WEEK	TITLE	SYNOPSIS	INK Types
1583	A Thousand Words	Write a funny poem about the artwork of your choice.	H H
1582	You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang	A classic connection game.	L H
1581	SOTU-Speak	Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration.	H
1580	Hi, Anxiety!	Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out.	H
1577	Why the #$%#$% Not?	The Washington Post is looking for some bold ideas -- Let's show it some!	H 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.	2
1571	Dead Letters, our annual obit contest	Write a funny verse about someone who died in 2023.	H
1568	Nextra! Nextra!	Tell us the funny news events from 2024	L H H
1564	"Air" "Quotes"	A new forefinger contest	H H H 2
1561	Let It Be a Lesson to Us	Tell us some things to be learned from Costco, the bathroom, TV shows, etc.	H
1560	The 'Hole Story	Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question	H
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
1557	Tailgating On the Highway	Pair a Dylan line with your own rhyming one	H H
1556	Cross Us Up	Mirror a phrase, more or less	H
1555	Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us?	Give us "backronyms"	H 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	H
1551	Ask Backwards XLII	We give the answers. You give the questions.	H H
1549	The Tile Invitational X	It's our 10th running of this coin-a-word game.	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 H
1541	Wrong enough for ya?	Fake facts about the weather	H
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
1536	Colt Following	Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'.	2
1534	Pun for the Roses	Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns!	H H
1531	The Worst New Contest Ever	Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency	W
1530	Mess With Our Heads	Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'.	H
1525	Arty Har-har	Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work	H
1524	Picture This	A caption contest	H
1523	Where in Hell ...?	Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment	H H
1522	Questionable Journalism	Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer	H
1521	Send Us the Bill	Our "Joint Legislation" contest	H
1520	Nextra! Nextra!	Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023	H
1518	The final Post edition	Some all-time favorite entries	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
1511	The inside word--our 'air quote' contest	Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in “air quotes” to give the word a new meaning or description.	H
1499	Picture This, a cartoon caption contest	Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons.	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
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
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.	L 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 H
1490	It's parody time -- sing the news	Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days.	4
1486	No can do: Signs of incompetence	Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field.	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 H 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.	3
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.	H
1477	Thinking outside the big box	Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>.	H 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
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.	H 2
1472	Phony money -- tell us fake financial trivia	Tell us some fake trivia about money or the financial system.	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.	H
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.	M H
1465	Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline	Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022.	H H
1464	Picture this -- a caption contest	Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons.	H
1462	Time for a new career?	Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles.	H 4
1460	These new words are on fleek	From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer.	H H
1458	Do adjust your set: TV anagrams+	Use all the letters of any TV show (including streamed ones), past or present, to create new show; or it can be an episode of the original.	H
1456	The hunting of the snark	Ask an insulting rhetorical question in the form (or a variation) of "Is that your _______ or _______?	H H 2
1451	Could have said it worse ourselves	Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment.	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.	4
1448	Hear, hear -- it's Limerixicon XVIII	Supply a humerous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with "he-".	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".	H
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
1442	Same difference, or missing links	Choose any two (or more) items from the utterly random list above and say how they're different, alike or otherwise linked.	H H
1440	It's parody time!	Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days.	H H
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
1436	Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles	Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description.	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.	L 2
1432	Turn tale and run with it	Offer a new angle on a folk tale, nursery rhyme, children's song, etc., with a short poem, mini-story (under 100 words) or song parody.	W H H
1431	The On-Our-Way-Back Machine	Tell us how (in some funny way) things will be different as we emerge from the pandemic.	H 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.	4
1427	Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you?	State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format.	W
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
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
1420	Singing on the job -- a parody contest	Write a humorous "work song" for any job or profession. Set it to any well-known tune.	L
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
1411	Back end of a Bulwer	Write a humorously awful final sentence or two to an imaginary novel.	H 2
1410	Legends of the fall -- more fictoids	Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn.	H H
1409	Skip a groove: Drop a letter or more from a song title	Drop one or more letters from somewhere in the middle of a song title and describe the new song, and/or quote some lyrics from it.	H H
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
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.	W 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
1401	How hai? A joke-haiku contest	Write a joke (roughly) in the "It's so xxx" genre as a haiku.	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
