WEEK | TITLE | SYNOPSIS | INK Types |
---|---|---|---|
1619 | A So-So Contest | Give us jokes that are so [something] that [something]. | 3 |
1618 | Week 100! | ...which we celebrate with a centennial contest | H H |
1617 | Mess With Our Heads | Look at a headline and see a funnier meaning. | L |
1612 | Asterisky Business | Put words in Horace's mouth: Tell us a joke that not everyone will get. | H |
1607 | Funny, Init? | Compare two people who have the same initials. | H |
1606 | The Cold New Trend | What would be an even sillier new fad than decorator refrigerator shelves? | H H |
1605 | Get Thee to a Punnery | Change a quote slightly and credit it to someone else. | H H H |
1604 | Call Your Dog | Give us creative names for various pets | H |
1602 | We Got Game | Tell us some funny ways to 'improve' a sport. | 3 |
1601 | Stop, Hey, What's That Sound? | Tell us what these noise-words mean. | H H |
1600 | Taylorgaters | Take a line from a 'Tortured Poets' lyric and rhyme it with one of your own. | H H |
1596 | History for the tl;dr Crowd | Sum up an event for the 21st-century reader in a rhyming couplet. | H |
1595 | Ebenezer Screwed | Write us a funny comic strip on a certain sensitive subject | T |
1594 | So Good! So Bad! So Ugly! | We bring back a classic contest | H |
1590 | All You Need Is Ink | Take a line from a Beatles song and rhyme it with your own. | H |
1588 | Colt Fusion | Because of our munificense and guilt, you get a full hundred foal names to 'breed' for 'grandfoals' | H |
1587 | The Trite Stuff | Replace some well-worn phrases with better ones. | H |
1586 | Pun for the Roses | Our annual crazy-popular horse 'breeding' wordplay contest. | H |
1585 | Bring Up the Rear | Move the last letter of a word to the front. | H |
1584 | Seeds of Change | Make an anagram of a name-brand product. | H |
1582 | You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang | A classic connection game. | H H |
1580 | Hi, Anxiety! | Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. | H |
1579 | Captions Courageous | Write a description for any of six photos | H |
1578 | The Pepys Show | Give us a diary entry from anyone in history. | H |
1576 | Praise the Lurid! | Give us clickbait headlines for mundane stories. | H |
1574 | Oh, Grandpa, Stop! | Turn a 'dad joke' into a less-tame 'grandpa joke' | 3 |
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. | H |
1570 | The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II | Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. | M |
1569 | Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 | Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. | H |
1568 | Nextra! Nextra! | Tell us the funny news events from 2024 | H |
1566 | Well, the Good News Is ... | Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline | H H |
1565 | Oh, For Namesakes! | Compare two people who share part of a name. | H |
1564 | "Air" "Quotes" | A new forefinger contest | H H |
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 | P |
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 H H H H 3 |
1551 | Ask Backwards XLII | We give the answers. You give the questions. | H |
1549 | The Tile Invitational X | It's our 10th running of this coin-a-word game. | H |
1547 | Alphabettering | Write a funny sentence containing all 26 letters. | W |
1542 | Your (B)ad Here | Tweak an ad slogan to use it for another product | H |
1541 | Wrong enough for ya? | Fake facts about the weather | 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 H |
1537 | A Crooning Achievement | Write a lyric for a politician to sing. | H |
1536 | Colt Following | Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'. | H H H |
1534 | Pun for the Roses | Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns! | H |
1532 | We Bee Back With Neologisms | Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game | H |
1529 | Hello, Dall-E! | Our new contest partners you and a machine. | 4 |
1527 | Film Flim-Flam | Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie | H |
1524 | Picture This | A caption contest | 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 |
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 |
1509 | MASH MASH: combine 2 one-word movies | Combine two single-word movie titles to make a new movie and describe it. | H |
1508 | Tour de Fours XIX —Laughtime Achievement | Coin a word or phrase containing the letters E-L-D-N — consecutively but in any order — and describe it. | 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 |
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 |
1489 | Let's movie things around | Rearrange the words of a movie title to create a new movie, then describe it | M H |
1488 | Let's recycle! | Come up with humorous uses for ANY product or combination of products listed at RepurposeMaterials.com, including but no restricted to the provided list. | H |
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 |
1484 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | M |
1481 | Mess with our heads | Reinterpret some actual headline (or a major part of it), from any publication, print or online. | 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 |
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 |
1467 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1413 through 1439, except for Weeks 1414-1416. | H |
1462 | Time for a new career? | Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles. | H |
1461 | It's the eponymy, stupid | Create an eponym -- a word based on the name of a well-known person -- define it, and perhaps use it in a humorous sentence. | 3 |
