WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1618 | Week 100! | ...which we celebrate with a centennial contest | H H |
1617 | Mess With Our Heads | Look at a headline and see a funnier meaning. | H |
1611 | Ask Backwards XLIII | We give you the 'answers'; you tell us the questions. | H |
1609 | Saved! | Tell us funny ways to be thrifty in these parlous times | 2 |
1608 | Stick It | An election bumper sticker contest | H |
1607 | Funny, Init? | Compare two people who have the same initials. | L H |
1606 | The Cold New Trend | What would be an even sillier new fad than decorator refrigerator shelves? | H |
1605 | Get Thee to a Punnery | Change a quote slightly and credit it to someone else. | H H |
1603 | Hu-boy, It's Limerixicon XXI | Write a limerick featuring a word beginning 'hu' or 'hy'. | H |
1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | H H H H |
1600 | Taylorgaters | Take a line from a 'Tortured Poets' lyric and rhyme it with one of your own. | H H |
1599 | Picture This | It's our caption contest. | H H |
1598 | Same Difference | We give you a random list of things, and you tell us how any two are alike or different. | H |
1596 | History for the tl;dr Crowd | Sum up an event for the 21st-century reader in a rhyming couplet. | H H |
1594 | So Good! So Bad! So Ugly! | We bring back a classic contest | H H |
1593 | Qwerty Lashes | Write us something funny from just a few letters of the keyboard. | W H H |
1592 | It's Parody Time | Write a funny song about ... anything you like! | H |
1590 | All You Need Is Ink | Take a line from a Beatles song and rhyme it with your own. | H H |
1588 | Colt Fusion | Because of our munificense and guilt, you get a full hundred foal names to 'breed' for 'grandfoals' | H |
1587 | The Trite Stuff | Replace some well-worn phrases with better ones. | M |
1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | H |
1584 | Seeds of Change | Make an anagram of a name-brand product. | W H |
1583 | A Thousand Words | Write a funny poem about the artwork of your choice. | H |
1582 | You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang | A classic connection game. | H |
1581 | SOTU-Speak | Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration. | L |
1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | H |
1579 | Captions Courageous | Write a description for any of six photos | H |
1577 | Why the #$%#$% Not? | The Washington Post is looking for some bold ideas -- Let's show it some! | H H |
1576 | Praise the Lurid! | Give us clickbait headlines for mundane stories. | T H |
1575 | The Ughscars and the Phewlitzers | Give us an idea for a bad book or movie. | H H |
1574 | Oh, Grandpa, Stop! | Turn a 'dad joke' into a less-tame 'grandpa joke' | H H H |
1573 | The Invitational Week 55: Tour de Fours — Be STUD-ly | Give us a new word or phrase containing 'DUST' in any order of letters. | H |
1572 | S Is for Smartass | Presenting the Devil's Alphabet Soup | L H |
1571 | Dead Letters, our annual obit contest | Write a funny verse about someone who died in 2023. | H H |
1570 | The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II | Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. | H |
1569 | Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 | Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. | H |
1567 | Picture This | A caption contest | H |
1566 | Well, the Good News Is ... | Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline | H |
1563 | The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift | Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. | T |
1562 | Rhyme and Rhyme Again | Write a funny "monorhyme", a poem whose lines all rhyme on the same sound. | M H |
1561 | Let It Be a Lesson to Us | Tell us some things to be learned from Costco, the bathroom, TV shows, etc. | T |
1560 | The 'Hole Story | Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question | M |
1559 | As the Word Turns | 'Discover' new words by snaking through this random grid | H |
1558 | It's Parody Time | Send up the news with those songs and videos you do so well | H |
1556 | Cross Us Up | Mirror a phrase, more or less | H H |
1555 | Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? | Give us "backronyms" | W H |
1554 | U (Heart) TFG's BFFs | Reach out to beleaguered Trump supporters and bathe them in the warmth of your love, to help bind the nation’s wounds | T M L |
1553 | Doody and Muldoon | Write a Muldoon, a four-line poem that features at least two body parts and a place name, and at least one rhyme. | H H H H H 4 |
1552 | A Mirthday Party | Link two people who share a birthday | H 2 |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | M |
1549 | The Tile Invitational X | It's our 10th running of this coin-a-word game. | H H |
1548 | Poll-ish Jokes | Come up with a ridiculous reader poll. | H H |
1547 | Alphabettering | Write a funny sentence containing all 26 letters. | H H |
1546 | Put It in Bee-verse | Write a funny poem using a spelling bee word | H H 3 |
1543 | F Things Up | Neologisms by adding Fs or changing letters to F | L H H H H |
1541 | Wrong enough for ya? | Fake facts about the weather | M |
1540 | Picture This | It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from. | H |
1539 | Get Real, Reel | Name a scene in a movie, a TV show, or literature, and tell us how it might be revised (perhaps less satisfyingly but far more realistically) | H H H |
1537 | A Crooning Achievement | Write a lyric for a politician to sing. | 3 |
1536 | Colt Following | Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'. | H H H |
1535 | The Poops Diorama | Make some funny art with toilet paper and send us a photo. | H H |
1533 | The Very Last 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions' | Tell us a stupid question followed by a funny retort. | H |
1532 | We Bee Back With Neologisms | Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game | L H |
1530 | Mess With Our Heads | Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. | H |
1529 | Hello, Dall-E! | Our new contest partners you and a machine. | H |
1528 | It's Our Birthday. Party Like It's 1993. | As the Invite turns 30, enter your choice of contests from our year of infancy | H |
1527 | Film Flim-Flam | Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie | H |
1526 | Poke Us Till We Giggle | Write a "poke", or a joke recast as a rhyming poem | H H |
1525 | Arty Har-har | Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work | H H |
1522 | Questionable Journalism | Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer | T H |
1520 | Nextra! Nextra! | Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 | T |
1519 | Dead Letters | The post-Post humor contest barely skips a beat as the Czar and Empress begin with the annual obit poems. | H |
1518 | The final Post edition | Some all-time favorite entries | H H |
1515 | Munich-ipals -- European "sister cities | Choose any two or more towns from the 51 countries in Europe/Eurasia and come up with a joint endeavor the “sister cities” would undertake. | H |
1512 | Alphabetter | Write a 26-word sentence or other passage whose words each start with a different letter — except that the X in the X-word may appear elsewhere in the word, as long as the word has an “ex” syllable. | H |
1510 | Only U (or A, E, I or O) | Write a humorous univocalic poem — one that uses only one of the vowels A, E, I, O or U | H |
1508 | Tour de Fours XIX —Laughtime Achievement | Coin a word or phrase containing the letters E-L-D-N — consecutively but in any order — and describe it. | H |
1507 | All over the map! | Choose one of the contiguous 48 U.S. states or D.C. Then write a funny slogan for that state by “traveling a route” from that state into several others. Use the first letters of the states in your route as the first letters of the words in your slogan. | W M |
1506 | Let's go magnet-fishing with new words | From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | M H |
1505 | Munici-pals | Choose any two or more real U.S. or Canadian towns — they need to show up on a Google search — and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. | H H |
1503 | Sing of your supper--parodies about food | Write a humorous song on the subject of food. | H |
1502 | It's Hi-time for Limerixicon XIX | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with “hi-. | H H |
1500 | These go to 15 | Make up a word or phrase whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 15 (no blanks!) and define it. | H H |
1498 | V for Verses -- misuse a word in a poem | Write a short (eight lines or fewer), humorous poem that uses one or more words in other than their actual meanings. | H |
1497 | The if-word | Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result | H |
1496 | Same Difference -- compare two items on this list | Tell us humorously how any two (or more) items on the provided list are alike or different, or linked in some other way. | H |
1494 | Put it in bee-verse | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the words used in Round 4 or later of this year's bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. | H H |
1493 | Frankly speaking with feghoots | Tell a feghoot -- a mini-story (a ridiculous one is fine) that ends in a groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, line from a song, etc. | H H |
1491 | The add biz | Choose any word, name or phrase beginning with A throough E, then add any single letter of the alphabet to it -- one or more times -- and define the result or show how it would be used. | H |
1490 | It's parody time -- sing the news | Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days. | H H |
1487 | Colt following -- now it's the grandfoals | Breed" any of the "foal" names provided in today's results (including the intro) and give the "grandfoal" a name that reflects both names. | H |
1486 | No can do: Signs of incompetence | Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field. | H H |
1485 | Switchcraft -- transpose two letters in a word | Switch the positions of two letters within a word, name, title or phrase, then describe the result. | H |
1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
