| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1605 | Get Thee to a Punnery | Change a quote slightly and credit it to someone else. | H |
| 1536 | Colt Following | Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'. | H |
| 1518 | The final Post edition | Some all-time favorite entries | H |
| 1488 | Let's recycle! | Come up with humorous uses for ANY product or combination of products listed at RepurposeMaterials.com, including but no restricted to the provided list. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1480 | Oh, you don't really mean that | Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. | 3 |
| 1451 | Could have said it worse ourselves | Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment. | 3 |
| 1438 | Nothing but the untruth: Fake trivia about the law | Give us some bogus trivia about the law -- lawyers, courts, judges, police, odd laws, terminology, what have you. | H |
| 1434 | Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals | Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. | H |
| 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. | H H |
| 1428 | The Tile Invitational VIII | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | W H |
| 1427 | Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you? | State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format. | 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. | 4 |
| 1425 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. | H H |
| 1424 | We Bee back -- a neologism contest | From any of the 30 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term or phrase and describe it humorously. You must use the first letter in the set (anywhere in the word) plus any or all of the others, as often as you like. | W |
| 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. | H H |
| 1422 | The Collaboratory | Think of a book, movie or song title. Then pair its creator, star, singer, etc., with an unrelated "collaborator" to produce a wordplay on the title. | H H |
| 1419 | Send us the bill -- 'joint legislation' | Combine two or more names from the provided list of the new members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | H |
| 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. | 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 |
| 1414 | Divining comedy: 2021 predictions | Name some humorous news event to happen in 2021. | H |
| 1408 | Re-Organization | Slightly change the name of a nonprofit organization and describe it. | L |
| 1407 | Your ad space (or space ad) here | Come up with an idea for promoting some commercial product or service (a) in space, (b) in a prison, (c) at a kindergarten, (d) by a football team or (e) in the White House. | 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 |
| 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. | H |
| 1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | H |
| 1391 | No-covid zone -- a neologism contest | Coin a new word or phrase that lacks C, O, V, I and D and describe it. | L |
| 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 |
| 1387 | Movie clips -- drop letters from the middle of a title | Delete one or more letters (they must be consecutive) from the middle of a movie title, and describe the resulting new movie. | 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. | H |
| 1385 | Don't you want to see new places? | Change any place name slightly and describe the new place. | H H |
| 1384 | Of course there are stupid questions! | Give us stupid questions, especially ones reflecting Our Current Situation. | H |
| 1382 | For us, it's still Post Time | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 of the 145 previous Kentucky Derby winners, from 1875 to 2019, and name the foal to humorously reflect the parents' names. | H |
| 1381 | Let's be equinoxious with fictoids about spring | Tell us some untrue trivia about springtime or things that happen or happened in the spring. | 4 |
| 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 |
| 1373 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. | H 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 |
| 1368 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | 3 |
| 1362 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. | 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 H H |
| 1345 | The confaketionary -- food fictoids | Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. | H |
| 1342 | MRGRS: Mash 2 abbrevs. | Combine two acronyms or other abbreviations, whether of entities or expressions, into one big one, and describe it, offer a slogan for the new organization, etc. | W H 4 |
| 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 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. | H |
| 1338 | Picture This -- cartoon captions | Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H H H |
| 1337 | Lidder me this: anagram riddles | Write a Q&A joke (or an A followed by a Q, if you're into "Jeopardy!") in which the punchline contains an anagram or one or more relevant words or names. | 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. | H |
| 1327 | Mess with our (or anyone's) heads | Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline (or a big part of a headline) by writing a bank head, or subtitle. | H H |
| 1326 | Foaling around | Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 horses and name the foal to reflect both names. | 4 |
| 1323 | Selected shortened subjects | Delete one or more letters from the beginning or end (or both) of a movie title and describe the resulting movie. | T M H H |
| 1322 | Back to the drawing board | Come up with an idea for an invention that still needs a bug ironed out. | H |
| 1321 | Pumping Prime: Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" (like the provided samples from our earlier contests) for any of the provided items. | H H 3 |
| 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. | H H |
| 1319 | The Tile Invitational VI | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | W H H 2 |
| 1297 | A different type o' headline contest | Change a letter in an article or ad in the Post or another publication dated Sept. 13-24 by adding or subtracting one letter; substituting a letter; transposing two letters; or changing spacing or punctuation; and then add a "bank head. | 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 |
| 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 |
| 1289 | Fake gnus: bogus animal trivia | Tell us a fictoid -- a humorously false "fact" -- about the nonhuman animal kingdom. | 2 |
| 1288 | Your results may vary | Write a funny disclaimer or warning for some product or service. | W T |
| 1284 | Same difference | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | 2 |
| 1283 | Put it in Bee-verse | Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes one of the provided words, all from the 2018 National Spelling Bee. | M 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 H |
