Week 661: Name Any Good Movies Lately?


It was going to be called, perhaps, "Pacific Air Flight 121." But for
once, the studio didn't bother hiding the campy inanity of its upcoming
summer movie thriller, and decided to sum up the entire concept into an
irresistible title: "Snakes on a Plane." It is about, well, duh.

This week, give us a funny new title for an existing movie. You can go
two ways here: You can either make it hilariously terse and elegant or
make it hilariously long and spoiling. Wonderful examples of the latter
tack were cited by the New York Times in a 1998 story about Chinese
translations of movie titles, such as "Field of Dreams" becoming
"Imaginary Dead Baseball Players Live in My Cornfield"; the story was
followed two days later by a correction explaining that these "Chinese"
translations were actually winners of the online contest TopFive.

Winner receives the Inker, the official Style Invitational trophy. First
runner-up gets an aerosol can of Poop Freeze, a product that freezes poop.

Other runners-up win a coveted Style Invitational Loser T-shirt.
Honorable mentions (or whatever they're called this week) get one of the
lusted-after Style Invitational Magnets. One prize per entrant per week.
Send your entries by e-mail tolosers@washpost.comor by fax to
202-334-4312. Deadline is Monday, May 15. Put "Week 661" in the subject
line of your e-mail, or it risks being ignored as spam. Include your
name, postal address and phone number with your entry. Contests are
judged on the basis of humor and originality. All entries become the
property of The Washington Post. Entries may be edited for taste or
content. Results will be published June 4. No purchase required for
entry. Employees of The Washington Post, and their immediate relatives,
are not eligible for prizes. Pseudonymous entries will be disqualified.
The revised title for next week's contest is by Roy Ashley of Washington.
The TopFive title is by Hank Weilevy of Fairless Hills, Pa. See if you
can outdo yourself, Hank.

Report From Week 657, the first (and definitely not the last) Style Invitational photo contest,
in which we asked for funny, creative and original pictures featuring
real fruit.

Losers being Losers, the Empress had a hunch that the Tomato
Question would immediately come up. It did. She ruled that a tomato could
be a fruit if it were funny enough. On the other hand -- and it's
something to consider this summer -- it can also be a vegetable. As can a
pumpkin.

Second Runner-Up "West Side Story: Finale" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

First Runner-Up "Well, The lipo helped, too" (Jane Auerbach, Los Angeles)

Winner, "The picture of Dorian Grape" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

These lucky few will receive one of the lusted-after Style Invitational
magnets, lovingly rendered in strawberry, by Drew Bennett of Alexandria.

"Baby" Thanks to 5-month old Sarah, who reluctantly donated a binkie and
a diaper. (Cecil J. Clark, Asheville, NC)

"Toby Hooper's Cocktail" (Jay Shock, Minneapolis)

"Honorable Mentions" (Drew Bennett, Alexandria)

"Lemmonings" (Kevin Dopart, Washington)

"Marion Berry" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

"Still Life" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

"Nice tats" "Nice peircings" (Jane Auerbach, Los Angeles)

"Tommy Tomato" (April Albertine, Erin Carnahan, Elden Carnahan, Laurel)

"Anita's Day Without Sunshine" (Kevin Dopart, Washington)

"The Apple of My Eye" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn., and Chris Doyle,
Forsyth, Mo.)

"The Gang's All Here" (Mark and Jane McDowell, Annandale)

"The Grape Escape" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

"Ceci N'est Pas..." (Evan Golub, New Carrollton)

"Those Rottnen Bananas" (Jeff Brechlin, Eagan, Minn.)

"Still Life with Empress and Czar" (Bob Dalton, Arlington)

Next Week: Not in the Cards, or Nixed Messages