1483 | Pun for the Roses -- our famous foal-'breeding' contest | Breed" any two of the provided names and name the "foal". As in actual thoroughbred racing, a name may not exceed 18 characters including spaces. | H H H |
1482 | The Tile Invitational IX | Rearrange the letters of any of the letter sets provided to create a new term, then define or describe; you may use all seven letters, but also just six or five. | H H H |
1481 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret some actual headline (or a major part of it), from any publication, print or online. | H |
1480 | Oh, you don't really mean that | Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. | L H H |
1478 | It's a small, small world | Write a humorous poem, eight lines max, using only words from the provided list of 1,000 most common English words. | H |
1477 | Thinking outside the big box | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. | H |
1475 | Hail to the Commanders! | Write a song (set to any familiar tune) or shouted cheer for the Washington Commanders. OR: Write for any other D.C. institution, e.g., the Metro, the Senate, the National Zoo, The Washington Post. | H H |
1474 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine one side of a hyphenated word or phrase with one side of another such term -- either side can be the end or the beginning -- to create a new term. AND! Both halves of the term must come from the same issue of a newspaper (The Post or another one) or published the same day on its website, Feb. 3 through 14. | P H H |
1471 | Tour de Fours XVIII: B-I-D-E with us | Coin a word or phrase containing the letters B-I-D-E -- consecutively but in any order, and describe it. | W H H H |
1470 | Your add here -- a prefix feast | Add a "prefix" -- by which we mean at least one syllable of any kind (but not multiple words) -- to the beginning of any word in well-known phrase, name, book title, etc., and describe the result. | M 3 |
1469 | Post Mortems 2021, our obit poems | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2021. | H H |
1468 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. | H H |
1467 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1413 through 1439, except for Weeks 1414-1416. | H |
1466 | Be invitationally correct | Give us a funny "correction" that a newspaper or magazine might offer. | H |
1465 | Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. | M |
1462 | Time for a new career? | Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles. | H |
1461 | It's the eponymy, stupid | Create an eponym -- a word based on the name of a well-known person -- define it, and perhaps use it in a humorous sentence. | H |
1460 | These new words are on fleek | From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | H |
1459 | And we quote: 'It's Parody Time' | Write humorous first-person lyrics for a song "by" some particular person. | T H H |
1457 | What is Ask Backwards XL? | You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. | H H |
1454 | Punku 3 -- haiku with a pun | Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. | H H |
1453 | Haven't read it -- mis-subtitle a book | Choose any book title listed on Amazon and misinterpret it by adding a subtitle. | H |
1450 | Putting the 'anoid' in humanoid | Humorously describe some aspect of our current society as a space alien and/or future anthropologist might interpret it. | H |
1449 | Let's have a get-together | Begin with a real name; append to it a word, name or expression so that they overlap; and finally define or "quote" the resulting phrase or name. | T |
1448 | Hear, hear -- it's Limerixicon XVIII | Supply a humerous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with "he-". | W H H |
1447 | Give it to us straight | Take any sentence from an article or ad in any publication (print or online) dated July 29 through Aug. 9, 2021, and intepret it in “plain English". | L |
1446 | Clue us in -- and we spill the beans | Write novel clues for as many as 25 answers in the provided grid, across or down, first substituting your own letters for any covered ones. | H H H |
1445 | Put it in bee-verse -- poems with spelling words | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the words used in Round 8 or later of this year's bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. | M |
1443 | The letters of the laws | Propose some law -- it doesn't have to be a serious issue -- and give it a name and an acronym, | H |
1441 | \'Rick rolling: songs as limericks | Sum up or otherwise reflect a well-known song as a limerick. | H |
1440 | It's parody time! | Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days. | H 4 |
1439 | Vowel Movement: The Musical | Choose a song title; remove all the vowels; then add back as many vowels as you like to create a new title, and describe the song. You might also provide a line or two of lyrics. | H |
1437 | One-offs: A 'typo' neologism contest | You're a fat-fingered typist: Change a word, name or phrase by either adding or substituting one letter that's adjacent (in any direction) to the original one on a regular QWERTY keyboard, or by doubling the correct letter. | H |
1434 | Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals | Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. | H H H |
1433 | Questionable Journalism | Choose any sentence (not a headline!) in an article or ad in The Washington Post or another publication dated April 22 through May 3, and write a question it might humorously answer. | 3 |
1430 | Back to racing speed with the 'foals' | Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2021 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously play off both parents' names. | H |
1429 | Forsoothsayers | Quote a line or so from any Shakespeare work, and exemplify it with a contemporary quote, real or imagined. | L |
1427 | Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you? | State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format. | H H |
1426 | Mess with our (or others') heads | Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. | H H |
1423 | Muddled heads: Headline anagrams | Choose a headline (or part of a headline) in any print or online publication dated Feb. 11-22 and rearrange all its letters into an anagram. | L |
1418 | Tour de Fours XVII: Just Undo It | Coin a word or multi-word term containing the letters U-N-D-O -- consecutive but in any order -- and describe it. | H H |
1417 | Dead Letters, our obit poem contest | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2020. | W H H H |
1416 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. | H |
1415 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1360 through 1387, except for Weeks 1361-1363. | H H |
1414 | Divining comedy: 2021 predictions | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2021. | H |
1413 | We're finna give you some new words | Write a poem of eight lines or fewer featuring one or more of the provided terms. The terms must be used as they're defined in the new m-w.com listing. | M 4 |
1412 | Jumble bells -- anagram a song line | Rearrange all the letters in a song title, or a line (or more if you dare!) from a song. Optional: Offer a parody of the original tune (or a few lines of it) that refers to the new title. | H |
1408 | Re-Organization | Slightly change the name of a nonprofit organization and describe it. | T 4 |
1406 | The news could be verse | Write a poem based on a recent news article, in which the lines' first letters spell out the title or subject of the poem. | H |
1405 | Okay, once more around the track | Breed" any two of the provided foal names that got ink in Week 1400 and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H |
1404 | Ask Backwards XXXIX | The answers are provided. You supply the questions. | H H |
1403 | Who was that masked man? | Current a short listing for a current or past TV show that has a coronavirus story line, or one reflecting some other issue in the news right now. | H |
1402 | The fourteeners--a neologism contest | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 14 (no blanks!), and define it. | H H |
1400 | Back on track with our classic 'foal' contest | Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2020 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously reflect the parents' names. | H |
1399 | The lie-zy days of summer | Tell us some bogus trivia about the summer or things that happen or have happened in the summer. | H |
1398 | This is the year that is | Describe the year 2020 in a novel, colorful metaphor or simile. You may also offer an original graphic. | 3 |
1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | T |
1393 | Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams | Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. | H |
1392 | Picture this -- caption these cartoons | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | M H |
1390 | 'Same difference' for a new time | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H |
1389 | TankaWanka 4: Haiku plus tu | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. | M |
1388 | Turning around a business | Create a business, product, organization or similar entity that contains a word, name or phrase and its anagram, and describe it. | H |
1386 | Colt following: It's the grandfoals! | Breed" any two of the 70 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | M |
1383 | Questionable Journalism | Choose any sentence (not a headline) in an article or ad in The Washington Post or another publication dated May 7 through May 18, and write a question it might humorously answer. | H H H |
1380 | Both sides now | Delete one or more letters (in a row) from a word or brief phrase to find another word, and define it. | H |
1379 | Your wish: A pun -- a star | Tell a joke, in your choice of form, whose punchline is a pun on a song title or lyric. | L |
1378 | It's (emergency) Parody Time | Write a song about life in the Age of Corona, set to a familiar tune (or even one of your own, if you perform it on video). | H 3 |
1377 | Make your own March Madness | Think of some sport, game, art project or other activity that you can conjure up using various items that you might find around the house. | T |
1374 | Versus' verses in a rap battle | Write a mini-"rap" between any two characters, real or fictional, as in the provided ERB example. | H |