1455 | Good idea! Or not. | Cite a "good idea' and, with a small change of wording, a "bad idea". | H |
1454 | Punku 3 -- haiku with a pun | Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. | H |
1451 | Could have said it worse ourselves | Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment. | H |
1450 | Putting the 'anoid' in humanoid | Humorously describe some aspect of our current society as a space alien and/or future anthropologist might interpret it. | T |
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. | 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. | W 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 4 |
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 |
1434 | Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals | Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. | 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. | 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 |
1428 | The Tile Invitational VIII | Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. | H |
1424 | We Bee back -- a neologism contest | From any of the 30 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term or phrase and describe it humorously. You must use the first letter in the set (anywhere in the word) plus any or all of the others, as often as you like. | T |
1415 | The Year in Redo, Part 1 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1360 through 1387, except for Weeks 1361-1363. | L |
1410 | Legends of the fall -- more fictoids | Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn. | 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. | T |
1402 | The fourteeners--a neologism contest | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 14 (no blanks!), and define it. | 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 |
1395 | Add nauseam: A plus-one contest | Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional | H |
1391 | No-covid zone -- a neologism contest | Coin a new word or phrase that lacks C, O, V, I and D and describe it. | 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 |
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. | M |
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. | 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. | I |
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 |
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 |
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. | 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 |
1359 | Back up in the air (quotes) | Write a sentence or two and highlight an "air quote" that spans two or more words (and two sentences if you like). | I H H H |
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"). | M |
1357 | It's parody time! | Write a satirical song about anything in the news right now, set to a familiar tune. | M |
1356 | Ask Backwards 38 | Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. | H |
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. | P |
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 |
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. | H |
1336 | Two ways about it | What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. | 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. | H |
1330 | Spinoff x Time Is Now = Grandfoals Week! | Breed" any two of the 65 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. | 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 |
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 4 |
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. | H |
1322 | Back to the drawing board | Come up with an idea for an invention that still needs a bug ironed out. | H |
1321 | Pumping Prime: Amazon reviews | Send us a humorous "review" (like the provided samples from our earlier contests) for any of the provided items. | 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. | P |
1312 | Neologisms in TOUR de Fours XV | Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block T-O-U-R and describe it. The letters may be in any order. | 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 |
1303 | Neologisms to di- for | Replace a digraph in an existing word or phrase with another digraph to make a new term. | H |
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. | M H |
1294 | As the word turns | “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 |
1286 | Mind your P's and B's (and more) | Replace one or more P's in a word, name, or multi-word term with a B or with another letter and define or describe the results. | H H H |
1280 | A la'ugh' a minute with 'air quotes' | Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give it a new meaning or description. | P 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 |
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. | H |
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 |
1265 | Parody for the course | Write a song relating to a class or course of instruction, or to school in general. | P |
1258 | The year in redo, Part 2 | Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254. | H |
1253 | Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia | Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. | H H 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 |
1245 | Call us reprehensible . . . | Complain in a humorously missing-the-point way about something that has appeared in The Washington Post (in print or online) recently, or in another publication. | H |
1241 | 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. | P |
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. | P |
