| WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1369 | Shoot us some oops | Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. | I |
| 1336 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | H |
| 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 |
| 1284 | Same difference | Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. | H |
| 1011 | Top these! | Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. | H |
| 854 | What's not to liken? | Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. | H 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 |
| 850 | Dead letters | Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. | H |
| 849 | Homonymphomania | Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. | H H |
| 751 | Strike Gold | Slightly change the name of an existing or former TV show to create a program that can scab the writers' strike. | H H |
| 701 | Untitlement | Here are the covers for what just might be Bob Staake's next four books. What are they called and what are they about? | H |
| 695 | Dead Letters | Write a poem about someone who died in 2006. | H |
| 676 | Tour de Fours III | Coin and define a word containing -- with no other letters between them, but in any order you like -- the letters L, E, A and F. | H |
| 673 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Washington Post or on Washingtonpost.com from July 30 through Aug. 7 and reinterpret it by adding either a "bank headline," or subtitle, or the first sentence of an article that might appear under it. | H H |
| 671 | Join Now! | Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the July 16 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. | H H |
| 667 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com anytime from now through June 26 and supply a question it could answer. | H |
| 663 | Worth at Least a Dozen Words | Interpret any of the provided cartoons as you see fit in a caption. | W P H |
| 661 | Name Any Good Movies Lately? | Give us a funny new title for an existing movie. | 3 |
| 659 | Tell Us a Fib | Compose a six-line poem with the following number of syllables per line: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. It must be about a person or topic currently in the news, and two successive lines must rhyme. | L |
| 652 | Ask Backward | You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. You supply the questions. | H |
| 645 | A Hearty Har Har | Write up a Valentine's sentiment to any personage, or to someone in some generic category. | H |
| 642 | It's Open Season | Come up with a brand-new word and its definition. The words must begin with O, P, Q, R or S. | H H H |
| 641 | Dreck of All Trades | Come up with a business that combines two or more disparate products or services, and tell us its name and/or something else funny about it. | H H 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. | H |
| 635 | I've Told You a Hundred Times | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 536 to Week 631. Your entry must be substantially different from the original winners. | H H |
| 634 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from today through next Sunday, and change its meaning by adding either a "bank headline," or subtitle, or the first sentence of an article that might appear under it. | H |
| 633 | Your Secret Here! | Send us some original secrets (they don't have to be true). | H |
| 631 | Picture This | What's going on in any of these cartoons? | H |
| 630 | Hyphen the Terrible | Combine the beginning and end of any two multisyllabic words in this week's Invitational, and then define the compound. | H H H H |
| 629 | Odd Couplings | Marry or otherwise combine famous names and supply the result. | H 1 |
| 627 | Per-Verse | Write a limerick or other short poem with comically awful rhyming. | H |
| 625 | Haven't Seen It | Make up a new plot for an existing movie title. | H H |
| 624 | Limerixicon 2 | Supply a limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with bd- through bl-. | H |
| 622 | Our Sunday Constitutional | Write a new article or amendment to the Constitution, using on the words contained in the existing document (including amendments). | H |
| 621 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article in washingtonpost.com anytime through Aug. 8 and supply a question it could answer. | H H |
| 619 | WordCount Us In | Write a poem of no more than four lines containing four or more consecutive words on the WordCount list. They must occur in the sentence in the order they appear on the list. | W H |
| 618 | Of D.C. I Sing | Give us a song about Washington, set to a recognizable tune. | H |
| 617 | Best the Best | Write something about any famous personage that uses only the letters in his or her name. | H H |
| 616 | Picture This, Kids | Supply title and one-sentence synopsis for Bob Staake new kids' project, incorporating any of the provided cartoons. | P |
| 615 | Airy Persiflage | Write some jokes you'd like to hear in an airport announcement. | H |
| 614 | In-Stock Characters | Pitch us an idea for a summer movie featuring two or more of the provided characters. | H |
| 612 | Oh, and One More Thing | What was the thing that didn't make the cut on any list? | H |
| 611 | Ask Backwards, Erudite Edition | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the sophisticated answers. You supply the questions. | H H |
| 610 | MASH | Find two well-known movies, plays, or TV shows whose title have a significant word in common, combine their titles, and describe the hybrid. | H |
| 608 | Comeback Next Week | Come up with original snide retorts to various rude questions or comments. | H H H |
| 606 | The News Could be Verse | Translate the fine prose of Washington Post articles into verse. Choose any article appearing in The Post of on its Web site from April 17 through April 25. | H |
| 605 | Truly Stupendous Ideas | Name two people with the same initials (the people can be living or dead, real or fictional) and explain how they are similar or different. | H |
| 603 | Sui Genesis | Take one or two of the 50 chapters of the KJV Book of Genesis and draw thou from them, using words in the order in which they appear in the original, your own passage. | W |
| 602 | Take a Letter -- Again | Take a word, term or name that begins with A, B, C or D; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter, or transpose two letters; and define the new word. | H H |
| 599 | So What's the News? | Tell us what the illustrated events are. | H |
| 596 | Take Her Words for It | Use the words of this week's Ask Amy advice column, as a pool from which to compose your own useful (or useless) thoughts. You may ignore or change capitalization or punctuation. | H |
| 595 | Listing Precariously | 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 |
| 593 | Take This, Job, and . . . | Come up with some entertainingly awful things that a Job's comforter might offer. A Job's comforter is someone who seems to be offering sympathy but instead just makes the person feel worse, either intentionally or unintentionally. | H |
| 592 | We Got Gamy | Offer us a concise idea for a Super Bowl commercial, or some innovative halftime entertainment, or some inappropriate sponsors, or some ideas for improving the game itself. | H |
| 591 | Dead Letters | Write rhyming poems about notable personages who have died in the past year. | H |
| 589 | Hyphen the Terrible (New Edition!) | Combine the beginning of any multi-syllabic word in this week's Invitational with the end of any other multi-syllabic word in this column (or in this week's Web supplement) to coin a new word, and then define it. | H H H H H H 1 |
| 588 | Gadget If You Can | Tell us what these nifty, indispensable items are. | 3 |
| 587 | The B-List | Come up with an In-Out list for 2005, or other pairings. | H |
| 585 | It's Parody Time | Offer, in the holiday spirit of goodwill, some advice--as constructive and unifying as Loserly suggestions always are--to our nation's leaders (or the loyal opposition) as we prepare for the next four years. This advice will be set to the tune of some winter holiday song, either religious or secular. | H H |
| 584 | Deliver Us a Post | Come up with some new Cabinet or other positions that the president could establish, and describe the job responsibilities. | H H H |
| 583 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, from the Washington Post or its Web site from today through next Sunday, and reinterpret it by writing either a "bank headline"--or subtitle--or the first sentence of an article that changes the original meaning entirely. | W H H H |
| 581 | Evil Things in Store | Think of evil or just plain stupid practices that the staff of a retail or other establishment might perpetrate. | H |
| 577 | Teledubbies | Slightly change the title of a TV show, past or present, and describe it. | H |
| 532 | Short Pans | Come up with a terse review (four words or fewer) of any work of art. | H |