1372 | Trash talking, 1880-style | Write a quatrain or -- heck -- two of Balliol rhyme about some person. | H |
1371 | The Tile Invitational VII | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H |
1370 | What's in a name? | Write something about a well-known person, real or fictional, using only the letters in that person's name. | H |
1369 | Shoot us some oops | Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. | H |
1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
1367 | Pick me up at work, okay? | Give a pickup line from someone in a particular profession, or from a particular person or fictional character. | P |
1366 | Tour de Fours XVI -- It's the LIAR club | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block L-I-A-R and describe it. | L H |
1365 | Dead Letters, our obit poem contest | Write a poem of eight lines or fewer (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2019. | H H H |
1364 | Clue us in | Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
1363 | The Year in Redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359. | H H 4 |
1361 | 2020 vision -- the year in preview | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. | P |
1359 | Back up in the air (quotes) | Write a sentence or two and highlight an "air quote" that spans two or more words (and two sentences if you like). | H H |
1357 | It's parody time! | Write a satirical song about anything in the news right now, set to a familiar tune. | H |
1355 | The inside word | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give the word a new meaning or description. | H |
1353 | What's playing at the retroplex | Change a movie title to its "opposite" by reversing one or more words; then describe the new movie. | M |
1352 | Hee-rotica -- Steamy prose for unsteamy life | Write a short steamy scene (100 words would be considered long) about a non-steamy event. | M H |
1351 | What concept will you be for Halloween? | Give us a creative, clever idea for a timely Halloween costume (for one or more people) or an idea for a party or other activity. You may even send us a photo of an actual new costume you've created this year. | H |
1350 | Here's inspo for new-word poems | Write a poem of eight lines or fewer featuring one or more of these recent additions to m-w.com. | H |
1349 | Revise and extend these remarks | Go to congress.gov/congressional-record and click on the PDF for any day's Congressional Record. Choose any sentence (or substantial part of one) and write a question that it could answer. | H |
1348 | Same difference | Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. | H |
1347 | Reologisms | Write a clever, funny definition for any of the provided Loser-concocted words and phrases, and/or show they'd be used. | H |
1344 | Well, that's just great -- It’s Limerixicon XVI | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gr-". | H |
1341 | Portmanteautapping from E to R | Coin a portmanteau word beginning with E through R, in which the words overlap by at least two letters, and describe it. | H |
1340 | Not-ables -- slightly alter a famous name | Slightly alter the name (make sure the original is obvious) of a famous personage -- past or present, real or fictional -- and describe the resulting nonpersonage, or offer a quote from that person, or both. | 2 |
1339 | Songs for a modern error | Write humorous lyrics about some modern woe, set to a familiar tune. | H 2 |
1338 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
1335 | Put it in bee-verse! Or . . . | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the provided words, used in Round 9 or later of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. | 2 |
1334 | Mull 'er over: A search for collision | Combine any two words, names, abbreviations, etc., from anywhere in the redacted Mueller report, in a two-word or hyphenated phrase and define it. | H H |
1333 | Check your (homo)phones | Invent a homophone--a word that sounds the same as an existing word but is spelled differently--and define it. | H |
1332 | We'll call them Spellimericks | Write a humorous limerick that's an acrostic: a pertinent five-letter word or name spelled out by the first letter of each line. | M H H |
1331 | Paste Imperfect | Choose a headline or sentence from The Post or another publication, print or online, dated May 9-20, 2019. Then change that headline or other text by: A. Deleting up to 40 consecutive characters from it (put brackets around the deleted text); B. Adding up to 40 consecutive characters from the same article or ad (write the additions in capital letters); or C. Both A and B, as long as the added text goes at the end of your headline or sentence. |
H |
1329 | Shakespeare + Thee: Tailgaters | Select any line from a work by Shakespeare (poetry or prose) and pair it with your own line to create a humorous rhyming couplet. | M |
1326 | Foaling around | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 horses and name the foal to reflect both names. | H |
1320 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in the Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Feb. 21-March 4, and pair it with a question it might answer. | W H |
1315 | Clue us in -- our reverse crossword | Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the 74 words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H H |
1313 | Dead Letters -- our obit poem contest | Write a poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2018. | H |
1312 | Neologisms in TOUR de Fours XV | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block T-O-U-R and describe it. The letters may be in any order. | M |
1307 | One-for-one for all | Replace one letter in an existing word, name or multi-word phrase with one different letter (in the same place in the word) and define or describe the result. | H |
1306 | PolitiCaroling: A song parody contest | Write a song about something in the news lately -- political or otherwise -- using a Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year's tune. | H |
1304 | All the muse that's fit to print | Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. | H |
1302 | Ask Backwards 37 | Fifteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. Do one or more, up to a total of 25 A&Q's. | H H |
1300 | Botch office sensations | Add "13" to an existing movie title, and some humorous trouble to the plot. | T |
1296 | A, we're Adorbs: New-word poems | Use one or more of these words new to M-W.com in a humorous poem of eight lines max. | L L H |
1294 | As the word turns | “Discover” a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters — in any direction or several directions — in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H H |
1291 | Film flam -- movie anagrams | Rearrange the letters of a title of a movie or play to make a new title, then describe the new work. | H 4 |
1290 | Bobbing for Witte words | Come up with both an object/situation and a neologism for it. | H 4 |
1286 | Mind your P's and B's (and more) | Replace one or more P's in a word, name, or multi-word term with a B or with another letter and define or describe the results. | H H H |
1285 | That is so wrong! | Supply a trivia question along with both the correct answer and a cleverly "wrong" guess. | H |
1284 | Same difference | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H H |
1281 | We only have (googly) eyes for you | Send us a photo of something that you have made funny by pasting googly eyes on it; funny titles and captions are optional. | H |
1279 | Just do it -- the 'real' way | List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task. | 3 |
1278 | Colt following: The 'grandfoals' | Breed" any two of the 68 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names, in the style of today's inking entries. | H |
1277 | Come into Beeing with neologisms | From any of the 15 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term of one or two words and define it humorously. You may also supply an especially clever or funny definition of a real term. | H H |
1274 | Heading for a foal -- our horse name 'breeding' contest | Your job is to "breed" any two names of the 360 horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to reflect both names. | H |
1271 | Yodel Doyle's praises with a D-O-Y-L-E neologism | Coin a new word or phrase that contains the letters D, O, Y, L and E. | M H H |
1270 | The Style Invitational turns 5 x 5 | Write a witty poem, on any subject, in any of these forms: A. Five lines of five syllables each B. Five lines of five words each C. Five lines of iambic pentameter |
3 |
1269 | Mess with our (or other) heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in The Post (print or online) or another publication and dated March 1-12 by writing a bank head. | H |
1267 | Jingle bungle | Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle. | H |
1266 | The Tile Invitational V | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H |
1265 | Parody for the course | Write a song relating to a class or course of instruction, or to school in general. | H |
1263 | Playing the short game | Using the three-letter Olympic national abbreviations and/or the abbreviation for any college, tell what would happen if one abbreviated team played another. | H H |
1261 | Post mortems -- our annual obit poem contest | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2017. | T H 4 |
1258 | The year in redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254. | T H H |
1257 | The year in redo, Part 1 | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1203 through Week 1229, except for Weeks 1205 and 1206. | H |
1255 | Tour de Fours XIV: SANT is coming | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter-block S-A-N-T; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. | H |
1254 | Inkorporation--a change-one-letter contest | Change the name of a present or past business, store or agency (not just a product) by adding one letter, deleting one letter, transposing two letters or substituting one letter for another. | H |
1253 | Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia | Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. | H |