1237 | Our alliteracy campaign | Rewrite an existing headline from any publication, print or online — about something in the news from July 20 to 31, by using alliteration. | H |
1233 | Not | The Loser Community gets a week off (actually two) from writing contest entries and will have to find something else to do during staff meetings, sermons, romantic breakups, etc. | H |
1228 | That movie is SO about you | Name someone who was the "secret inspiration" for a certain movie. | 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.) | 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 |
1221 | Who's kidding whom? | Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like | 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 |
1213 | Punku | Write a haiku that incorporates a pun. | H |
1210 | Send us the bill: Our 'joint legislation' game | Combine two or more names from the provided list of members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. | 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 |
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 |
1203 | You've got the powers | Tell us what you would do if you had one or more of the six magical powers provided. | 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 |
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 | W |
1184 | Plan C -- a third candidate? | Explain why some novel person (or thing) should be president; you could also suggest a president-veep ticket. | P |
1183 | C'mon, be honest with us | Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y. | H |
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 |
1175 | Good luck with 13 | Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. | 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. | T |
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 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 |
1168 | Asterisky business | Tell us an original joke whose punchline can't be understood without knowledge -- not necessarily scientific -- that most of us don't have (which you'll supply with a concise explanation). | H |
1161 | Give us four Pinocchios | Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. | H |
1159 | It's all in the game | Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. | H |
1158 | What have we here? | Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. | 4 |
1157 | Clue us in -- a backward crossword | Supply clever, funny clues to up to 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | P |
1155 | Vowel movement | Choose a title of a book, movie, play or TV show; drop all the vowels (including Y when it's used as a vowel); then add your choice of vowels -- as many as you like -- to create a new work; and describe it. | H |
1153 | Be three-paired | Choose two or more entities represented by a single three-letter combination from IAA through LZZ, found at the provided link, and say how they are alike or different or have some connection. | H |
1151 | To [a glass], snarkly | Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls. | H |
1149 | Gestures of depreciation | Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. | 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 |
1144 | Someone else's business | Name a real brand, along with something else it would be a better name for. | 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. | 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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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. | M |
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. | 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 |
1108 | Hearts of dorkness | Write a humorous Valentine's Day sentiment to someone (or to some organization), either real or fictional -- either from you or from someone else you name. Plus an all-new option: We'll also be willing to run at least one really funny, clever, well-executed graphic. | H |
1106 | Show your resolve | Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future. | H H |
1103 | Themes good enough for us | Suggest an existing song to be used as the theme for a TV series or program for comic effect. | H |
1101 | The year in redo | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. | H H |
1099 | Questionable journalism | Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in an article in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated Nov. 20 through Dec. 1 (in print, any article from those days' papers), and make up a question that the sentence could answer. | L |
1093 | You're only as rich as you fee | What are some really bad ideas for various businesses to make a few more bucks? | H 3 |
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 |
1082 | Band on the pun | Alter the name of a music group or performer slightly -- not necessarily by just one letter, but enough so it's obvious what the original is -- and describe it in some way. | H H 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 |
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 4 |
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 |
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 H |
1053 | Questionable journalism | Quote an actual sentence, from The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com, or another print or online publication dated between Dec. 26 and Jan. 6, and follow it with a question that the sentence might answer. | H |
1050 | Just redo it | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. | 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. | L H H |
1046 | Derive us crazy | Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. | M |