1397	Trope springs eternal	Use any of the four provided standard settings -- (a) desert island, (b) bartender at a bar, (c) desert, (d) psychiatrist next to a couch -- and describe a cartoon that includes your choice of characters, along with a caption.	H
1396	Hail Limerixicon XVII: Write a limerick featuring a 'ha-' word	Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ha-".	H
1394	Two movies, one line	Cite a real or coined line, or give a description, that could work for two different movies, plays or TV shows.	2
1393	Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams	Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan.	H
1389	TankaWanka 4: Haiku plus tu	Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately.	H
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 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.	L H
1384	Of course there are stupid questions!	Give us stupid questions, especially ones reflecting Our Current Situation.	H
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
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 H H H
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
1376	Get thee to a funnery	Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue.	H
1375	Mess With Our Heads	Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle.	H
1374	Versus' verses in a rap battle	Write a mini-"rap" between any two characters, real or fictional, as in the provided ERB example.	W M
1373	Prime time for some Amazon reviews	Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items.	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
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.	H
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 2
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 H H
1363	The Year in Redo, Part 2	Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359.	H
1361	2020 vision -- the year in preview	Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020.	H H 2
1358	What to your wondering eyes will appear?	Write a humorous passage -- a "quote", an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in "A Visit From St. Nicholas" (a.k.a "The Night Before Christmas").	H
1357	It's parody time!	Write a satirical song about anything in the news right now, set to a familiar tune.	H H
1356	Ask Backwards 38	Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions.	H 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 H
1354	As the Word turns 5: Taking our vowels	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 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.	H
1352	Hee-rotica -- Steamy prose for unsteamy life	Write a short steamy scene (100 words would be considered long) about a non-steamy event.	H 3
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 H 3
1348	Same difference	Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected.	M
1346	AZ if -- balancing acts	Think of a new word or two-word phrase that begins and ends -- either way -- with one of the provided "alphabetically balanced" pairs.	L 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.	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.	W
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.	I H 4
1339	Songs for a modern error	Write humorous lyrics about some modern woe, set to a familiar tune.	M H
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.	H
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.	4
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 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.	H 2
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 H
1328	Hooked on 'classic': a do-over	Summarize a book or play by any author, or retell a scene (or even a moment) from one, in the style of some other person.	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 H
1322	Back to the drawing board	Come up with an idea for an invention that still needs a bug ironed out.	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.	H H
1316	Lies, damn lies, with statistics	Tell us some bogus trivia using "statistics" or some bogus quantitative meaure.	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
1314	Bill Us Now -- '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
1311	Nextra! Nextra! The year in preview	Name some humorous event to happen in 2019.	H
1308	Picture this -- or these	This week you have two choices: (1) Write a caption for one or more of these pictures, or (2) explain what is wrong with the picture. You might also combine two pictures into one -- or all four into one.	H H 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
1303	Neologisms to di- for	Replace a digraph in an existing word or phrase with another digraph to make a new term.	H H H H 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
1298	It's IGH time for 3-word phrases	Make up some entity that might take a three-letter abbreviation of GHI, HGI, GGG, GHH, etc., and then humorously describe it.	3
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 H H
1292	Golly gosh, it's Limerixicon XV	Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term, beginning with "gl-" through "go-".	2
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.	H
1288	Your results may vary	Write a funny disclaimer or warning for some product or service.	H 2
1287	It's parody time: Oldies for newsies	Write some song lyrics about something in the news these days, set to a familiar tune.	H
1279	Just do it -- the 'real' way	List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task.	H
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 2
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
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 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.	L
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.	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.	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
1268	Playing pinocchio	Tell us some humorously bogus trivia about the news media or the publishing or broadcasting industries.	H H H
1267	Jingle bungle	Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle.	H 3
1264	A cry for Yelp: 'Review' any place	Write a humorous review, positive or negative, of anyplace (real of fictional) one might visit.	H 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 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.	L
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
1251	Thanking outside the box	Tell us something to be thankful for.	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
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
1240	We GIVE you Limerixicon XIV	Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gh-" or "gi-".	T
1239	MASH 3	Combine two movie titles and describe the result.	H 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
1235	The Sound of Science	Write humorous lyrics on the subject of science or technology, set to a well-known tune.	H