1252 | It's a med, med, med, med world | Invent a clever name for a new medical product, and specify the condition it would treat. | H H H |
1251 | Thanking outside the box | Tell us something to be thankful for. | H |
1250 | Poems of the year(s) | Write a humorous poem incorporating three or more terms from a particular year or era listed on Time Traveler. | H |
1248 | C'mon, fess up! | Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. | H |
1247 | Script tease | Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot. | H |
1246 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Sept. 21-Oct. 2, and pair it with a question it might answer. | H H |
1243 | We bid you: No T-R-U-M-P | Coin a new term, or choose an existing one, whose letters do not include a T, R, U, M, or P, and write a humorous definition. | H H H |
1242 | Generation Yux | Give us a "then/now" joke. | H |
1241 | Less taste, more fill-in | Give us a novel clue for any word or phrase in which the remaining letters in the provided crossword puzzle fit, across or down. | H H |
1238 | D-E-F Comedy Jam (or E-D-F, etc.) | Coin a threeword phrase (you may add an insignificant word or two) whose words begin with D, E and F — in any order — and describe it. | H |
1236 | Portmanteaux faux | Explain--inaccurately but amusingly--how a real word is a combination of two or more words, with an illustrative sentence, as in the provided examples, or some other funny way. | H |
1233 | Not | The Loser Community gets a week off (actually two) from writing contest entries and will have to find something else to do during staff meetings, sermons, romantic breakups, etc. | H |
1231 | TankaWanka 3: Haiku Plus Tu | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And at least two of the lines must rhyme. | H H |
1230 | What in creation . . . ? | Supply a brief monologue or dialogue about a Creator's specifications or planning for some living being. | H |
1227 | Celebrate ortho-diversity! | Name and describe a new life form -- and no letter in the term may be used twice. | H |
1225 | The Ideas of March | Suggest a march for some group or field, along with one or more slogans. (You might also, or instead, comment on the march with some pertinent wordplay.) | H |
1224 | We beg you to differ | Explain how any two (or more) items in the provided list are the same or different, or otherwise connected. | T |
1221 | Who's kidding whom? | Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like | H |
1218 | Mess with our -- or anyone else's -- heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in the Post (print or online or another publication dated March 9-20) by writing a bankhead, or subtitle. | H H |
1216 | As the word turns | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H |
1213 | Punku | Write a haiku that incorporates a pun. | H H |
1212 | The Tile Invitational IV | Give us a five-, six- or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | 2 |
1211 | The best tweets in history | Write a stupidly disparaging tweet (140 characters or fewer, including spaces) about some laudable figure of past or present, true or fictional. | H |
1208 | A RIP-roaring year: Obit poems | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2016. | H H |
1207 | Clue us in -- a reverse crossword | Supply clever, funny clues to up to 25 of the 72 words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
1205 | Could we just have a do-over? Yes, we could. | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1201, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over. | H |
1204 | Well, at least . . . | Note some good news for the coming year to comfort -- or "comfort" -- those who are depressed about the change of presidential administration. | 4 |
1202 | Don't be afraid of the dark | Write lyrics to a song that, in some way, express hope. | H |
1201 | Tour de Fours XIII: What's there to NOVE? | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block N-O-V-E. | T H |
1199 | We want some bad choices | Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown. | H |
1198 | Give it to us straight | Take any sentence from an article or ad in any publication dated Oct. 20 to Oct. 31 — or from an online article dated within that period — and translate it into “plain English". | H |
1196 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine either half of a hyphenated word or compound term with either half of another such term to create a new hyphenated term, and describe the result humorously. | H |
1195 | Don't change a letter! | Alter a movie title only by changing word spacing, changing capitalization, and adding or deleting punctuation marks, accents, etc., then describe the result. | H |
1193 | Poedtry | Write a Poed, which consists of four lines: The first line contains six one-syllable words. The second line contains three two-syllable words. The third line contains two three-syllable words. The fourth line contains one six-syllable word (or a name totaling six syllables. And at least two of the lines must rhyme. | H H H |
1192 | Ask Backwards | The 15 provided phrases above are the answers. You provide the questions to as many as you’d like (up to 25 entries total). | 3 |
1191 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in The Post (print or online) and dated Sept. 1-12 by writing a bank head, or subtitle | H |
1190 | You're workin' on a chain, gang | Create a chain of no more than 15 proper nouns — names of people (real or fictional), products, places, etc. — including one title of a work — in which each name relates somehow to the previous one. | H |
1189 | Gee, it's Limerixicon XIII! | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ge". | M |
1188 | Just short words, one more time | Explain some concept or philosophy entirely in words of one syllable. | H |
1185 | The Rorschach of the crowd | Interpret one of more of the provided genuine inkblots. You may look at them upside down or sideways. | H H |
1183 | C'mon, be honest with us | Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y. | H |
1181 | Put it in Bee-verse | Write a short, humorous poem using one of the 36 provided words, all from the 2016 National Spelling Bee. | H 3 |
1178 | A ______ of collective nouns | Propose one or more funny new names for groups of things. | H H |
1176 | Let 'er RIP: Write an obit line | Write a humorous line or two for someone's obituary -- either for a particular person (dead or not) or for a fictional or generic one. | H |
1175 | Good luck with 13 | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. | H |
1174 | Colt following -- It's time for the grandfoals | Breed" any two of the 57 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | H |
1173 | Tinker with the recipe | Slightly change the name of a food or brand of food (or something else in the food industry) and describe it, or write a slogan, jingle, etc. | H |
1171 | What's my (next) line? | Take a line from any song and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous rhyming couplet; the second line should match the rhythm of the first, rather than the second line of the song itself. | 3 |
1170 | Derby or not Derby | Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both names. | M |
1167 | So what's to liken? | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different, or connect them some other way. | M |
1164 | 'Wait Wait' for us | Compose a multiple-choice question about a Ridiculous but True fact a la the NPR show 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me.' | M |
1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. | M |
1160 | A remeaning task | Redefine an existing word or two-word term beginning with P through Z. | H |
1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | M |
1157 | Clue us in -- a backward crossword | Supply clever, funny clues to up to 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H |
1156 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2015. | P H |
1155 | Vowel movement | Choose a title of a book, movie, play or TV show; drop all the vowels (including Y when it's used as a vowel); then add your choice of vowels -- as many as you like -- to create a new work; and describe it. | T H |
1154 | Tabby Road -- songs for cats | Write a song for -- or about -- cats or other animals, set to a familiar tune. | H |
1152 | Oops? You do it again. | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1098 through Week 1148, except for Week 1101, last year's do-over. | H |
1150 | A deviant character | Change the name of person or animal -- real or fictional -- by adding or subtracting one letter; substituting one letter for another; or switching the positions of two nearby letters, and describing the results. | H |
1149 | Gestures of depreciation | Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. | H |
1148 | It's TankaWanka II | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And it must include at least one rhyme. | H 3 |
1147 | It's E-Z find-a-word -- yours | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | H |
1146 | Stick it to us with a magnet | Suggest a new Style Invitational honorable-mention magnet. | H H |
1145 | A DICEy situation | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block D-I-C-E. | M H |
1143 | Ask Backwards | Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions. | H |
1141 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in the Post (print or online) Sept. 17-28 by writing a bankhead, or subtitle. | H |
1139 | A little sixty-four play | Fashion an entry by selecting one element from each of the provided menu groups. Make sure you indicate the combination you chose (e.g., 2-C-iii). | H |
1138 | Show us your touché | Offer an elegantly snide (and original) insult of anyone living or dead. | H |
1137 | Be a published author! | Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined. | M |
1136 | Gaah! It's Limerixicon XII | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ga-". | H H |
1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | H H H |
1131 | One man's trash | Suggest a humorous way to reuse one or more of the items listed above -- or anything else advertised on RepurposedMaterialsinc.com. | H H |