1041 | What have you got to lose? | Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. | H |
1027 | Built for two | Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. | L 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 |
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 |
1021 | 'Gram theft | Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. | H |
1016 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races and give the foal a name humorously reflecting the names of the parents. | H |
1015 | Faux re mi | Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. | H |
1013 | Har monikers | Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. | H |
1012 | The news at 5 | Write a limerick about a recent news event. | H |
1008 | Switched reels | Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. | W |
1007 | Clue us in | Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. | H H |
1006 | It's a ... a ... | Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower. | H |
1002 | Wring out the OED | Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. | P 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 |
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. | H 4 |
990 | Indecent relations | Pair two people, real or fictional, who have the same last name; say how they're alike or different, or something they might do (even in fantasy), as a pair. | H |
988 | A faster break | Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. | 3 |
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. | L H |
981 | Feeling testy | Write a question that "ought to" be on a qualifying test for a particular job. | 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. | P |
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 |
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. | M |
967 | Overlap dance II | Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. | 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. | M |
965 | Foaling around | Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. | 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. | M |
956 | Give us some bad ideas | Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. | 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 |
949 | Analogies | Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." | 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 |
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 |
946 | Another round of Bierce | Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. | H |
944 | Uh, yeah, it's just you | Give us one or more "Is it just me" questions. | H |
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 3 |
934 | Same difference | Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. | 3 |
929 | Now sit right back ... | Write a funny song introducing a TV show, past or present. | T |
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 |
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. | M |
910 | Your ad here | Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it. | 2 |
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. | 3 |
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 |
900 | Dear us! | Submit a "Dear Blank" letter to us instead. | T H |
898 | Pre-current events | Predict some humorous news event that would happen in 2011. | 2 |
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. | M H |
895 | Picture this | Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. | 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. | T H |
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 |
887 | Plus-Fours | Write a limerick whose third or fourth line is one of those listed above. | M |
886 | Look both ways | Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it. | 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 |
878 | Safety in blunders | Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. | M |
877 | Quipped from the headlines | Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news. | 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 |
871 | Remarquees | Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. | M |
870 | Let's play Nopardy | Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. | H |
867 | Back in the saddle | Breed any two of the foals in today's results -- OR one foal with one of the actual horses used in today's entries, and name the grandfoal. | M H |
866 | Natalie Portmanteau | Begin with a real name; append to it a word, name or expression so that they overlap; and finally define (humorously, of course) the resulting phrase. | H |
865 | No Googlenopes left | Come up with a humorous Googlenope. | 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 |
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. | M |
854 | What's not to liken? | Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. | H |
852 | Small, Let's get | Write a rhopalic sentence (or fanciful newspaper headline) in which each successive word is one letter shorter. | M |
851 | Going to the shrink | Downsize the title of a book, movie or play to make it smaller or less momentous and describe it. | H |
847 | Questionable journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from Dec. 11 through Dec. 21 and come up with a question it might answer. | M |
845 | Reologisms | Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. | H |
844 | Healthy choice | Enter any Style Invitational from Week 790 through Week 840, except for Week 793 and Week 798. | 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 |
836 | 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. | M |
