RETURN TO STATS HOME PAGE

PERMANENT INKSTAIN FOR DAVE GARRATT



WEEK TITLE SYNOPSIS INK Types
1534 Pun for the Roses Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns! H H
1532 We Bee Back With Neologisms Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game H
1525 Arty Har-har Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work H
1522 Questionable Journalism Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer 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. H
1253 Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. H
1249 Ask Backwards 36 Choose any of the 15 provided items and follow it with a question that it could humorously answer. H H
1245 Call us reprehensible . . . Complain in a humorously missing-the-point way about something that has appeared in The Washington Post (in print or online) recently, or in another publication. W
1242 Generation Yux Give us a "then/now" joke. 4
1239 MASH 3 Combine two movie titles and  describe the result. 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
1227 Celebrate ortho-diversity! Name and describe a new life form -- and no letter in the term may be used twice. H 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. H
1221 Who's kidding whom? Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like H
1217 Mergers you wrote: Combine two businesses with puns Give a clever name for a combination of two or more businesses. H
1178 A ______ of collective nouns Propose one or more funny new names for groups of things. L
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
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
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
1138 Show us your touché Offer an elegantly snide (and original) insult of anyone living or dead. 2
1134 The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. H
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. H
1088 Ask backwards with our answers, your questions Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like. 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
1059 With parens like these . . . Add some words in parentheses to a well-known song title to make it funnier in some way. H
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 H
1045 Songs for the asking Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. H
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
1038 It's like this, see Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. 3
1034 What's to like? Supply an original joke of the form "I like my [your choice] the way I like my [something else of your choice]: [some clever, funny parallel]. H
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. 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. H H
1010 Picture this Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. H H
1007 Clue us in Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. H H H
1002 Wring out the OED Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. H
997 Unworthy causes Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. H
995 Ask backwards We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. H H H
993 Versus, verses Write a short "rap battle" between any two characters, real or fictional. H
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
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. 2
989 On the double Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s). H 2
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
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. H
946 Another round of Bierce Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. H
942 Singular ideas Give us an idea for a contest for which there's likely only one good entry. H H H
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
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
915 Picture this Write a caption for any of the cartoons pictured here. P
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. W H
805 Brand Eccchs Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). 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
798 Dead Letters Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. H
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 H
794 Ripped Off From the Headlines Send us some Onion-type headlines. H
790 If Only! Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. H H
789 Doctrine in The House? State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. H
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 H
317 PICK US A WINNER Come up with flawed contest ideas, and the single, obvious, too-good-to-beat entry. 4
277 LIFE IN THE BLURBS Come up a simple plot summary to help attract the modern audience to any classic work of fiction. It must be literally true and defensible. H
276 SPIT THE DIFFERENCE Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. H
268 WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? Take the names of this year's Triple Crown nominees, mate any two of them, a propose a name for the foal. The foal's name must be contained in 18 characters, including spaces. H H
106 DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Who are these people, and what are they doing? H
86 EXCUSES, EXCUSES Come up with funny excuses for various malfeasances. L