1129 | Right in the pampootie | Write a humorous short poem (eight lines or fewer) incorporating one of the 50 provided words. | H |
1127 | From the creators of . . . | Think up a spinoff of a real TV series, past or present, and furnish a description or bit of dialogue. | M |
1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | M |
1124 | Heed! Indeed: Advice verse | Write one of the provided reminders as a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. | H |
1123 | The Tile Invitational III | Give us a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided seven-letter sets. | H H H |
1122 | Colt Following: 'Grandfoals' | Breed" any two of the 65 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names. | H H |
1121 | The an(n)als of civilization | Briefly describe some "bad day in history" -- you may be creative in what you classify as such -- and sum it up with a humorous heading. | H |
1120 | Celebrating our differences | Each of the provided 17 items appeared in a different Style Invitational compare/contrast contest from 1996 to 2014. Explain how any two of them are alike or different or otherwise linked. | H |
1119 | We want hue so bad | Invent a name for a color and describe it. | H H |
1117 | You got another sing coming | Write a song about a topic or person lately in the news, set to a familiar tune. | H H |
1115 | Our type o' headline | Change a headline in an article or ad in the Washington Post and then add a "bank head" or subtitle. | H |
1114 | Awww together now | Write us a humorous headline -- from the past, present, or future -- that puts an optimistic perspective on some otherwise not-so-promising news. | M |
1112 | Some SHARP words | Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. | M H H |
1111 | When you riff upon a store | Use a wordplay on a song title as a name or slogan for a real or imagined business. | H H H |
1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H |
1108 | Hearts of dorkness | Write a humorous Valentine's Day sentiment to someone (or to some organization), either real or fictional -- either from you or from someone else you name. Plus an all-new option: We'll also be willing to run at least one really funny, clever, well-executed graphic. | H |
1107 | Send us the bill | Combine two or more names from the list of members of Congress on this page to "cosponsor" a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | H H |
1106 | Show your resolve | Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future. | H H 2 |
1105 | A lit obit of fun | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2014. | T 4 |
1104 | A pair of threes | Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination beginning with E- through H- — see the links at bit.ly/abbrevs-e-h — and say how they are alike or different. | H |
1102 | Let's get Sirius | Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. | M H |
1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | H |
1099 | Questionable journalism | Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in an article in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated Nov. 20 through Dec. 1 (in print, any article from those days' papers), and make up a question that the sentence could answer. | W H H |
1097 | Futz your sign | Select a line from one of the horoscopes appearing anytime from Nov. 6 through Nov. 17 in the Washington Post's daily Style or on washingtonpost.com and "clarify" it with a translation or extra "information". | T |
1096 | Picture this | Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H H H |
1095 | TankaWanka! | Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. The poem must consist of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7 and 7 syllables in that order. And it must include at least one rhyme. | H |
1093 | You're only as rich as you fee | What are some really bad ideas for various businesses to make a few more bucks? | M H H |
1092 | Are we having funds yet? | Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. | H 4 |
1091 | Good idea! or not. | Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea. | H |
1090 | Talk undirty to us | Write a humorous poem in any form (no more than eight lines) that includes one or more of the provided words; the word must make sense in the poem in its TRUE meaning. | 2 |
1089 | It's E-Z Find-a-Word -- your own! | Create a word or multi-word term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. | M H |
1087 | The core ridiculum | Come up with a comical class (any type of school) and provide a course catalog description. | M |
1086 | Playing the dozens | 1. Start with any 12-letter word, name or multi-word phrase. 2. Add one letter OR drop one letter OR substitute another letter OR switch the position of two letters to create a new term, as in the examples given. 3. Define or describe the result humorously. |
T |
1085 | Eww-venirs: Ideas for gift shops | Suggest a humorous--but NOT horribly tasteless--tchotchke, T-shirt, etc., from a real or imagined gift shop at a particular tourist site. | T |
1084 | Limerixicon XI: Fi-, fo-, go! | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "Fl-" through "fo-". | H |
1083 | Everybody get appy | Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one. | H |
1082 | Band on the pun | Alter the name of a music group or performer slightly -- not necessarily by just one letter, but enough so it's obvious what the original is -- and describe it in some way. | H H 2 |
1080 | McGonagall with the windiness | Memorialize a modern "tragedy" in a poem burdened with hilariously overwrought verse; lame, forced rhymes; and painfully uneven meter. Get the badness across in one verse of no more than eight lines. | H |
1078 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine one side of any hyphenated word or compound term with one side of another word to make a new hyphenated term, and define it humorously. Both halves must appear in the same issue of The Post or another print newspaper, or in writing published the same day on washingtonpost.com or another online publication. | H |
1077 | Time marches Swiftly | Give us a novel Tom Swifty, playing on either an adverb or a verb (e.g., "We care about the little people, the BP chairman gushed"). | H |
1076 | Dactyly fractyly | Send us some double dactyls that conform to Gene Weingarten's rules. | H H 2 |
1074 | Let's go parody-hopping | Describe a stage or movie musical in a parody of a song from a different musical. | M |
1073 | Bank shots: Mess with (y)our heads | Quote a headline appearing in the Washington Post, washington.com or another publication, print or headline, dated May 22 to June 1, and supply a "bank" headline that either misinterprets it, as in the examples above, or comments wryly on it. | H |
1071 | A pair of threes | Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination at bit.ly/3letterabs and say how they are alike or different. | H |
1070 | Colt following -- our grandfoals contest | Breed" any two of the foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names. | H |
1069 | It's a small, small world | Write a humorous poem of no more than eight lines -- it doesn't have to rhyme -- using only the top 1,000 words on Wiktionary.org's list of the most common among 20 million words found in movie and TV scripts. | H 4 |
1068 | An iffy proposition | Suggest some humorous action that you would take if you were in someone's position, more or less in the form "If I were _____ my first act would be _____. | 3 |
1067 | A(t)tribute to your wit | Alter a well-known quote slightly and attribute it to someone else. | T |
1065 | The ands have it | Slightly alter ANY well-known phrase in the form "A-and-B" -- it doesn't have to be Latinate/Anglo-Saxon -- and define it. | H H H H 2 |
1064 | HistoRebuffs | Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. | T H H |
1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | H |
1062 | Scanning the headlines | Write a rhyming poem about something currently in the news. | H H H |
1061 | Less taste, more fill-in | Give us a novel clue for any word or phrase in which the remaining letters in the provided crossword puzzle fit, across or down. | H |
1060 | Picture this | Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
1058 | Eastwood Ho | Create a good-bad-ugly progression. | W |
1056 | Weather or nuts | Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. | 3 |
1055 | Oh, K! | This week, to commemorate both Kevin Dopart and his 1K ink blots: Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more K's, and define your new term. | H H |
1053 | Questionable journalism | Quote an actual sentence, from The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, or another print or online publication dated between Dec. 26 and Jan. 6, and follow it with a question that the sentence might answer. | M H |
1052 | Clue us in | Come up with up to 25 creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms that appear in the provided grid. | H H |
1051 | Love the tiny tail stain! | Create an anagram -- a text with the letters rearranged -- of any text (except merely someone's name), of any length, referring to something or someone in the news. | H |
1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | P H H |
1049 | Be rating | Come up with a new movie rating and describe it. | H H |
1048 | Ask Backwards | You supply the questions to as many of the provided answers as you like. | H |
1045 | Songs for the asking | Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. | H H |
1043 | Rechanneling celebrity | Describe a TV reality show featuring a celebrity pursuing some unlikely endeavor. | M |
1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | T M |
1040 | IRS my case | Schedule A: Suggest a novel way for the government to determine taxes. Schedule B: Suggest a deduction that you'd like to take, or that some real or fictional person past or present might like to take. Schedule C: Suggest a cause you'd rather check off $3 for. |
L |
1039 | Shookespeare | Combine any of the words in Hamlet's "To be, or not to be" soliloquy, in any order, to create a humorous sentence or longer passage. | L H |
1036 | Just for liffs | Use a real place name, from anywhere in the world, as a new term. | T H H |
1035 | The Empy 500 | Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. | H |
