Style Conversational Week 1418: Just inkin’ about tomorrow The Empress of The Style Invitational on this week’s Year in Preview results and new Tour de Fours contest Bob Staake was clearly inspired after he came up with “Alice in Wounderland” — she falls into a skateboard park — as an example for this week's Tour de Fours contest. The sketch he worked on Tuesday contained all the marvelous details of the final he finished Wednesday. Bob Staake was clearly inspired after he came up with “Alice in Wounderland” — she falls into a skateboard park — as an example for this week's Tour de Fours contest. The sketch he worked on Tuesday contained all the marvelous details of the final he finished Wednesday. By Pat Myers Jan. 7, 2021 at 4:33 p.m. EST Add to list Hello. I hope you’ve found something to smile about today. The shocking and shameful events of yesterday afternoon transpired while I was choosing the final winners of The Style Invitational’s Week 1414 Year in Preview. The TV ran in the next room here at home; my husband, who normally works on Capitol Hill, watched safely, though in shock, from the couch. A deadline is by far my most effective motivator, and I pared my wildly long “shortlist” — thank goodness I’d already read al the entries — with an eye toward producing a timeline of 2021 “events” that contained a variety of themes but also some similar entries that would serve as the equivalent of the running jokes that Dave Barry often threads through his beloved Year in Review pieces (here’s the 2020 version). Still, by midafternoon, as events grew more surreal, more dire, my list was still at 82 entries. It’s always been hard for me to toss inkworthy material, but I had to lose fully half of them. Fortunately, two very funny and obliging friends agreed to weigh in with their favorites; I’m guessing that they were craving some quick diversion from the horrors going down inside the Capitol, even if it did involve making light of some of those whose short- and long-term actions created the environment for them. AD And yay, it worked! Both Alex Blackwood, my co-admin for the Style Invitational Devotees Facebook group, and Malcolm Fleschner, whose own annual Year in Preview timelines “inspired” the Invite contests, quickly returned lists marked with stars for their favorites and even favoriter favorites. So what if their choices, more often than not, were totally different: three stars from one, zero from the other? (Fortunately, they were both good with my top winners; Malcolm would have downgraded one of them, but he was wrong.) They did, however, both put big stars on a dozen of the entries in addition to my Losers’ Circle choices; all of those are honorable mentions this week. And just about all the rest were starred by at least one of them. But I did end up exercising the Royal Prerogative and also gave ink to a few that both of them failed to appreciate. Which are which? Nah, I’m not going to tell you that. But if you’re a regular reader — or even if this week’s results are the first Invite entries you’ve ever seen — you realize that your favorites from the list don’t always match mine … or they almost never do. But I’m going to bet that a whole lot of you laughed at this week’s Clowning Achievement winner, by Steve Smith — the revelation that Even Too Crazy for Trump Attorney Sidney Powell turns out to be played by prankster Sacha Baron Cohen. I read that one to the Royal Consort yesterday, and he literally guffawed. Ace Copy Editor Doug Norwood told me it was a LOL for him as well. And so Steve, if you can make multiple people laugh while their country’s ideals are being pulled out by the roots, you definitely deserve a disembodied clown head on a stick. Our current first prize, the Clowning Achievement trophy, has space on the base to mark subsequent wins. Our current first prize, the Clowning Achievement trophy, has space on the base to mark subsequent wins. (Pat Myers/TWP) It didn’t take long: Steve is our first winner of a second Clowner, the trophy that debuted in Week 1419, just five weeks ago. Steve already won in Week 1410, for his false trivia about autumn. I mentioned recently that since we’ll have only 100 of these trophies, I’d love for 100 different people to win them. But the RC and I have an idea, building on the suggestion of Loser Bruce Carlson to add something to the original trophy to denote subsequent wins: We’re going to work up a mini-pennant on a little “pole,” like one at a golf hole, with a 2, 3, etc., on the flag, that can be attached to the base of the trophy — heck, it could hold a whole mess of them, for the most Loserly. I think it could lend a festive circus atmosphere around our dejected clown head. So Steve, we’ll get that to you when we figure out