| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 1092 | Are we having funds yet? | Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. | H |
| 1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H |
| 979 | The madding crowd | Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. | H |
| 932 | We'll call them your-mama jokes | Tell us an original "your mama" joke. | H |
| 638 | The Little Bummer Boy | Come up with an idea (and title, if you like) for an original Christmas movie or TV special that provides an antidote to all the sap, and give us a brief synopsis. | I |
| 572 | The Limerixicon | Supply a limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with ai- through ar-. | P |
| 552 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the horses on a list of those qualifying for this year's Triple Crown races, and tell us a good name for their foal. Maximum 18 characters, including spaces. | W |
| 516 | Err Apparent | Come up with unwise things to say in any of the provided circumstances. | H |
| 505 | The Rule of Dumb | You are given $1 million. Conditions: (1) You must spend it all. (2) You must use it in a way that neither directly nor indirectly works to your financial benefit. (3) You may not use it to alleviate the suffering of anyone on Earth, or for any public-spirited project other than the joy of stupidity. | H |
| 499 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Mate any two of the horses qualifying for this year's Triple Crown and tell us the name of their foal. Maximum 18 characters, including spaces. | H |
| 497 | Ask Backward | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | W |
| 469 | Playing Check-In | Suggest appropriate hotel check-in names for any celebrities, past or present, living or dead. | I |
| 427 | Skinned | Come up with events that have a smaller chance of happening than the Redskins winning the Super Bowl. | H |
| 386 | The Game of Clue | What are some clues that someone might be any of the provided characterizations? | H |
| 382 | Pickup Schticks | Write inept pickup lines, by either sex, to either sex. | H H 2 |
| 358 | Finish the Fire | Finish "We Didn't Start the Fire," to summarize 1990 to the present. | H H |
| 351 | Dubya Fun | Take any well-known statement, expression, slogan, etc., and rewrite it the way Dubya might have said it. | H |
| 336 | THE "STY"LE INVITATIONAL | Choose any word and emphasize a single part of it, as though you were saying the word out loud with "air quotes" around the key part. Then redefine the word. You cannot alter the spelling of the word. | H |
| 334 | The New Style Invitational: Six Choices for Czar | Vote for one of six possible editors of the Style Invitational, from among the current Czar and five worthy competitors. | H |
| 327 | ASK BACKWARDS | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 318 | HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE | Combine the first half of any hyphenated word in a story in today's paper with the second part of a different hyphenated word from the same story, and provide a new definition. | H |
| 309 | A STINKING PILE OF THESES | Write an all-purpose first line or paragraph for any doctoral dissertation, designed to impress the heck out of academics. | H H 1 |
| 306 | YOUNGIAN THERAPY | Suggest ways in which the Style Invitational or any other Washington area institution can become more relevant to younger people. | L I H A |
| 295 | PANEL DISCUSSION | Supply the contents of the missing panel in the provided cartoon strips. | H |
| 292 | PAYING THE BILL | Propose appropriate punishments for President Clinton. | L |
| 284 | ASK BACKWARDS MCLXVII | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 283 | UH-OH | Come up with "uh-oh" lines, statements that occur in the middle of a seemingly benign speech or conversation, suddenly alerting the listener that he is about to hear some bad news. | H |
| 280 | EXPRESSING IT NICELY | Come up with colorful expressions for any of the six provided activities, to make them sound a little less tawdry. | L |
| 266 | DEFINITELY WEIRD | Take any word from the dictionary and redefine it. | 1 |
| 250 | OH, GREAT | Complete the sentence "Wouldn't it be great if . . . | H |
| 237 | ASK BACKWARD | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | 6 |
| 235 | ROOTS | Make up historical explanations--they should be vaguely plausible--for the etymology of any term you wish. The term should be the punch line. | I |
| 229 | WE CAN'T HEAR YOU | Supply an example for any of the five "Things you don't want to hear" categories provided. | H |
| 228 | MAKE MY DAY | Supply advice to today's spoiled kids about how bad things were when we were growing up. | H |
| 222 | TRIP DEUCES | Take the two subject listings at the top of any page of the Yellow Pages and create a dictionary definition for the compound word they form. | H H H |
| 220 | RSVP | Provide an answer to any of the dumb questions from Week 217. | H 2 |
| 209 | WE NEED SOME SEASONING | Come up with the first signs of spring in Washington. | H |
| 207 | TIED TO BE FIT | Each of the eight provided items is related, in some fashion, to one or more of the provided individuals. You make the connections. | H |
| 195 | THE MARTHIAN CHRONICLES | Come up with items for Martha Stewart's December-January calendar of projects. | H |
| 191 | GOING THROUGH A PHRASE | Come up with phrase for an American English phrasebook that would provide no practical help whatsoever to a foreigner trying to get along in the United States. | L |
| 188 | BLANKETY BLANKS | Complete any of the above sentences, substituting your own phrases for the well-known omitted words. | H 2 |