1230	What in creation . . . ?	Supply a brief monologue or dialogue about a Creator's specifications or planning for some living being.	T 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.)	W
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 H H
1223	Post again out to mislead public!	Write a humorously sensationalistic, misleading headline on an otherwise mundane article or ad published in The Post or elsewhere from April 13 to April 24.	H 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
1214	The alternaugural address	Write a humorous passage — a “quote,” an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything — using only words that appear in Trump’s inaugural address.	H
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.	W H 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
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
1200	The definitive dozen	Supply a word, name or multi-word term along with a wry definition or description; together, the term and description must total exactly 12 words.	H 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 H H
1194	Nyetymologies: fake word origins	Provide a humorously untrue explanation for the derivation of a word.	H 4
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.	W 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 H
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 4
1187	Just drop it, okay?	Drop the last letter from an existing word, phrase or name and define the result.	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 2
1183	C'mon, be honest with us	Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y.	H
1179	Blasted alphabetical contests . . .	Coin a three-word phrase whose words begin with A, B and C -- in any order -- and describe it.	4
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
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 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".	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.	H H H
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.	H
1169	Be caustic by acrostic	Review or otherwise describe a movie, book, play or TV show (or Internet equivalent) with words whose first letters spell out the name of the work.	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
1166	Questionable journalism	Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in text (not a headline) in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated March 10-21 and make up a question that the sentence could answer	H
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 H
1161	Give us four Pinocchios	Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past.	H H
1160	A remeaning task	Redefine an existing word or two-word term beginning with P through Z.	H H
1151	To [a glass], snarkly	Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls.	T 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.	4
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
1145	A DICEy situation	Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block D-I-C-E.	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.	W H H 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 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
1137	Be a published author!	Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined.	4
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
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
1129	Right in the pampootie	Write a humorous short poem (eight lines or fewer) incorporating one of the 50 provided words.	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
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
1124	Heed! Indeed: Advice verse	Write one of the provided reminders as a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer.	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
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
1117	You got another sing coming	Write a song about a topic or person lately in the news, set to a familiar tune.	H
1116	Punning in place	Create a new term using only the letters in a place name. You don't have to use all the letters, but you can't use a letter more often than it appears in the word.	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.	W H H 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.	I H 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.	L 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 H
1109	Fictoids of Columbia	Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area.	H
1106	Show your resolve	Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future.	H
1102	Let's get Sirius	Suggest a new radio channel and describe it.	H
1100	Pun and ink -- the feghoot	Contrive an elaborate scenario that ends in a novel groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, etc.	H 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
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 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
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 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?	4
1092	Are we having funds yet?	Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization.	H
1091	Good idea! or not.	Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea.	H
1088	Ask backwards with our answers, your questions	Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like.	H H 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
1083	Everybody get appy	Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one.	H
1081	It's the stupidity, stupid	Write us stupid questions that will make us laugh.	W 3
1079	Little piddle riddle	Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme.	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 H
1076	Dactyly fractyly	Send us some double dactyls that conform to Gene Weingarten's rules.	H
1074	Let's go parody-hopping	Describe a stage or movie musical in a parody of a song from a different musical.	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 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
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.	3
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 _____.	H H
1067	A(t)tribute to your wit	Alter a well-known quote slightly and attribute it to someone else.	L
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
1064	HistoRebuffs	Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome.	W
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 3
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.	H
1056	Weather or nuts	Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it.	H H 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 3
1054	Dead letters	Write a short, humorous poem commemorating someone (or maybe even something) who died in 2013.	W 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
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.	H H
1046	Derive us crazy	Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated.	4
