WEEK	TITLE	SYNOPSIS	INK Types
1611	Ask Backwards XLIII	We give you the 'answers'; you tell us the questions.	H
1608	Stick It	An election bumper sticker contest	H H
1602	We Got Game	Tell us some funny ways to 'improve' a sport.	H H
1597	The Farce of July	Give us new ways to celebrate Independence Day.	H
1595	Ebenezer Screwed	Write us a funny comic strip on a certain sensitive subject	H
1594	So Good! So Bad! So Ugly!	We bring back a classic contest	H
1589	Wait Wait Right Here!	Write some 'Not My Job' questions a la the NPR quiz show.	H
1588	Colt Fusion	Because of our munificense and guilt, you get a full hundred foal names to 'breed' for 'grandfoals'	H
1584	Seeds of Change	Make an anagram of a name-brand product.	H H
1570	The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II	Enter or reenter our Week 26-50.	H
1569	Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1	Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests.	H
1565	Oh, For Namesakes!	Compare two people who share part of a name.	H
1560	The 'Hole Story	Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question	H
1558	It's Parody Time	Send up the news with those songs and videos you do so well	H
1555	Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us?	Give us "backronyms"	H
1552	A Mirthday Party	Link two people who share a birthday	H
1551	Ask Backwards XLII	We give the answers. You give the questions.	H
1548	Poll-ish Jokes	Come up with a ridiculous reader poll.	H
1540	Picture This	It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from.	H
1533	The Very Last 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions'	Tell us a stupid question followed by a funny retort.	H
1532	We Bee Back With Neologisms	Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game	H
1531	The Worst New Contest Ever	Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency	H H
1527	Film Flim-Flam	Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie	H
1525	Arty Har-har	Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work	2
1523	Where in Hell ...?	Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment	H
1501	Try a little 'kindness'	Tell about an “act of kindness” that you or someone else does that, well, won’t be appreciated.	H
1497	The if-word	Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result	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
1468	The Year in Redo, Part 2	Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464.	H
1462	Time for a new career?	Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles.	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
1443	The letters of the laws	Propose some law -- it doesn't have to be a serious issue -- and give it a name and an acronym,	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
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
1417	Dead Letters, our obit poem contest	Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2020.	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
1390	'Same difference' for a new time	Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked.	H
1382	For us, it's still Post Time	Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 of the 145 previous Kentucky Derby winners, from 1875 to 2019, and name the foal to humorously reflect the parents' names.	2
1376	Get thee to a funnery	Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue.	H
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
1363	The Year in Redo, Part 2	Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359.	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
1351	What concept will you be for Halloween?	Give us a creative, clever idea for a timely Halloween costume (for one or more people) or an idea for a party or other activity. You may even send us a photo of an actual new costume you've created this year.	H H
1347	Reologisms	Write a clever, funny definition for any of the provided Loser-concocted words and phrases, and/or show they'd be used.	H
1345	The confaketionary -- food fictoids	Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining.	H
1336	Two ways about it	What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations.	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
1325	Stand up and jeer	Give us some original standup jokes that would have been good at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner.	H
1324	Chapter and worse	Tell or describe a Bible story, or another classical or folk tale, very briefly (75 words would be lengthy) in the voice of a particular author or other person.	H
1323	Selected shortened subjects	Delete one or more letters from the beginning or end (or both) of a movie title and describe the resulting movie.	3
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
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 H H
1310	The Year in Redo, Part 2	Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1282 through Week 1306.	H
1307	One-for-one for all	Replace one letter in an existing word, name or multi-word phrase with one different letter (in the same place in the word) and define or describe the result.	H
1299	OK, hivemind! A contest with new Scrabble words	Choose any two of the words in the provided list as the beginning and end of a humorous word chain of 6 to 14 words or phrases.	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-".	H
1283	Put it in Bee-verse	Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes one of the provided words, all from the 2018 National Spelling Bee.	H
1279	Just do it -- the 'real' way	List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task.	H
1267	Jingle bungle	Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle.	H
1262	Clue us in -- a backward crossword	Supply one or more creative clues for the provided filled-in crossword grid -- as many as 25 clues in all.	H
1258	The year in redo, Part 2	Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254.	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.	H
1253	Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia	Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion.	H