833 | Our Greatest Hit | Start with a real word or multi-word term or name that begins with M, N, O, or P; add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. | H |
832 | Clue Us In | You supply one or more clues for the words in a filled-in grid. | H |
830 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Aug. 14 through Aug. 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H |
828 | Inhuman Puns | Make a pun on the name of a familiar group, organization or company, and describe it or provide a quote from it. | H |
826 | The Inside Word | Take any word -- this may include the name of a person or place -- put a portion of it in quotation marks, and redefine the word. | H |
813 | Aw, Shocks | Give us a humorous example of the "shocking -- not. | H 3 |
811 | Rock-Bottom Lines | Tell us a sign that the economy couldn't get worse. | H |
810 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the more than 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | H |
806 | DQ Very Much | Give us a phrase or sentence that would nip a potential relationship in the bud (or elsewhere). | M |
805 | Brand Eccchs | Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). | H 3 |
804 | Our Type o' Joke | Change a headline by one letter, or switch two letters, in a headline (or most of a headline) appearing on an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com between Feb. 14 and 23, and elaborate on it in a "bank" headline (subhead) or a brief first sentence of an article that would run under it. | H |
803 | The Pepys Show | Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. | H |
800 | Compairison | Briefly define or sum up an existing word or short phrase, then change it very slightly and do the same with the result. | H |
798 | Dead Letters | Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. | H |
797 | Be Resolute | Make a humorous resolution for some particular person or institution to accomplish next year. | H |
795 | Stimulate Us | Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. | P |
794 | Ripped Off From the Headlines | Send us some Onion-type headlines. | P |
793 | Take The Fifth | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 725 through Week 789. Each entry must include the word "five" of "fifth" or something fiveish, or -- depending on your favorite anniversary tradition -- something involving (a) wood or (b) silverware. | H H 3 |
791 | The 1K Club | Supply a chain of 20 names -- they may be names of people, places, organizations, products, etc., but they must be names -- beginning and ending with "Chris Doyle. | T H |
790 | If Only! | Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. | H |
789 | Doctrine in The House? | State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. | H |
787 | Tour de Fours V | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters M, I, N and E. | H H 2 |
785 | The Ballad Box | Write a short, humorous song somehow relating to the presidential campaign, set to a familiar tune. | H |
783 | The Shill Game | Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. | M H |
778 | Tied Games | Combine any two sports or nonathletic activities into a single sport or game. | H |
777 | Limerixicon 5 | Supply a humorous limerick featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters da-. | T |
774 | Tour De Forks | Supply a name for a restaurant dish named after someone (or some product or organization) and describe it. | L |
771 | Groaner's Manuals | Come up with a humorous name for a guide or manual for, or a book about, a particular enterprise or organization. | M |
770 | A Knack for Anachronism | Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age. | M 2 |
769 | Splice Work If You Can Get It | Combine two words -- overlapping by at least two letters -- into what's known by polysyllabic types as a portmanteau word, and by the rest of us as mash word, and define it. | H H |
767 | Questionable Journalism | Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in the Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from May 31 through June 9 and come up with a question it might answer. | 4 |
763 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | H H |
762 | Look This Up in Your Funk & Wagnalls | Supply the pair of terms listed at the top of a page of any print dictionary to indicate the first and last listings on the page, and define that hyphenated term. | H |
761 | Strip Mining | Supply the text for any or all three of these Bob Staake comic strips. | 2 |
760 | Whacksy Buildup | Describe any of these Googlewhacks in the form of a question, "Jeopardy"-style. | H |
759 | What Kind of Foal Am I? | Breed any two of the 100 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown and provide an appropriate name for their foal. | H |
757 | Gorey Thoughts From A to Z | Send us some rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. | H |
756 | Mess With Our Heads | Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from March 15 through 24 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head," or subtitle. | H H |
754 | Canny Similarities | Cite a humorous "uncanny similarity" between any two of the very different people listed above. | 3 |
749 | Opus 266, No. 3 | Take any common word or two-word term beginning with any letter from A through H and give it a new definition. | H |
745 | Hurry Up and Slow Down! | Suggest particular ways that would slow life down, or ways that would speed it up. | H |
742 | Clue Us In | Give us a whole new set of clues to a crossword puzzle penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. | H |
