Spell “skrod” backward — i.e., in the right direction — and you get this species of weakfish. (Bob Staake for The Washington Post ) By Pat Myers February 18 *SKROD: Fish that are always swimming upstream. * /(Tom Witte, winner of Week 545, 2004)/ *ATNAS: The man who bears the weight of the entire American economy on his shoulders.* /(Tom Witte, winner of Week 684, 2006)/ It’s one of our simplest, most elegant neologism contests ever — and we haven’t done it in almost a decade. And only twice in all. *This week: Spell a word, name or phrase backward and define the result in a way that relates to the original, *as in the examples above. The Empress doesn’t plan to give ink to entries that repeat the ones she ran in 2004 and 2006; you can check those results at bit.ly/invite549 and bit.ly/invite688 . (You can use the same word that’s been used, but the definition must be significantly different.) And yes, Tom Witte still enters the Invite almost every week, as he has since Week 7 in 1993. The man’s a 24/7 neologism factory, which is the primary reason he has almost 1,400 blots of Invite ink. But just like you, he can submit only 25 entries this week — and I promise to run more than 25 entries in the results. Winner gets the Inkin’ Memorial , the Lincoln statue bobblehead that is the official Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives a lovely brand-new barbecue apron promoting the use of spice rubs on large cuts of meat; it bears the slogan “Wanna Rub My Butt?” It’s of generous length and no doubt effective in keeping your clothes clean, but the Empress reports that trying it on produced no takers. Donated by Loser Jon Gearhart. Another in our series of Prize Garments You Probably Shouldn’t Wear to Religious Services, this barbecue apron. (Mark Holt) *Other runners-up* win their choice of a yearned-for Loser Mug, the older-model “This Is Your Brain on Mugs” mug, a vintage Loser T-shirt, or something from the Mystery Box. Honorable mentions get one of lusted-after Loser magnets, “Magnet Dum Laude” or “Falling Jest Short.” First Offenders receive a smelly tree-shaped air “freshener” (FirStink for their first ink). Email entries to /losers@washpost.com / or, if you were born in the 19th century, fax to 202-334-4312. Deadline is Monday night, Feb. 29 (how often can we say that?); results published March 20 (online March 17). You may submit up to 25 entries per contest. Include “Week 1163” in your email subject line or it might be ignored as spam. Include your real name, postal address and phone number with your entry. See contest rules and guidelines at wapo.st/InvRules . The headline for this week’s results is by Tom Witte; the honorable-mentions subhead was suggested by both Beverley Sharp and Kevin Dopart. Join the lively Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook at /on.fb.me/invdev ./ “Like” the Style Invitational Ink of the Day on Facebook at /bit.ly/inkofday; / follow @StyleInvite on Twitter. *The Style Conversational: *The Empress’s weekly online column, published late Thursday, discusses each new contest and set of results. Especially if you plan to enter, check it out at wapo.st/styleconv . *THE GAME OF LAUGH: REPORT FROM WEEK 1159: Week 1159 we asked you to suggest ideas for novel board or parlor games that would be even more noteworthy than a real game called Eww, Who Tooted?, in which players make artificial farts with little tooters. Numerous political games involved playing — or being stuck with — the Trump card.   Loser Drew Bennett wrote in about another real game, one that seems to delight his granddaughter. It’s called Gooey Louie; the package exhorts tykes to “Put Your Finger Up His Nose and Try To Pick a Winner!” If the kid extracts the wrong gooey booger, poor Louie’s head pops open and his brain flies out.   This outgrosses the best grossout efforts of Lilly Welsh (the Acne game to pop giant artificial zits) but does fall one step short of Roy Ashley’s Taste My Booger (you don’t want to know the details). 