Style Invitational Week 1404: Ask Backwards 39, a not-so-‘Jeopardy!’ contest
But we give answers, you give questions. And our winning ‘foal’ names, fall edition.
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(Bob Staake for The Washington Post)
By
Pat Myers
Oct. 1, 2020 at 9:19 a.m. EDT
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(Click here to skip down to the winning foal names from Week 1400)

$750.02
Shake, Rattle and Plop
A Mazel Tov Cocktail
Alex Tribeca
Ken Jennings and Kylie Jenner
Shut Up Man
Downton Outhouse
A Spelling Hornet
May 30, 2022
The Republic Forwhichistan
Keep On Smizing
@UnrealAbrahamLincoln
Chris Wallace’s Glasses
Getting Bonked by a Tennis Ball
A Room Without a Roof
LAP, CLAP and WAP
The Washington Football Team’s Mascot
The New Cabinet Department We Need
As “Jeopardy!” returns for its 37th season (not counting the Art Fleming years), still hosted by the indefatigable Alex Trebek and now featuring 74-time winner Ken Jennings as “Official Jeopardy! Guy,” The Style Invitational once again presents its contest that bears virtually no resemblance to the quiz show except that . . . Above are the answers. You supply the questions. Everything’s capitalized in case you want to think of them as proper nouns somehow, but you may also ignore the caps.

Submit up to 25 entries at wapo.st/enter-invite-1404 (no capitals in the Web address). Deadline is Monday, Oct. 12; results will appear Nov. 1 in print, Oct. 29 online.

Little Red Book not included: Brought back from China, this week's second prize.
Little Red Book not included: Brought back from China, this week's second prize.
Winner gets the Lose Cannon, our Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives a Chinese army-style red-starred olive drab cap, picked up in China a while back by a “a former U.S. government ‘researcher,’ if you know what I mean,” says its donor, Loser Steve Smith.

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Other runners-up win their choice of our “For Best Results, Pour Into Top End” Loser Mug or our “Whole Fools” Grossery Bag. Honorable mentions get one of our lusted-after Loser magnets, “No ’Bility” or “Punder-achiever.” First Offenders receive only a smelly tree-shaped air “freshener” (FirStink for their first ink). See general contest rules and guidelines at wapo.st/InvRules. The headline “Horse and Jokey” is by Chris Doyle; Jon Gearhart wrote the honorable-mentions subhead. Join the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook at on.fb.me/invdev; “like” the Style Invitational Ink of the Day on Facebook at bit.ly/inkofday, and follow @StyleInvite on Twitter.

The Style Conversational: The Empress’s weekly online column discusses each new contest and set of results. See this week’s at wapo.st/conv1404.

Our new Loser-made podcast! In Episodes 1 through 4 of You’re Invited, host Mike Gips has interviewed the Empress, Top Inviter Ever Chris Doyle, Founder of the Loser Community Elden Carnahan, and Current Dominator Duncan Stevens. Hear each half-hour at bit.ly/invite-podcast; the next one will drop in a few weeks.

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And from The Style Invitational four weeks ago . . .

Horse and jokey: The foal names of Week 1400
In Week 1400 we gave a special running of our famed foal name contest, this time between the postponed Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. As usual, we offered a list of 100 of the horses nominated for this year’s Triple Crown races and asked you to “breed” any two names, then name the “foal” to reflect both names. So many First Offenders this week!

4th place:
Astaire x Weekend in Court = Puttin’OnTheWrits (Steve Price, New York)

3rd place:
As Seen on TV x Censored = ** *een on TV (Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va.; Laurie Brink, Mineola, N.Y.)

2nd place
and the 1983 Churchill Downs mint julep glass:
Semper Fi x Well Connected = Jarhead Kushner (Chris Doyle, Denton, Tex.)

And the winner of the Lose Cannon:
Life on the Road x Villainous = RV Weinstein (Steve Langer, Chevy Chase, Md.)

Louisville sloggers: Honorable mentions
Hail to the Chief x Close Shave = Stubble Genius (Rick Haynes, Boynton Beach, Fla.)

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Money Moves x Relentless Dancer = Cardi O (Luke Baker, Columbia, Md.)

Hail to the Chief x American Baby = Mad Don and Child (Elizabeth Kline, Frederick, Md.)

Mr. Kringle x No Salt = St. NaCl-less (Jesse Frankovich, Lansing, Mich.)