| 1280 | A la'ugh' a minute with 'air quotes' | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give it a new meaning or description. | H H 3 |
| 1279 | Just do it -- the 'real' way | List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task. | H |
| 1275 | That is the question | Choose a line from Shakespeare (or a significant part of a line) and pair it with a question that the line could humorously answer. | H 2 |
| 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 |
| 1273 | Restocking the Cabinet | Explain why a particular person -- or thing -- ought to fill a Cabinet post or other U.S. government position. | H |
| 1272 | The hex files: creative curses | Come up with a creative curse. | W |
| 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. | H H |
| 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 H |
| 1267 | Jingle bungle | Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle. | 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 |
| 1262 | Clue us in -- a backward crossword | Supply one or more creative clues for the provided filled-in crossword grid -- as many as 25 clues in all. | H |
| 1260 | What lies (are) ahead for 2018 | Jokingly predict some news event to happen in 2018. | 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 H |
| 1256 | Picture this -- a caption contest | Provide a funny caption for any of the provided cartoons. | T |
| 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. | W |
| 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 H |
| 1248 | C'mon, fess up! | Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. | H H |
| 1247 | Script tease | Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot. | H H H 4 |
| 1244 | Primed for product reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | 4 |
| 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 |
| 1229 | Gorey bits from A to Z | Send us one of more edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. | H |
| 1228 | That movie is SO about you | Name someone who was the "secret inspiration" for a certain movie. | H |
| 1222 | Foaling around | Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both of them. | H H |
| 1217 | Mergers you wrote: Combine two businesses with puns | Give a clever name for a combination of two or more businesses. | H H H |
| 1210 | Send us the bill: Our 'joint legislation' game | Combine two or more names from the provided list of members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | 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 H |
| 1206 | Do-over the do-over -- enter any of the year's contests | Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1202, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over. | 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. | 4 |
| 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". | L 2 |
| 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. | T |
| 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 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). | H 2 |
| 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 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. | T |
| 1188 | Just short words, one more time | Explain some concept or philosophy entirely in words of one syllable. | H |
| 1187 | Just drop it, okay? | Drop the last letter from an existing word, phrase or name and define the result. | W H H |
| 1186 | We're always happy to verse you | Write a humorous poem, of any form, about or “by” the anagram of anyone’s name. | 4 |
| 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 |
| 1184 | Plan C -- a third candidate? | Explain why some novel person (or thing) should be president; you could also suggest a president-veep ticket. | 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 |
| 1178 | A ______ of collective nouns | Propose one or more funny new names for groups of things. | H |
| 1175 | Good luck with 13 | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. | H 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 4 |
| 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 H |
| 1172 | Pieces of 'Pie' | Write a short passage -- an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in the song "American Pie". | T M 4 |
| 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. | W H |
| 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. | H 4 |
| 1165 | B all you can B | Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more B's, and/or by replacing one or more letters with B's, and define your new term. | H |
| 1163 | Put it in reverse | Spell a word, name or phrase backward and define the result in a way that relates to the original. | H H |
| 1162 | An 8-year Re-Onion | Write a fictional Onion-type headline. | H |
| 1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. | T 3 |
| 1160 | A remeaning task | Redefine an existing word or two-word term beginning with P through Z. | H H 4 |
| 1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | H |
| 1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | H H H H |
| 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 H |
| 1156 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2015. | H H |
| 1153 | Be three-paired | Choose two or more entities represented by a single three-letter combination from IAA through LZZ, found at the provided link, and say how they are alike or different or have some connection. | M |
| 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. | M H |
| 1151 | To [a glass], snarkly | Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls. | 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. | P |
| 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. | T |
| 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. | M H H 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. | T H H |
| 1144 | Someone else's business | Name a real brand, along with something else it would be a better name for. | H |
| 1142 | Two-faced tweets | Combine two well-known names into a Twitter handle, and write a tweet (no more than 140 characters and spaces) that that portmanteau person might write. | M |
| 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. | W H H H |
| 1140 | You're giving us a bad name | Cite a REAL brand name, past or present, note its original use, and then say what sort of product, organization, etc., that name would be bad for. | 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). | T |
| 1137 | Be a published author! | Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined. | H |
| 1136 | Gaah! It's Limerixicon XII | Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ga-". | H |
| 1134 | The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' | Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. | H |
| 1132 | You and what army? Military fictoids | Give us some comically bogus trivia about the military, past or present, ours or theirs. | W |
| 1130 | Yux Redux: Play on a foreign phrase | Make a word play on a foreign phrase or term (or English phrase using foreign words) and describe it. | H H |