4th place: *Name That Snowstorm:* Pass the time when nature buries you alive by coming up with names that are just as clever as “Snowmaggedon” et al. Just pick two or more word cards and combine the results: Blizzard + Disaster? Blizzaster! Or Disastard! Snow + Apocalypse + Doomsday? Snowpocaloomsday! Blizzard + Armageddon + Apocalypse? Blizzmagelypse! Seconds of fun for the entire family. (Jon Gearhart, Des Moines) 3rd place: *The Game of Loaf: *Unionists, welfare mothers, ex-hippies and liberal professors loop around a game board, growing fat on Washington handouts and avoiding gainful employment, while hardworking Americans from the heartland suffer confiscatory taxation by the federal government. — T. Cruz, American heartland (Mike Gips, Bethesda, Md.) 2nd place /and the metal “Hello Loser” sign : / * GOP SlapDaesh:* A sophisticated game of military strategy. Players compete to destroy ISIS by drawing cards marked “Carpet-bomb them ,” “Make the sand glow in the dark ,” “Kill every one of the bastards ” and “Bomb the s--- out of them .” Release date November 2016; revised version expected by February 2017. (Chris Doyle, Denton, Tex.) And the winner of the Inkin’ Memorial: *Klu:* Mr. Black did it. Game over. (Dion Black, Washington) No dice: honorable mentions *One-AARPsmanship:* Players move pieces around a board whose squares are marked with parts of the anatomy. They score points for recounting in painstaking detail the diseases, operations, medications and just plain aches and pains they’ve had with that body part. The winner is the last one to fall asleep. (Chris Doyle) *The Game of No-Life:* Land on “Saturday Night” and the card reads: “Watch reruns of ‘Love Boat’ while you do your nails that no one will see.” On “Birthday” it says, “Break out that frozen Georgetown Cupcake you’ve been saving all year.” Winner? It’s solitaire, of course. (Frank Mann, Washington) *The Game of Life — and Death: *And you thought your spouse took a long time coming up with moves in Scrabble! (Danielle Nowlin, Fairfax Station, Va.) *Reconnect for . . . ? :* In this game you go through your Facebook friends list and try to figure out why you accepted a request from that person who was a jerk to you in high school. (Dion Black) *So You Think You Can Lance:* In this specialty version of Operation, precisely cut and drain gel-pack abscesses and boils without contaminating or damaging other body parts. Losers have to fill out the Medicare CMS-1500 claims form. (Kevin Dopart, Washington) *HardScrabble:* Just like ordinary Scrabble, but before you take a turn, you have to solve a calculus problem, drop and give 10, then juggle three of your tiles. (Barbara Turner, Takoma Park, Md.) *Crab:* Like Scrabble, but it’s all four-letter words. (Warren Tanabe, Annapolis, Md.) *Doin’ Time:* When you land on “Go to Jail” in Monopoly, you Do Time on this supplemental board: you can become pruno king, join a gang, even get conjugal visits. Try to avoid being shanked or becoming someone’s prag. When you land on “Overcrowding — Early Release,” it’s back to real estate dealings. (Bird Waring, Larchmont, N.Y.) *M.C. Escher’s Chutes and Ladders:* Roll the dice and find yourself either exactly where you started or lost in another dimension. An eternity of fun! (Frank Mann) *Existential Pursuit:* The game board is nothing but blank squares. Choose any square to start from. Roll the dice. Move your game piece any number of squares, in any direction — what’s the difference? Roll again. Repeat forever. (Tom Witte, Montgomery Village, Md.; Frank Osen, Pasadena, Calif.) *North Korean Checkers:* Unanimously considered by far the greatest game of all time! Invented, manufactured and distributed by the Champion of the World and Still Undefeated Supreme Leader! (Jesse Frankovich, Lansing, Mich.) *Futile Pursuit:* A version of Risk reduced to the Middle East, although any country can play. Contestants fight each other randomly until something bad happens, at which point they continue fighting until something really bad happens. Nobody wins, but another game starts right up. (Michael Rolfe, Cape Town, South Africa) *Whac-a-Pol: *Try to be the quickest at making America great again by knocking all the pols back into their dark, dank state-holes. Always a bipartisan party favorite. (Kevin Dopart) *Benyahtzi:* Roll the dice and hope for the best. (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.) *Call of Doody: *Suspenseful action game in which “parents” race to get toddlers onto potties before time, among other things, runs out. (Richard Friedman, Indianapolis) *Still running — deadline Monday night, Feb. 22: our contest for Onion-type headlines. See bit.ly/invite1162 . *