1044	Play it safe	Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere.	H
1043	Rechanneling celebrity	Describe a TV reality show featuring a celebrity pursuing some unlikely endeavor.	3
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.	L H
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.	H
1037	Outrage us	Find something offensive about an inoffensive name of a product, organization, place, etc.	H
1035	The Empy 500	Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings.	H H
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 4
1032	Hid stuff	Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer.	H 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
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.	4
1028	Joint Legislation	Combine the names of two or more of the First Congress senators and/or representatives to create "joint legislation".	H H
1027	Built for two	Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc.	H H
1025	In so many words	Create an original backronym for a name or other term, especially one that's been in the news lately.	H 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
1017	Vowel play	Write a "univocalic" newspaper headline -- one that uses only one vowel throughout.	H
1013	Har monikers	Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer.	H
1011	Top these!	Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back.	H H
1008	Switched reels	Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work.	H H
1007	Clue us in	Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid.	4
1006	It's a ... a ...	Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower.	H 2
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
1003	Just do it	Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect.	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
997	Unworthy causes	Name a dubious charity and describe its mission.	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.	H H
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
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 2
989	On the double	Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s).	H 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.	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.	H H
980	Def jam	Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms.	H
979	The madding crowd	Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off.	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 H
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 H
972	Trends and neighbors	Choose any two items on the provided list and explain how they are alike or different.	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.	H
969	Colt following	Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal.	H
967	Overlap dance II	Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result.	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.	H
961	The end of our rhops	Write a funny passage or headline whose words all have the same number of letters.	H 2
960	Raving reviews	Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon.	H H
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 H 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.	M
956	Give us some bad ideas	Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases.	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 H
952	Dead Letters	Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2011.	H H
949	Analogies	Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y."	M H H
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).	H
946	Another round of Bierce	Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term.	H H 4
943	Ask backward XXIX	You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like.	H H 2
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).	H 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 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
930	We WANT stupid complaints!	Complain comically unreasonably about some innocuous thing appearing in the print Post or on washingtonpost.com over the next week or the previous few days.	M
928	Play feature	Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question.	H
926	Outrageous fortunes	Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see.	H
925	A remeaning task	Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O.	H
922	A Banner Week	Write entirely new, humorous lyrics to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner”; they can be on any subject.	W H H
920	Sarchiasm	Write an original chiasmus, in which the elements of a phrase are inverted for comedic effect.	H H
917	Wryku	Write a haiku--a sentiment that can be broken into three lines with exactly five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third--on any subject that's been in the news in the last couple of weeks.	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 H H
915	Picture this	Write a caption for any of the cartoons pictured here.	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
911	Help!	Create a short humorous dialogue -- or a monologue featuring one party -- of a phone call to 911, or a call for help to someone else.	H
910	Your ad here	Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it.	H 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.	W H
907	Naming rite	Come up with a creative, somehow fitting sponsor for some public facility or part of one.	L H H H H H H 4
905	Anticdotes	Give us an untrue anecdote responding to one of these past Editor's Query topics.	W H 3
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.	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).	H
901	Dead Letters	Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2010.	H
899	Clue us in	Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid.	H
898	Pre-current events	Predict some humorous news event that would happen in 2011.	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.	H
896	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.	H 4
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.	H
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.	I H 2
890	Double-teaming	Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result.	H 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.	H
886	Look both ways	Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it.	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.	M H H H
881	What's in a name?	Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message.	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
878	Safety in blunders	Tell us a way to make the nation more secure.	H H
877	Quipped from the headlines	Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news.	H H 4
876	Oilies but goodies	Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune.	H H H
871	Remarquees	Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film.	W H

PERMANENT INKSTAIN FOR GARY CROCKETT