on the site. It looked great! I spread the word to all my friends and family and they were very impressed. Thanks to everyone at Salon.com for giving me my little dose of fame. - Brian"

Click here to read Brian's essay, or see below for more details on what he won.

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The editors of Salon's Ivory Tower are extremely pleased to award the Grand Prize for the Student Art and Essay Contest (sponsored by Esprit).We were flooded with essays on what life might be like on campus in the year 2100. The Grand Prize winner gets $500 courtesy of Salon.com, and an astounding $1,000 gift certificate from Esprit. The envelope please...

Grand Prize:
Brian John Stempeck
Reading, MA

Click here to read Brian's essay. Congratulations Brian!

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Our recent Flowerbud.com promotion gave one lucky winner the opportunity to Celebrate the New Millennium with a Year of Flowers! Gina Sanders will be receiving her first bouquet early next week. She was just thrilled! Congratulations, Gina!

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We love it when we hear from our prize winners!

Here's a note from our Grand Prize winner of the Heads You Win contest.

"Dear Salon, we just received the television -- it is HUGE!!! Thank you again. I am letting everyone I know to check out Salon.com on the net!!!!

Regards, Adam :)"

It was tricky, but we're impressed at how many of you guessed who the well-known figures were in the Heads You Win contest.
The correct answers were:

Mick Jagger
Fidel Castro
Jesse Ventura

Click here to watch our T.V. spot again, featured in the promotion. Congratulations again to our Grand Prize winner, who won a 35" color Sony T.V. courtesy of Salon.com!

Grand Prize:
Adam Palmese
Dothan, AL

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Caroline Stevens and a friend are preparing to see the finest art in the world! The Salon.com and Neiman Marcus offer, Win a trip to Italy, was a once in a life time opportunity to see Italy on us. We hope you enjoy your travels, Caroline!

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Christina Wessling really knows how to get the new year cooking! Courtesy of Chefscataglog.com, Christina will add an assortment of gourmet cooking tools to her kitchen. Congratulations Christina for winning our Win Gourmet Cooking Tools sweepstakes!

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What a fantastic way to start the new year! George Jantzen is the Grand Prize winner of our Win $10,000 Sweepstakes. He and his family have a lot of celebrating to do. Congratulations, George!

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Congratulations to Jeff Pau for winning our wonderful Win a catered dinner for 20 promotion. Jeff and his guests will enjoy an elegant Italian dinner party at the time and location of his choice courtesy of Neiman Marcus and Salon.com.

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Congratulations to all the winners! Be sure to check this page often to see if your name is among the glittering roster, and thanks for making Salon.com promotions so successful.

Click here to view our full list of current promotions.