741 | Well, What Do You Know? | Tell us what Major Life Lessons can be derived from any of these venues or situations. | 3 |
739 | Lies, All Lies | Give us some humorous fictional revelation about a current or past political figure. | H |
736 | So, Should I Drive Like Your Brother? | Ask a car-related question that would make the Car Guys crack up. If you're not into cars, you can also post a question for advice columnist Ask Amy or etiquette columnist Miss Manners. | M |
735 | Look Back in Inker | Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 680 through Week 731. | H |
729 | Otherwordly Visions | Take any sentence in an article or ad in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 1 through Sept. 10 and translate it into "plain English. | T |
728 | Tour de Fours IV | Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order you like -- the letters S, A, T and R. | T H |
723 | Name Your Poison | Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. | W H |
720 | The Course of Humor Events | Sum up a historical event in a two-line rhyme or other clever and pithy epigram. | H |
719 | We Har the World | Come up with a creative name for a sports team for a town or city anywhere outside the United States. | H |
717 | Pitch Us a No-Hitter | Send us some genuine Googlenopes. A Googlenope is a phrase or very brief sentence that, entered into the Google search engine with quotation marks around it, produces no hits. | H |
715 | Your Mug Here | Send us an idea for a slogan for the back of the new Loser T-shirt. | H H 4 |
714 | Amalgamated Steal | Merge two or more company or product names into a new, ORIGINAL company or product. | H |
713 | Painings | Name and interpret any of the provided paintings by Fred Dawson. | H |
712 | Another Time Around the Track | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in the results of Week 708, and name THEIR foal. | H |
711 | Join Now! | Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the April 29 or May 6 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. | H |
707 | What Would YOU Do? | Use only the words appearing in "The Cat in the Hat" to create your own work of "literature" of no more than 75 words. | H |
706 | Questionable Journalism | Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com from March 24 through April 2 and come up with a question it could answer. | M |
704 | Another Game of Tag | Create vanity plates for well-known people, real or fictional. | H |
703 | Freak Trade Agreements | Think of one thing to trade for another, and supply a short and funny explanation. | 3 |
702 | Unreal Facts | Come up with a comically false factoid. | H H |
699 | Our Greatest Hit | Take a word, term or name that begins with E, F, G or H; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter, or transpose two letters; and define the new word. | H H H |
693 | Everything Being Sequel | Give a brief scenario for the sequel to a well-known movie. | M |
690 | Funnies: How Time Flies | Pull Billy of "The Family Circus" -- or any of his comic strip neighbors in The Washington Post -- out of his time warp to a different age, era or place, and provide a short storyline or dialogue or caption. | H |
689 | Busted Play | Come up with a more objectionable or stupid toy than a working fart-powered toy rocket. | H |
687 | Whatever Were They Thinking? | Tell us (A) What someone might say in some situation, and (B) what that person was actually thinking when he said A. | H |
686 | It's Baaaaack! | Explain why you, or anyone else in particular, ought to have this fine oil-on-panel by Fred Dawson of Beltsville, or what it might be used for. | M |
684 | Backtricking | Spell a word backward and define the result, somehow relating the definition to the original word. | H |
680 | Rendered Speechless | Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. | H |
679 | Ask Backwards | Here are the answers. You supply the questions to as many as you dare. | 3 |
675 | Cut Us Some Slack | Come up with humorous ways to be lazy. | H |
670 | A Test of Character | Change a word or phrase by only one letter -- substitute one letter for another, add a letter or transpose two letters -- and explain how they are different or similar. | H |
660 | Foaling Down: The Next Generation | Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. | H |
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. | H H |
658 | Not in the Cards | Send us ideas for cards that would likely be ruled "FBN" (Funny, But No) by Hallmark but F&YYY by the Empress. | T |
656 | It's Post Time | Breed any two from a list of 100 of the more than 400 3-year-old racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown races, and name their hypothetical foal. The foal's name cannot exceed 18 characters and spaces combined. | H H |
654 | It Plays to Recycle | Come up with funny ways to recycle things, people, writing (except for your old Invitational entries) or ideas. | H |
651 | Show Us Some Character | Add a character to a book or movie and tell us what happens in it. | H |
647 | Paste Imperfect | Change a headline or sentence that appears in the Post or on washingtonpost.com through Feb. 6 either by deleting up to 40 consecutive characters from it or by adding 40 consecutive characters from the same article or ad. | 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. | I 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 |
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 |
636 | A Song From Tex Arcana | Write a verse of a song about sea urchin sushi or any of the other provided ostensibly unlyrical topics. | 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 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 |