| 1128 | Drone for a loop | Give us some novel uses for a CICADA micro-drone, assuming that anyone can get one, and that it can have a micro-camera, micro-grips, etc. | H 2 |
| 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. | H |
| 1126 | Picture this | Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. | H 4 |
| 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 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 |
| 1119 | We want hue so bad | Invent a name for a color and describe it. | H 3 |
| 1118 | Breed 'em and weep | Breed any two of the provided 100 racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown events and name the foal the reflect both names. | H |
| 1112 | Some SHARP words | Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. | W 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 |
| 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. | T H |
| 1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | H H 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. | H |
| 1098 | Prime time for some Amazon reviews | Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. | H 4 |
| 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". | H 2 |
| 1096 | Picture this | Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. | H 2 |
| 1094 | TAXI's the fare for Tour de Fours XI | Coin a word or hyphenated term that contains the letter block T-A-X-I; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. | M H |
| 1092 | Are we having funds yet? | Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. | H 3 |
| 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. | W H |
| 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. | H H H |
| 1088 | Ask backwards with our answers, your questions | Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like. | M H |
| 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. |
H |
| 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. | H H |
| 1083 | Everybody get appy | Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one. | M H H |
| 1079 | Little piddle riddle | Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme. | H |
| 1076 | Dactyly fractyly | Send us some double dactyls that conform to Gene Weingarten's rules. | M H |
| 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 H |
| 1072 | The Tile Invitational | Come up with a 5-, 6-, or 7-letter term by scrambling any of the provided seven-letter ScrabbleGram sets, and define it. | H 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. | W M 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. | M |
| 1067 | A(t)tribute to your wit | Alter a well-known quote slightly and attribute it to someone else. | H H |
| 1066 | It's mating season | Breed" any two from the provided list of 100 of the 3-year-old racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown and name the foal to reflect both names. | H H |
| 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 |
| 1064 | HistoRebuffs | Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. | T |
| 1063 | Same difference | Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. | M H 3 |
| 1062 | Scanning the headlines | Write a rhyming poem about something currently in the news. | W 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 H |
| 1060 | Picture this | Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. | H |
| 1059 | With parens like these . . . | Add some words in parentheses to a well-known song title to make it funnier in some way. | H |
| 1058 | Eastwood Ho | Create a good-bad-ugly progression. | T H |
| 1057 | Sportin' lie | Give us some fake sports trivia. | T H H |
| 1056 | Weather or nuts | Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. | H H |
| 1054 | Dead letters | Write a short, humorous poem commemorating someone (or maybe even something) who died in 2013. | L 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. | 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 |
| 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. | H H H H |
| 1049 | Be rating | Come up with a new movie rating and describe it. | M H H |
| 1047 | Bank shots | Quote a headline appearing in The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com or another publication, print or online, dated Nov. 14 to Nov. 25, and supply a humorous "bank" headline that either misinterprets it or comments wryly on it. | W 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 4 |
| 1044 | Play it safe | Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere. | M |
| 1042 | Tour de Fours X: Go SANE | Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block S-A-N-E -- in any order, but consecutively, and define it. | H |
| 1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | H |
| 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. |
H |
| 1038 | It's like this, see | Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. | H 2 |
| 1037 | Outrage us | Find something offensive about an inoffensive name of a product, organization, place, etc. | H H |
| 1036 | Just for liffs | Use a real place name, from anywhere in the world, as a new term. | H H 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-". | T 2 |
| 1032 | Hid stuff | Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer. | H H 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. | M H |
| 1028 | Joint Legislation | Combine the names of two or more of the First Congress senators and/or representatives to create "joint legislation". | T M H H |
| 1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | H H 3 |
| 1026 | 'Might' makes ink | Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. | H H |
| 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. | H H H 2 |
| 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 |
| 1022 | What's the diff? | Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. | M |
| 1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | T H H H 2 |
| 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. | H H |
| 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. | H |
| 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. | H |
| 1015 | Faux re mi | Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. | T 4 |
| 1013 | Har monikers | Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. | H H H |
| 1012 | The news at 5 | Write a limerick about a recent news event. | H 3 |
| 1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H |
| 1010 | Picture this | Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. | H H H |
| 1009 | What's in a name? | Write something about some person, real or fictional, using only the letters in the person's name. | H |
| 1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H H |
| 1005 | Send us the bill | Name a piece of legislation "cosponsored" by two or more of the 98 new House and Senate members provided. | H |
| 1002 | Wring out the OED | Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. | 4 |
| 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 |
| 995 | Ask backwards | We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. | H |