1033 | LimeriXicon | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "fa-". | H |
1032 | Hid stuff | Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer. | M |
1031 | The 'Sty'le Invitational | Choose any word, name, or short term; emphasize a key, suddenly pertinent part of it with quotation marks; then redefine the word. | T H |
1030 | The cinquain feeling | Write a clever cinquain. The five-line form is straightforward: first line, two syllables; second line, four syllables; third line, six; fourth line, eight; fifth line, two. | H |
1029 | Ditty Harry | Write a descriptive theme song for a well-known movie, set to a well-known tune. | H 2 |
1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | H H H |
1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | T 4 |
1024 | Gorey thoughts | Send us some edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. The pairs are AB, CD, EF, GH, IJ, KL, MN, OP, QR, ST, UV, WX, and YZ. | M H |
1023 | Hai there, Martians! | Write one or more humorous haiku that will greet the Martians or share a little nugget of what life is like on Earth. | H H H |
1022 | What's the diff? | Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. | H H |
1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | H |
1020 | Colt following | Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. | H H |
1019 | What a turnoff | Tell us some creative things that children and families could do during Screen-Free Week. | T |
1018 | Reologisms | Write a clever, funny definition for any of the Loser-concocted neologisms from Week 1014 as well as from Week 1000 that deserve better definitions than their creators offered at the time. | T |
1017 | Vowel play | Write a "univocalic" newspaper headline -- one that uses only one vowel throughout. | T |
1016 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and give the foal a name humorously reflecting the names of the parents. | M H |
1015 | Faux re mi | Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. | H H |
1014 | Join now | Combine the beginning and end, or the beginnings and ends, of any two words in single Washington Post story or ad published March 21 to April 1 into a new word or two-word phrase, and define the result. | T H |
1013 | Har monikers | Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. | H H |
1012 | The news at 5 | Write a limerick about a recent news event. | H H |
1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | M H H H |
1010 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. | H |
1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | T |
1004 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about anyone who died in 2012. | H H |
1000 | We now have 4 digits; you now have 7 letters | Choose any word, name or two-word term beginning anywhere from T through Z; then add one letter, drop one letter, substitute one letter for another, or transpose two adjacent letters, and define the result. | H H |
999 | Drectrospective | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. | H |
998 | Set the law on us | Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. | W H |
997 | Unworthy causes | Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. | H H |
996 | A Life-Time opportunity | Combine two magazines or journals and describe the result, supply a marketing pitch, or suggest a story or two that it might publish. | P |
995 | Ask backwards | We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. | H |
994 | Stick it to us | Suggest a slogan for one of our two new honorable-mention Loser Magnets for 2012-2013. | H 2 |
993 | Versus, verses | Write a short "rap battle" between any two characters, real or fictional. | H H H 2 |
991 | Tour de Fours IX | Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block V, O, T, and E and define it. | H H H |
990 | Indecent relations | Pair two people, real or fictional, who have the same last name; say how they're alike or different, or something they might do (even in fantasy), as a pair. | M H H |
989 | On the double | Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s). | M H H H |
988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | H |
987 | Bank shots | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 6 through Sept. 17 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | M H H |
986 | Hear here! | Give us a sentence or short dialogue that would be a lot funnier if a word in it were mistaken for a homophone of that word. | M M H |
985 | What art art thou? | Tell us which Style Invitational contest any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons might be illustrating. | W |
984 | Another brilliant contest | Write something whose words begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet. | M H |
983 | Limerixicon IX | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters "eq-" through "ez-". | H H H |
982 | The parody line | Set your own, humorous words to the tune of a well-known song--except that you must preserve one of the original lines. | L H |
980 | Def jam | Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. | H H |
979 | The madding crowd | Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. | M |
978 | A reason to rhyme the news | Write a short verse about something that's been in the news recently. | H H H H 4 |
977 | Lost in Translation 2.0 | Translate a line of text from English into another language using Google Translate; then copy that result and translate it back into English. You may also make intermediate steps into one or more other languages. | H H |
976 | Join now! | Combine the beginning and end of any two words or names in this week's Style Invitational or Style Conversational columns to make a new term, and define it. | H |
975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | H |
974 | Eat our dust! | Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show. | H 4 |
973 | A real triple crown | The horses in this week's list either produced no inking "foals" in Week 965, or ran in the Kentucky Derby but weren't on the initial list. "Breed" any two and name the foal. | H |
972 | Trends and neighbors | Choose any two items on the provided list and explain how they are alike or different. | H H |
971 | Double booking | Come up with a double book with a humorous connection; the first title must be an actual book, while the other may be your own fictitious title or a second real book. | H |
970 | Couple it | Take a line from any well-known poem and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous couplet. | M H |
969 | Colt following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. | H |
968 | Take us for grants | Come up with a proposal to the National Science Foundation or other research-funding organization for a study based on a stupid hypothesis. | H |
967 | Overlap dance II | Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. | H H H |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | H |
964 | The Grossery Bag? | Suggest a design and/or slogan to go on the side of the ardently desired Style Invitational Loser Bag. | H |
963 | The overlap dance | Send us a Before & After "person" whose name combines two people's names, real or fictional (okay, you can use animals' names, too), and describe the person in a funny way. | H |
962 | Questionable journalism | Take any sentence (or a major part of it) that appears in the Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com anytime from now through March 19 and supply a question it could answer. | P H H H |
961 | The end of our rhops | Write a funny passage or headline whose words all have the same number of letters. | L |
958 | All's Weller | Write a "wellerism," a sentence that starts with a quote, often a short proverb, and goes on to include some sort of wordplay on something in the quote. | H |
957 | Fearful Symmetry | Write a clever passage whose successive words are one letter longer until the middle of the passage, and then become one letter shorter. | H |
956 | Give us some bad ideas | Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. | T H |
955 | Twits' twist | Create a phrase by combining a word or phrase with an anagram of that word or phrase, and define or describe it. | H |
954 | Bring on the 'fight' jokes | Tell us an original joke ending with “And then the fight started.” | H |
953 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the crossword puzzle that's already run in The Post. | H H |
952 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2011. | H H H |
951 | Say that again | Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it. | H |
950 | Of all the nerve! | Give us a humorous example of hypothetical chutzpah. | H |
949 | Analogies | Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." | T |
948 | Look back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 891 through 945 (except for Week 896, which was the same contest for the previous year). | T H |
947 | Tour de Fours VIII: Neologisms | Come up with a new word or two-word term that includes the letter block N-O-E-L, in any order but with no other letters between them, and define it. | T |
945 | Laugh-baked ideas | Cleverly depict a person, event or phenomenon of the 21st century — real history as well as scenes from movies, books, videos, etc. — using edible materials, and send us a photo of your creation. | H |
943 | Ask backward XXIX | You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like. | H |
942 | Singular ideas | Give us an idea for a contest for which there's likely only one good entry. | W |
941 | They don't say! | Give us a quote that a particular person, present or past, real or fictional, sooo wouldn't have said. | H H |
940 | Our type o' headline | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, or change spacing or punctuation, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Oct. 7 through Oct. 17, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead). | L H |
938 | Free and Lear | Write a limerick using the first two lines of any of Edward Lear's 115 limericks plus your own remaining three lines. | H |
936 | Hoho contendere | Slightly alter a well-known foreign-language term and define it. | H |