632 | Live On, Sweet, Earnest Reader (Inc.) | Give us an original backronym for a company or product. A backronym is a fake etymology that often gets in a little dig at the subject. | H |
629 | Odd Couplings | Marry or otherwise combine famous names and supply the result. | H |
626 | Course Light | Come up with a comical college class, along with a description for the course catalog. | H |
623 | Try to Remember | Give us an original mnemonic for any list that someone might want to remember. | R |
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 |
620 | Keep the Empress Employed | Suggest some original, creative ways that The Post could increase its circulation. | H |
613 | Tour de Fours II | Create and define a word that includes, consecutively, E, R, A and N. in any order. | H |
611 | Ask Backwards, Erudite Edition | You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the sophisticated answers. You supply the questions. | 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 |
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 |
599 | So What's the News? | Tell us what the illustrated events are. | 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 |
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 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 |
588 | Gadget If You Can | Tell us what these nifty, indispensable items are. | H |
587 | The B-List | Come up with an In-Out list for 2005, or other pairings. | H |
586 | God's Will (and Won't) | Complete either of the following: "If God hadn't wanted us to ----, God wouldn’t have ----"; "If God had wanted us to ----, God would have ----. | I |
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. | T |
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. | I 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 |
576 | Well, Excuuuuse Us! | Come up with new excuses for any common human shortcoming or imperfection. | H |
574 | Boor Us Silly | Come up with some unwise attempts at humor--one either likely to backfire or to create other unpleasant consequences. | R |
573 | Thine Ad Goest Here | Propose biblical and other literary passages, poems, etc., that could benefit from product placement. | H H |
572 | The Limerixicon | Supply a limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with ai- through ar-. | H |
570 | Timeline Rhyme Lines | Produce colorful chronological couplets about some historical event. They must rhyme and be in good meter. | H |
565 | Anthem Is as Anthem Does | Give us a verse for an alternative U.S. national anthem, set to any well-known tune. | H |
562 | The LMNs of Style | Write a funny sentence (or more) that you spell with only the sounds of the names of letters and those of numbers 1 through 9. | L |
559 | Your Slogan Here | Come up with a clever slogan or sign for a business. | H |
557 | Oh, for Namesakes! | Take two people, real or fictional, who share some element of their names and explain the difference between them. | H H |
554 | Love the Tiny Tail Stain | Write an anagram based on a name or event that's been in the news recently. | T |
547 | Give Us a Bad Name | Take an existing product or business name and pair it with an incompatible one. | H |
545 | Put It in Reverse | Spell a word backward and define it, with the definition relating in some way to the original word. | H H |
544 | You Gotta Have Heart | Write us some valentine sentiments from one particular person (real or fictional) to another. | H |
540 | Revisionist History, or Badenov for You? | State any news event (or old event) in the style of the Rocky-and-Bullwinkle teasers about the next show. | H |
538 | Try, Try Again | Enter any previous Invitational. Your entry must be substantially different from the original winners. | H |
536 | And the Horse He Rodin On | Come up with some words we can stick in the back of The Inker. | H |
530 | Tri Harder | Take any word, alter it in three ways--by adding a letter, by subtracting a letter and by changing a letter--and redefine all three new words. | 3 |
525 | It Won't Belong Now | Tell us which of three cartoons provided does not belong, and why. | H |
516 | Err Apparent | Come up with unwise things to say in any of the provided circumstances. | 3 |
515 | A Cellebration of Tasteful Living | Come up with ways that Martha Stewart can prettify and improve her new prison surroundings using only her skills, her impeccable taste and those resources available to her. | H |
514 | Ask Backwards | You are on "Jeopardy!" These are your answers. What are the questions? | H 4 |
513 | It's Delete We Can Do | Come up with very bad subject lines for spam e-mail--lines that will guarantee instant deletion, sight unseen. | H |
512 | Live On, Sweet, Earnest Reader | Take the name of any person--living, dead, fictional--and use the letters of his name, in succession, to form the first letters of an expression appropriate to that person. | H |
511 | It All Impends | Tell us what is something unusual about to happen in the provided cartoons. | H |
508 | Letter Rip | Take a word from the dictionary, add, change, or delete a single letter, and redefine the word. | H |
507 | Crocktails | Come up with a drink named for something or someone associated with Washington and describe the drink. | H 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 |
498 | Unamazing But True! | Submit a true fact that is of absolutely no use, but interesting in a weirdly Invitationalist way. | H |
489 | Combo, First Blood | Combine two people whose names contain a common element, as in the examples above. Then describe the person, or provide a quote he or she might have uttered. | H 3 |