1252	It's a med, med, med, med world	Invent a clever name for a new medical product, and specify the condition it would treat.	H
1231	TankaWanka 3: Haiku Plus Tu	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 at least two of the lines must rhyme.	H
1227	Celebrate ortho-diversity!	Name and describe a new life form -- and no letter in the term may be used twice.	H
1221	Who's kidding whom?	Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like	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
1209	Invented facts: A fictoid contest	Tell us a humorously untrue account of how a product or invention came to be, or got its name.	H H
1205	Could we just have a do-over? Yes, we could.	Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1201, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over.	H
1204	Well, at least . . .	Note some good news for the coming year to comfort -- or "comfort" -- those who are depressed about the change of presidential administration.	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
1199	We want some bad choices	Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown.	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".	4
1194	Nyetymologies: fake word origins	Provide a humorously untrue explanation for the derivation of a word.	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
1162	An 8-year Re-Onion	Write a fictional Onion-type headline.	W
1161	Give us four Pinocchios	Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past.	H
1158	What have we here?	Tell us what one or more of these objects really are.	H
1151	To [a glass], snarkly	Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls.	H
1143	Ask Backwards	Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions.	4
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
1139	A little sixty-four play	Fashion an entry by selecting one element from each of the provided menu groups. Make sure you indicate the combination you chose (e.g., 2-C-iii).	H H
1137	Be a published author!	Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined.	H
1133	Are 'hew ready? A contest for clerihews	A clerihew is a humorous four-line rhyming poem about a person whose name is mentioned in the first line; in fact, the name must be at the end of that line (or constitute the whole line) so that it has to rhyme with something. The rhyme structure (and we don't want "lazy" rhymes) is AABB: the first line rhymes with the second, the third with the fourth.	H
1130	Yux Redux: Play on a foreign phrase	Make a word play on a foreign phrase or term (or English phrase using foreign words) and describe it.	4
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
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.	H
1112	Some SHARP words	Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P.	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
1101	The year in redo	Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050.	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
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
1088	Ask backwards with our answers, your questions	Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like.	H
1079	Little piddle riddle	Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme.	H
1070	Colt following -- our grandfoals contest	Breed" any two of the foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names.	H
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
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
1058	Eastwood Ho	Create a good-bad-ugly progression.	3
1052	Clue us in	Come up with up to 25 creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms that appear in the provided grid.	H
1043	Rechanneling celebrity	Describe a TV reality show featuring a celebrity pursuing some unlikely endeavor.	H 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
1038	It's like this, see	Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels.	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
1033	LimeriXicon	Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "fa-".	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.	H
1026	'Might' makes ink	Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates.	H
1024	Gorey thoughts	Send us some edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. The pairs are AB, CD, EF, GH, IJ, KL, MN, OP, QR, ST, UV, WX, and YZ.	H
1023	Hai there, Martians!	Write one or more humorous haiku that will greet the Martians or share a little nugget of what life is like on Earth.	H
1021	'Gram theft	Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it.	3
1019	What a turnoff	Tell us some creative things that children and families could do during Screen-Free Week.	H
1013	Har monikers	Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer.	H
1003	Just do it	Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect.	H 2
1002	Wring out the OED	Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words.	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
998	Set the law on us	Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world.	H
992	Mittsterpiece Theatre	Suppose public-TV shows, past or present, were turned out onto the open market to make a living on commercial TV. Tell us what would happen.	W
989	On the double	Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s).	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
984	Another brilliant contest	Write something whose words begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet.	H
980	Def jam	Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms.	H
978	A reason to rhyme the news	Write a short verse about something that's been in the news recently.	H
966	Inkremental change	Start with any word or name, and create a series of words that change by one letter at a time, until you come up with a related word or name.	2
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.	H
951	Say that again	Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it.	H
950	Of all the nerve!	Give us a humorous example of hypothetical chutzpah.	H
944	Uh, yeah, it's just you	Give us one or more "Is it just me" questions.	W

PERMANENT INKSTAIN FOR NEAL STARKMAN