935 | The 400 blows | Write a humorous poem--choose your form--about the Virginia earthquake, Hurricane Irene or another well-known natural event. | H |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | H H |
933 | Stories that count (to 56) | Write a humorous story in exactly 56 words. | P |
931 | Limerixicon 8 | Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters ea- through -el. | H |
929 | Now sit right back ... | Write a funny song introducing a TV show, past or present. | H |
927 | Drive-By Shoutings | Write a very short four-line “poem” promoting a product or company, or offering advice to drivers; the poem must rhyme, in ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme. A fifth, non-rhyming line may state the product name or a conclusion. | W T |
926 | Outrageous fortunes | Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see. | P |
925 | A remeaning task | Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O. | H |
921 | Give Us Willies | Write an original Little Willie poem, perhaps reflecting our current era. This is a venerable four-line genre in which Master W. does some nasty thing and doesn't tend to learn to be a Good Boy by poem's end. | H 2 |
920 | Sarchiasm | Write an original chiasmus, in which the elements of a phrase are inverted for comedic effect. | H 2 |
919 | Good Luck With 13 | Alter a 13-letter word, phrase or name by one letter (add a letter, drop a letter, switch two letters somewhere in the word, or substitute one letter for another) and describe the result. | M |
918 | Colt Following | Breed any two "foals" in today's results, or one foal with one of the real horse names used in today's entries--and name the "grandfoal." The name may not exceed 18 characters, including spaces, and your entry shouldn't remotely duplicate any of today's results. | L H H H |
916 | Bank shots | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from April 22 through May 2 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H 3 |
914 | Foaling around | Breed any two of 100 of the almost 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races, and name the foal. | H 4 |
913 | Bring up the rear | Move the last letter of an existing word or name to the front of the word, and define the new term. | H |
912 | Pair-a-phrase | Lift a word that appears inside a longer word; pair it with the original word to create a phrase; and define it. | H |
909 | Reprizing | Suggest humorous uses for one or more of the items above, alone or in combination. | L 3 |
907 | Naming rite | Come up with a creative, somehow fitting sponsor for some public facility or part of one. | L |
904 | We move on back | Move the first letter in a word or name to the end of that word and define the resulting word. | M H |
903 | Bill us now | Combine the names of two or more members of Congress as co-sponsors of a bill. | H |
902 | What's the good news? | Take any sentence, or substantive part of a sentence, or a headline from an article or ad in The Washington Post or washingtonpost.com from Jan. 7 to Jan. 18 and make it sound upbeat (or not so bad). | M |
901 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2010. | H H 4 |
900 | Dear us! | Submit a "Dear Blank" letter to us instead. | M H 2 |
899 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H |
897 | Catch their drift | Take any sentence from an article or ad in The Washington Post or washingtonpost.com from Dec. 3 to Dec. 13 and translate it into "plain English. | T H |
894 | Look Back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 841 through Week 890 (except for Week 844). | H H H |
892 | Get a move on | Change the location of something for humorous effect. Provide an explanation if you wish. | 4 |
891 | Mirror, Mirror | Write a word-palindrome sentence, in which the first and last words are the same; the second and next-to-last, etc. | M H H |
890 | Double-teaming | Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result. | T H |
889 | Tour de Fours VII | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters P, O, L and E. | H |
887 | Plus-Fours | Write a limerick whose third or fourth line is one of those listed above. | M H |
885 | Mess with our heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 10 through Sept. 20 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head. | L |
884 | Rekindling the spork | Combine two devices or other products to make a new one. | H |
883 | Same difference | Choose any two items from the list above and explain why they are alike or are different from each other. | H |
882 | Limerixicon VII | Supply a humorous limerick prominently featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters dr-. | H |
881 | What's in a name? | Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message. | H H H |
880 | Our greatest hit | Start with a real word or multi-word term or name that begins with Q, R or S; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter with another, or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | H H |
879 | Say Venn | Express some sentiment in the form of a Venn diagram. | P H H |
877 | Quipped from the headlines | Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news. | H 2 |
876 | Oilies but goodies | Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. | H H H |
875 | Fail Us | Give us a funny Learn From My Fail-type lesson, 30 words or fewer, true or not, in your own words or attributed to a famous personage. | H H H |
873 | Back to Square 1A | Replace the shaded letters in this grid with your own letters to come up with a different word or phrase -- either an existing word or one you make up -- and define it humorously. | T H H 3 |
871 | Remarquees | Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. | H H |
870 | Let's play Nopardy | Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. | P H |
869 | Clue us in | Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. | H |
866 | Natalie Portmanteau | Begin with a real name; append to it a word, name or expression so that they overlap; and finally define (humorously, of course) the resulting phrase. | H |
864 | Oonerspisms | Spoonerize a single word or a name by transposing different part of the word (more than two adjacent letters), and define the resultant new term. | H |
862 | Be cheerful | Send us a cheer or fight song for any pro sports team or any national team. | H |
861 | It's incumbent upon us | Combine the names of two or more freshman members of Congress to create "joint legislation." This week's pool of legislators includes only those who were elected to their seats before 1994, the first year we ran the freshman contest. | M H H |
860 | Ten, Anyone? | Humorously define or describe something or someone in exactly 10 words. | H |
859 | Can't goods | Cast a joke in one of the forms listed above. | W |
856 | Titled Puerility | Here are some untitled book covers. For any of them, tell us a title and synopsis of a book that will never be published. | H |
855 | The news could be verse | Sum up an article (or even an ad!) in any Washington Post print or online edition from Feb. 6 through Feb. 15 in verse. | H H H H |
854 | What's not to liken? | Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. | H |
853 | It's easy as DEF | Create a brand-new word or phrase that contains a block of three successive letters in the alphabet; the series must go forward in the alphabet, not backward. | H |
852 | Small, Let's get | Write a rhopalic sentence (or fanciful newspaper headline) in which each successive word is one letter shorter. | P H H H H |
851 | Going to the shrink | Downsize the title of a book, movie or play to make it smaller or less momentous and describe it. | H |
850 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. | H |
849 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. | H H |
848 | Up and addin' | Compose a humorous rhopalic sentence (or multiple sentences) in which each word is one letter longer than the previous word. | L H H 2 |
847 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from Dec. 11 through Dec. 21 and come up with a question it might answer. | L H H H |
845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | H H |
844 | Healthy choice | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 790 through Week 840, except for Week 793 and Week 798. | P |
843 | Prefrains | Provide a sentence or two of lead-in to the first line of a well-known book, poem, or song. | M H H |
842 | Ask backwards | Here are your 12 possible answers. Tell us your joke in the form of a question, please. | H H |
840 | Frittering away the neurons | Give us some more colorfully useful phrases; they don't have to be in the X'ing-the-Y form. | 4 |
839 | Overlap Dance | Overlap two words that share two or more consecutive letters -- anywhere in the word, not just at the beginning or end -- into a single longer word, and define it. AND your portmanteau word must begin with a letter from A through D. | H |
837 | Strip Search | Combine two comic strips that appear in The Washington Post or at washingtonpost.com/comics and describe the results. | H |
836 | Other People's Business | Describe what might happen if any of the above institutions (a) were run by an institution of your choice or (b) ran an institution of your choice. | P |
834 | Fractured Compounds | Combine two full words within any single article appearing in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com into a hyphenated compound word, and define or otherwise describe the result. | L H |
833 | Our Greatest Hit | Start with a real word or multi-word term or name that begins with M, N, O, or P; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | M H H |
830 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Aug. 14 through Aug. 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | W T M |
827 | Caller Idiot | Name a real product or company and supply a stupid question or complaint for the consumer hotline person. | M H |
826 | The Inside Word | Take any word -- this may include the name of a person or place -- put a portion of it in quotation marks, and redefine the word. | T H 3 |
825 | Disinstrumentals | Write some words to music that has no words. | M |
824 | Jestinations | Give us a slogan for any city or town. | H |