487 | Eee! Rotica | Come with a passage in a novel that ineptly describes hanky-panky. | H 3 |
483 | Obitter Fate | Give us an obit headline for some famous person, currently living or dead. | H |
480 | In No Uncertain Terminations | Come up with a way to stop any unwanted overture in its tracks. | H |
478 | Do You Mindset? | Anticipate items for the Mindset List for the freshman class of the year 2020. | H H H |
472 | Water Stupid Idea | Propose bad ideas for saving water in the continuing drought. | W |
471 | Excuses, Excuses | Come up with creative new excuses for not turning in homework, not filing your taxes on time, missing church or forgetting your spouse's birthday. | H |
468 | Ism This Stupid? | Take any common prefix and attach it to any well-known "ism" and define the new term. | H |
466 | Spit the Difference | Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. | 2 |
461 | Punch Us Again | Take any comic from the daily Washington Post during the next week and make it better by changing the contents of the final word balloon. | H |
460 | Pompous Assets | Come up with the first paragraph of a review of a real book or movie, past or present, that is narcissistic, pretentious, and self-aggrandizing. | H |
459 | Stock Humor | Look at any of the abbreviated company names in the Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange listings in any newspaper's business section and suggest what business the companies might be in. | 4 |
455 | Comixing | Create new comic characters by crossing two existing characters, then describe the character. | H |
453 | Haiku 2 U2 | Write a haiku summarizing the career of any American politician, living or dead. A haiku is generally defined as a nonrhyming poem, of three lines. The first and last lines are five syllables; the middle line is seven. | 2 |
451 | Make Your Pix | Which two of the provided cartoons are related, and how? | H |
444 | Advice Squad | Take any letter from today's advice columns and answer it in the voice of someone famous, living or dead. | H |
442 | Titletales | Take any real book or movie, change one word slightly, and describe the resulting new product. | H 2 |
437 | The Telegraph Poll | Tell us the beginning of a joke that badly telegraphs the punch line. | H |
429 | Shark Instruments | Tell us what would be a sign that any current institution--TV show, newspaper feature, magazine, business, etc.--has jumped the shark. | 4 |
422 | Taught Language | Come up with lessons learned from (1) the movies, (2) popular songs, (3) romance novels or (4) the comics page. | H H |
413 | Bland Ambition | Come up with one or more items from an underachiever's list of midlife resolutions. | H |
408 | What's In a Name? | Take the name of any politician, living or dead, and construct an appropriate message from the letters of the name. You may use any letter as many times as you wish, and you may insert punctuation. | H |
396 | April Foals | Mate any two of the horses qualifying for the Triple Crown races and come up with appropriate names for their foals. Maximum 18 letters and spaces. | H H H |
393 | Things Could Be Verse | Take any story in today's Washington Post and rewrite it into a rhyming poem of no more than eight lines. | H |
392 | Everyone's a Comic | Choose any panel of any comic strip in today's Washington Post and improve it by replacing the original speech and thought balloons with your own, | H |
387 | By Jingo | Come up with a joke that could be written and understood only by a Washingtonian. | H H |
367 | Future Schlock | Come up with a line that will surely not appear in an upcoming work. | H |
315 | FERMENTING TROUBLE | Write a rhyming poem, eight lines maximum, on the subject of cheese or any of the provided items. | H |
285 | ELEVENIS, ANYTWO? | Take a common phrase containing a specific number, add or subtract one, and explain the revised phrase. | H |
274 | THE DROLL OF A LIFETIME | Be the New Yorker comics editor, and explain to readers of The Washington Post why the provided jokes are charmingly witty. | H |
259 | SPARE EXCHANGE, BUDDY? | Take any phone number of any business or government office in the Washington area, translate the first two digits into their constituent letters and propose any appropriate one-word exchange. | 4 |
258 | IT'S A BIRD. IT'S A PAIN. | Choose one or more of the provided super powers and tell us what you would do with it. | H |
256 | THE PYLE INVITATIONAL | Come up with hip, contemporary riddles and answers. The punch line must contain a painful pun. | H |
249 | BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS | Supply a silver lining for any scourge or social ill facing America or the world. | H |
239 | NAME THAT TOON | Send us the captions for cartoons not provided. | E |
230 | TALES FROM THE CRYPTOGRAM | Take any proper noun--a person, a book, a movie, whatever--and create for it an appropriate cryptogram. | H |
225 | WE RESPECTfully decline to publish any dumb entries by YOU. | Come up with signs for a T-shirt or a bumper sticker that hide the real message in tiny type. | H |
217 | NO QUESTION ABOUT IT | Come up with truly stupid questions. | H |
179 | A CLOCKWORK, UM, UM, ... ER | Write single sentences containing no fewer than three examples of rhyming slang. | W |
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 |
126 | EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' | What are these people, etc., saying or thinking? | H |
120 | SIMILE OUTRAGEOUS | Come up with inept analogies, rotten comparisons as a literary device. | H |