| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 1177 | The ballad box | Write a song related to this year's elections, set to a familiar tune. | I |
| 1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | W H |
| 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 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 |
| 1125 | The song remains the sa | Supply a real song title that has the end or beginning -- or, what the heck, both -- chopped off and describe it. | H 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 4 |
| 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 |
| 1110 | The mama of all humor | Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. | H |
| 1109 | Fictoids of Columbia | Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. | H |
| 1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H |
| 1006 | It's a ... a ... | Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower. | H H |
| 1003 | Just do it | Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect. | I H H |
| 988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | H |
| 979 | The madding crowd | Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. | H 2 |
| 975 | Gone mything | Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. | 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 H |
| 965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | H |
| 959 | Out of network | Move a current or former TV program (or type of programming) to a different network and explain what would change. | H |
| 951 | Say that again | Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it. | 4 |
| 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 |
| 936 | Hoho contendere | Slightly alter a well-known foreign-language term and define it. | H |
| 932 | We'll call them your-mama jokes | Tell us an original "your mama" joke. | I H H |
| 928 | Play feature | Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question. | H |
| 910 | Your ad here | Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it. | H |
| 908 | Recast away | Fire an actor or actress from a movie or TV show, past or present, and offer a replacement for the role. | I |
| 901 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2010. | H 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. | 2 |
| 895 | Picture this | Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. | 4 |
| 888 | It's the eponymy, stupid | Coin a word or expression based on the name of a well-known person, define it, and perhaps use it in a sentence | H |
| 886 | Look both ways | Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it. | H 3 |
| 884 | Rekindling the spork | Combine two devices or other products to make a new one. | H |
| 879 | Say Venn | Express some sentiment in the form of a Venn diagram. | H |
| 878 | Safety in blunders | Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. | H |
| 876 | Oilies but goodies | Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. | 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 |
| 872 | Har Monikers | Combine the first parts of each word in a famous person's or character's name -- in order -- and define it or use it in a sentence that somehow refers to its source. | H 2 |
| 871 | Remarquees | Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. | H |
| 863 | It's Post time | Breed any two of 100 of the almost 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races, and name the foal. | 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. | H |
| 860 | Ten, Anyone? | Humorously define or describe something or someone in exactly 10 words. | H H |
| 857 | All FED Up | Create a brand-new word or phrase that contains a block of three successive letters in the alphabet -- but the series must go backward through the alphabet. | H |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 849 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. | H H |
| 845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | H H |
| 843 | Prefrains | Provide a sentence or two of lead-in to the first line of a well-known book, poem, or song. | H |
| 841 | Food for naught | Alter the name of a food or dish slightly and describe the result. | H |
| 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 |