We recently ran a contest giving away a brand new Rolling Stone Zippo lighter courtesy of Zippoencore.com. We requested that you send in your best story regarding a Zippo lighter or any lighter in 200 words or less. We received over 170 entries, which really pissed me off because I had to read them all and make sure they were 200 words. But it was a labor of love for you fans of the site.

So congratulations Steve of Louisana, you were the winner of our Zippo contest. A bright shiny Rolling Stone lighter is being sent your way as we speak. Here was his winning entry:

I had a Zippo lighter that was given to my father when he was in the Army. It had been to Vietnam and was littered with battle wounds from many years of abuse. At least that was the story he told me when he gave me the lighter when I turned 18. My grandmom (dad’s mom) was an outdoors woman and took me fishing on Lake Pontchartrain one day. We were in a canoe in the middle of this lake. Through the years, I became a heavy smoker and the Zippo was always with me. My grandmom cast out her line and turned to get a sandwich out of the basket. I decided to smoke a cigarette since my line was already cast. I sparked up the Zippo lighter just as my grandmom lost her balance and fell back into me. The lighter lit her overly hair sprayed hair alight. In my panic, I flipped the canoe which helped extinguish her hair, get us both drenched, but I lost the Zippo. I feel bad about it to this day that I lost my dad’s prized Zippo after lighting his mother on fire. This Zippo would be redemption for that. Thanks.

The mental image conjured up by Steve and his poor grandmother had me rolling on the floor. The fact that he tried to burn his grandmother using his dad's lighter is also funny. Whether this story is true or not, we can't be sure, but it was by far the best entry we had. If you had a better story, shame on you for not entering our contest.