| 186 | CALLING THE TOON | Who are these people? What are they doing? | 3 |
| 182 | CAN YOU STOP THIS? | Come up with a conversation stopper, a line likely to end all further discourse, perhaps even empty a room. | H |
| 179 | A CLOCKWORK, UM, UM, ... ER | Write single sentences containing no fewer than three examples of rhyming slang. | W |
| 178 | DEEP THROATS | Come up with Deep Thoughts, in the style of Jack Handey of "Saturday Night Live." A Deep Thought is a short, simple, seemingly inspirational observation that winds up being cynical, ironic, or just plain weird. | H H |
| 175 | FOSSIL FOOLS | What would aliens mistakenly conclude about us from any of the provided items? | A |
| 173 | DEAD RECKONING | Propose a question that might be asked by a living celebrity to a famous dead person. You must name the living person, name the dead person, and tell us the question. | L |
| 167 | CRAPSEY | Resurrect the "cinquain," a long-deceased poetic form, poems so ickily precocious and pretentious they make haiku look like Kipling. There are five lines, the first containing two syllables, the second containing four syllables, the third six, the fourth eight and the last, with grave finality and thunderous drama, only two. Your subject matter must be suitable for the 1990s. | H |
| 163 | WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? | Take the list of all 1996 Triple Crown nominees, couple up any two of them, and propose an appropriate name for their hypothetical foal. The foal's name must fit in no more than 18 characters, including spaces. | H |
| 162 | MAY WE HAVE YOUR PRETENSION, PLEASE? | Come up with the most pretentious original sentence possible. | H |
| 157 | WARNING SIGNS | Complete any of these "you might be about to" warning sentences. | H 2 |
| 156 | HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE | Create new word by combining the first half of a hyphenated word with the second half of a hyphenated word. Both words must appear in the same story anywhere in today's Washington Post. Each entry must provide a definition for the newly created word. | 1 |
| 154 | ENTER LAUGHING | Make up a knock-knock joke. The subject of the third line must be something crude, silly, or profound. | W H |
| 153 | STUMP US | Complete this sentence, "I should be elected President of the United States because. . ." and launch your campaign. | L |
| 151 | STRIP MINING | Come up with a concept for a new, controversial strip to replace an existing one in The Post. | 3 |
| 150 | TRIAL BALLOONS | What are the people saying? | H |
| 149 | O, NO! | Come up with a palindrome, a line that reads the same backward and forward, and then use it as a punchline to a joke. | 3 |
| 146 | IT'S LIKE THIS | Produce an A and B to complete the expression "A makes about as much sense as B. | H |
| 141 | ASK BACKWARD VII | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 140 | WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY? | Come up with "What-If" scenarios and logical outcomes. | H |
| 132 | GIVE US THE BACKS OFF OUR SHIRTS. | What should our loser's T-shirt say on the back? Your goal is to somehow capture the spirit of the contest. | H H |
| 131 | DROODLEYSQUAT | Come up with "droodles," simple geometric drawings with funny explanations. | 2 |
| 127 | GADGET IF YOU CAN | Choose one or more of these devices and describe their use. | 1 |
| 126 | EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' | What are these people, etc., saying or thinking? | H |
| 125 | ASK BACKWARD VI | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? | H |
| 124 | SPOON-FEED US. | Come up with spoonerisms, expressions based on the transposition of the initial sounds of two paired words. | I |
| 122 | THE UNKINDEST CUTE OF ALL | Come up with a new story line for "Peanuts", some plot development or new character that will put the strip back on the road to relevance. | H H |
| 107 | CLUSTERS' LAST STAND | Take an actual star cluster, redraw the lines into a different image, and give it a new name. | H |
| 103 | SEND HELP. | Come up with ways to raise some badly needed cash for the District of Columbia. | H |
| 98 | YOUR CHEATIN' ART | Come up with titles for country music songs featuring any one or more of the following themes: cheatin', thievin', drinkin', truckin', lovin' or dogs. | I |
| 97 | NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY | Come up with more Newt Gingrich philosophy to explain the differences between men and women, Democrats and Republicans, dogs and cats, whatever needs explaining. | H |
| 95 | HOW'S THAT AGAIN? | Take any headline appearing anywhere in The Post this week and completely rewrite the first lines of the story to put a different, unintended spin on it. | H |
| 75 | CURSES! | Come up with modern maledictions in the wise and entertaining Yiddish tradition. | H |
| 74 | SHIRT HAPPENS | In 10 words or fewer, what should the back of the "Year 2" T-shirt say? | H H |
| 70 | SOUNDS LIKE A BAD IDEA | Come up with jokes based on noises. | H |
| 63 | BAD ABOUT YOU | Come up with a lame idea for a Style Invitational contest, an idea destined to create unfunny results. | H H |
| 42 | HEY, IT COULD BE WORSE | There are worse things in life than the Washington Redskins. Just tell us what they are. | H |
| 17 | REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM | Come up with an easy way to reduce the federal deficit, in 20 words or fewer. | H |
| 13 | ANAGRAMS = A MAN'S RAG | Come up with a funny anagram for the name of a famous person or institution. All letters in the name must be used, and no letters may be left over. | H |