the best design and way to attach it. AD What Else Doug Dug: In addition to Steve’s winner, Doug Norwood singled out Mark Raffman’s simultaneous Inauguration Day activities: the Biden swearing-in and the Trump cussing-out; Danielle Nowlin’s about T’s refusal to give up his presidential duties, insisting on still watching cable TV and playing golf; and Beryl Benderly’s prediction that The Post’s Fact Checker feature, in the name of gender diversity, replace its Pinocchio as a degree of dishonesty with the Kayleigh. UDON want to miss this week’s Tour de Fours contest It’s our 17th Tour of our Tour de Fours neologism contest, this time with the letter block UNDO, suggested by Hall of Fame Loser Jeff Contompasis as such an apt word for 2021. This contest has always produced lots of funny ink, often incorporating most of the block’s 24 possible permutations. The Master Contest List at NRARS.org — the Losers’ own website maintained by Elden Carnahan — has a special Tour de Fours page listing links to all 17 contest announcements and results, in your choice of plain text or PDFs of the print page and Web version, ever since Week 571 in 2004. Click here to enter that rabbit hole. AD Or just read these past top winners: From last year’s Tour de Fours, with the block LIAR: Nostrail: What inevitably drips down your face when you’ve got the sniffles in February and you’re wearing your big gloves. (Jeff Contompasis) Corialonus: Shakespeare rendered acceptable for delicate sensibilities. (Steve Honley) Heilraiser: The person in a political discussion who inevitably brings up a Hitler reference. (Gary Crockett) And the winner of the Lose Cannon: Flopularity: When people flock to see a show just to revel in its badness. " 'Cats’ has proved so flopular that the theater added a midnight showing for stoners who want to creep out at Judi Dench’s fur-skin.” (Bill Dorner) From 2011 — TAXI: Punxatini: Special Groundhog Day cocktail made with ice-cold gin and a touch of furmouth. (Jeff Shirley) AD Imaxative: That gut-wrenching 3-D scene where the camera appears to go over the waterfall or off the cliff. (Dudley Thompson) A_XI_TY: The consuming fear that you’re about to blow it on “Wheel of Fortune.” (Chris Doyle) And the winner of the Inkin’ Memorial: Prophylaxity: The way to unplanned parenthood. (Ann Martin) And from 2007: SATR, to commemorate the Invite’s move from the Sunday Style section to the Saturday paper, which would last four years: First Rationalizer: Unofficial title of the White House press secretary. (Peter Metrinko) E-fenestration: Tossing out your old version of Windows. (Russell Beland) Retrash: To have a yard sale to get rid of all the junk you picked up at other people’s yard sales. (Dot Yufer) And the Winner of the Inker: Oughtacrats: People who have half a mind to solve all the world’s problems with their brilliant ideas, one of these days … (Tom Witte) AD Deadline is Monday night, Jan. 18 — no extension for the holiday, sorry. What, you were planning to go back to the office to use the fax machine? Coming soon on ‘You’re Invited’: A chat with Bob Staake “Alice in Wounderland,” Bob Staake’s example for this week’s “Tour de Fours” contest for terms featuring the letter block UNDO in any order, is one of my favorite Staake cartoons from Bob’s 27 years working on the Invite. When he suggested the phrase, I’d assumed he was planning an “apologies to” parody of the famed illustrations by Sir John Tenniel from the 1865 “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.” But Bob went pure Bob, with a big exuberant splash of detail in every millimeter of the frame. (His Alice was based on the 1951 Disney version.) Next week, probably Wednesday, Jan. 13, Loser Mike Gips plans to drop his latest (ninth) episode of his Style Invitational podcast, “You’re Invited,” featuring a half-hour interview with Bob. I’m sure he’ll talk about the process of creating a Style Invitational cartoon, as well as how the Invite has played a part in his career for almost three decades, as Bob became nationally famous as a children’s book author, magazine cover artist, and even the star of a computer commercial. AD I’ll announce it here again next Thursday, but you can watch out for it — or catch up on Mike’s eight previous interviews of Invite notables — at bit.ly/invite-podcast, or on sites like Apple Podcasts and Spotify. It’s all free. You could even own this week’s cartoon — either the pencil sketch or the pen-and-ink cartoon (in black-and-white; the coloring is done electronically). Bob has created a special link for Invite fans: go to bobstaake.com/SI and tell him what you’re interested in. — The headline “Just Inkin’ About Tomorrow” was a non-inking (too long) headline submitted for Week 1414 by Tom Witte.