822 | For Real Folks | Suggest some attractions for a Festival of Real American Folklife. | T M |
821 | Spit the Difference | How are any of the items on the list above alike or different? | M |
820 | Be Mister Language Person | Supply a Mister Language Person-type question and answer. | M H 3 |
818 | Name the Day | Cite an actual holiday or one of those silly commemorative days, weeks or months for which you can find previous evidence, and supply a snarky description or slogan. | P H |
817 | Flopflip | Reverse the first half and second half of a word or name and define the result. | H |
816 | Googillions | Come up with an original phrase that generates at least 1 million listings on a Google search. | P H |
814 | There Will Be Bloodline | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name their foal. | H |
813 | Aw, Shocks | Give us a humorous example of the "shocking -- not. | H |
812 | Rx-Related Humor | Offer up some entirely false medical or psychological "fact. | H |
811 | Rock-Bottom Lines | Tell us a sign that the economy couldn't get worse. | T H |
809 | Unkindest Cutlines | Supply cutlines, or captions, for any of these newspaper photos. | P |
808 | Take Us At Our Words | Create a humorous poem or other writing using only the words contained in this week's Style Invitational column or results. | T H H H |
807 | Pretty Graphic Expressions | Express some insight as an equation or other mathematical expression. | H |
805 | Brand Eccchs | Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). | P |
804 | Our Type o' Joke | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com between Feb. 14 and 23, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead) or a brief first sentence of an article that would run under it. | H H H H H 3 |
803 | The Pepys Show | Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. | H H H |
802 | Dreck TV | Suggest a new cable TV channel, with a description or example of its programming. | T M H |
801 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. You supply one or more of the questions. | H |
800 | Compairison | Briefly define or sum up an existing word or short phrase, then change it very slightly and do the same with the result. | H H |
799 | Send Us the Bill | Come up with legislation that, given their names, two or more freshman senators or representatives might sponsor together. | P H |
798 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. | H H |
797 | Be Resolute | Make a humorous resolution for some particular person or institution to accomplish next year. | T |
796 | Sincerest Flattery | Make up a pun on a familiar name of a real of fictional person and provide a fitting description or quote. | H |
795 | Stimulate Us | Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. | H |
792 | Clue Us In | Compile a set of funny alternative clues to a crossword penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | T H |
790 | If Only! | Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. | H |
789 | Doctrine in The House? | State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. | H |
788 | The Back End of a Bulwer | Give us a comically terrible ending of a novel. | M |
787 | Tour de Fours V | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters M, I, N and E. | H |
785 | The Ballad Box | Write a short, humorous song somehow relating to the presidential campaign, set to a familiar tune. | H |
783 | The Shill Game | Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. | H |
781 | Our Greatest Hit | Start with a word or multi-word term that begins with I, J, K or L; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | T H 4 |
780 | Location, Location, Location | Say how you know you're in a particular place. | H |
779 | Gripe for the Picking | Rant about any issue that wouldn't make your top 100 for airing in The Post. | H |
778 | Tied Games | Combine any two sports or nonathletic activities into a single sport or game. | H |
777 | Limerixicon 5 | Supply a humorous limerick featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters da-. | H H |
775 | Ad-dition | Combine the beginning and end of any two words appearing in any single advertisement in The Post or on washingtonpost.com, from today through Aug. 4, and then define the new word. | H H |
774 | Tour De Forks | Supply a name for a restaurant dish named after someone (or some product or organization) and describe it. | H |
772 | Make It Simile, Stupid | Translate a sentence or two of literature or other good writing so that "Los Angeles residents under 40" can appreciate it. | T H |
771 | Groaner's Manuals | Come up with a humorous name for a guide or manual for, or a book about, a particular enterprise or organization. | W T H H |
770 | A Knack for Anachronism | Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age. | H |
769 | Splice Work If You Can Get It | Combine two words -- overlapping by at least two letters -- into what's known by polysyllabic types as a portmanteau word, and by the rest of us as mash word, and define it. | H |
767 | Questionable Journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in the Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from May 31 through June 9 and come up with a question it might answer. | W H |
766 | Think to Shudder | Come up with scenarios that are even more awkward (and more imaginative) than the wincers mentioned above. | H |
765 | It's Doo-Dah Day | Write humorous lyrics commemorating any of the 50 states of the District, set to any of these Stephen Foster songs. | H H H |
763 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | 3 |
762 | Look This Up in Your Funk & Wagnalls | Supply the pair of terms listed at the top of a page of any print dictionary to indicate the first and last listings on the page, and define that hyphenated term. | H H |
761 | Strip Mining | Supply the text for any or all three of these Bob Staake comic strips. | M |
758 | Wrong Address | Using any of the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in whatever order you like, create your own passage. | H |
757 | Gorey Thoughts From A to Z | Send us some rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. | H |
756 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from March 15 through 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H H |
755 | Take Another 'Whack | Send us a phrase of two or more words that produces exactly one Web page on the Google search engine and describe the phrase. | T |
753 | Hot Off The Riddle | Supply a simple riddle and both the wholesome answer and the (printable) Invitational answer. | P H |
752 | The Might-Mates Right | Fill out any of these five "you just might" joke-templates. | H |
749 | Opus 266, No. 3 | Take any common word or two-word term beginning with any letter from A through H and give it a new definition. | H H |
748 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about a well-known personage who died in 2007. | H H |
747 | Boeing Us Silly | Suggest some comical ways to improve air travel, either in general or for yourself. | W |
744 | You OED Us One | Make up a humorous and false definition for any of the words listed below. | H |
742 | Clue Us In | Give us a whole new set of clues to a crossword puzzle penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | H |
740 | Give Us a Hint | Offer clues in various situations that something isn't working out well. | H |
738 | So What's To Liken? | Take any two items from the utterly random list above and explain how they are different or how they are similar. | H |
737 | No River, No Woods | Send us a funny parody of a well-known song, with lyrics that commemorate an occasion other than Christmas or Hanukkah. | T H |
734 | Turnaround Time | Write a rhyming couplet containing two words that are anagrams of each other. | H H 3 |
729 | Otherwordly Visions | Take any sentence in an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 1 through Sept. 10 and translate it into "plain English. | H |
724 | Abridged Too Far | Sum up a book, play or movie in a humorous rhyming verse of two to four lines. | H H |
723 | Name Your Poison | Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. | H |
718 | Put Our Heads Together | Create a new, funny headline from the words of any headlines appearing anywhere in a single day's Washington Post (or on washingtonpost.com) | H |
716 | The Hard Spell | Write a humorous poem featuring one of the 75 words we've selected from this year's National Spelling Bee. | H H |
715 | Your Mug Here | Send us an idea for a slogan for the back of the new Loser T-shirt. | W |
707 | What Would YOU Do? | Use only the words appearing in "The Cat in the Hat" to create your own work of "literature" of no more than 75 words. | H |
706 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from March 24 through April 2 and come up with a question it could answer. | H |
704 | Another Game of Tag | Create vanity plates for well-known people, real or fictional. | H H |
701 | Untitlement | Here are the covers for what just might be Bob Staake's next four books. What are they called and what are they about? | 3 |
697 | We Beg You To Differ | Take any two items from the truly random provided list and explain why they are different or why they are similar. | 4 |
696 | Send Us the Bill | Come up legislation the newly-elected members of Congress might sponsor together. | H H |
695 | Dead Letters | Write a poem about someone who died in 2006. | H |
693 | Everything Being Sequel | Give a brief scenario for the sequel to a well-known movie. | H |
689 | Busted Play | Come up with a more objectionable or stupid toy than a working fart-powered toy rocket. | H |
683 | What a Piece of Work | String together words in a single scene, or two consecutive scenes, of "Hamlet" to produce one or more funny sentences, preferably unrelated to the original content. The words must appear in the order in which they appear in the play. | 4 |
663 | Worth at Least a Dozen Words | Interpret any of the provided cartoons as you see fit in a caption. | H |
604 | Fun for the Roses | Breed any two of the horses on a list of those qualifying for this year's Triple Crown races, and tell us a good name for their foal. The name of the foal must be no more than 18 characters, including spaces. | H |