South Bend x Something Natural = Mayor Peat (Greg Dobbins, Boynton Beach, Fla.)

Amen Corner x Atone = Amend Corner (Beverley Sharp, Montgomery, Ala.)

Amen Corner x Explosive = Amen Coroner (John Hutchins, Silver Spring, Md.)

Amen Corner x Charlatan = Two Corinthians (Susan Zarrow, Emmaus, Pa., a First Offender)

Mr. Kringle x Close Shave = Saint Nick (Beryl Benderly, Washington; Claudia Raffman, Reston, Va.)

Amen Corner x Thousand Words = Sermonotonous (Trudie Cushing, Bethesda, Md.)

American Baby x Informative = Goo-Google (Pamela Love, Columbia, Md.)

Charlatan x Ancient Land = Fauxnecia (Lawrence McGuire, Waldorf, Md.)

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Explosive x Ancient Land = Bomb in Gilead (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.)

Gimme Some Mo x Ancient Land = What’sYoursIsMayan (Harvey Smith, McLean, Va.)

Art Collector x Censored = Art Corrector (Tom Witte, Montgomery Village, Md.)

Art Collector x Cool Runnings = Venus de Miler (Cheryl Denney White, Hartsdale, N.Y.)

South Bend x Market Analysis = Hoosier Data? (Laura Clairmont, Venice, Fla..)

As Seen on TV x Believe Now = Regret Later (Laura Bennett Peterson, Washington)

As Seen on TV x NY Traffic = Kvetch-O-Matic (Jonathan Jensen, Baltimore)

NY Traffic x As Seen on TV = JamWow (Fred Shuback, Silver Spring, Md., a First Offender)

As Seen on TV x Verb = Avoid (Nancy Della Rovere, Silver Spring, Md.)

Atone x Candy Machine = Yum Kippur (Marleen May, Rockville, Md.; Steve Price)

Talkin Malice x Atone = Cuss and Make Up (Rob Huffman, Fredericksburg, Va.)

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Well Connected x South Bend = Plugged IN (Kirsten B. Mitchell, Washington, a First Offender)

Authentic x Spice Is Nice = The Real Dill (Rob Wolf, Gaithersburg, Md.)

Authentic x Wrecking Crew = The Credible Hulk (Duncan Stevens)

Villainous x Beachcombing = Darth Wader (Jonathan Hardis, Gaithersburg, Md.)

Explosive x By Your Side = Blame the Dog (Sam Mertens, Silver Spring, Md.; Paul Madigan, Ellicott City, Md., a First Offender)

Modernist x Atone = Finnegans Woke (Rob Huffman)

Superfecto x Caracaro = Expialidocious (Sam Mertens)

South Bend x Censored = Notre Tame (Paul Burnham, Gainesville, Va.)

Explosive x Charlatan = BAMboozle (Kathy El-Assal, Middleton, Wis.)

Hail to the Chief x Charlatan = Bone Spurious (Stephen Dudzik, Olney, Md.)

Charlatan x Relentless Dancer = Fraud Astaire (Daniel Galef, Tallahassee)

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Close Shave x Poe = Pits and Pendulum (Ed Flynn, Alexandria, Va.; Brian Lewandowski, Keswick, Va., a First Offender)

Close Shave x Positively Awesome = Belle of the Bald (Howard Walderman, Columbia, Md.)

Close Shave x Tons of Gold = Brazilianaire (Duncan Stevens)

Spice Is Nice x Dr Post = Anise-thesia (Bruce Carlson, Alexandria, Va.)

Energized x Talkin Malice = Little Bunny FU FU (David Peckarsky, Tucson)

Eight Rings x Money Moves = Octopi Wall Street (Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park, Md.)

Informative x Mr. Kringle = KnowWellKnowWell (Mary McNamara, Washington)

Explosive x South Bend = Nitro Dame (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn; Rob Huffman)

Convict x Tons of Gold = Manafort Knox (Bill Dorner, Indianapolis)

Cool Runnings x Fancy Liquor = Drool Runnings (Todd DeLap, Fairfax, Va.)

Special Day x Villainous = Doris and Natasha (Perry Beider, Silver Spring, Md.)

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Telephone Talker x Thousand Words = Hello, Mother (John Folse, Bryans Road, Md.)

Semper Fi x Digital = Halls of Montezoom (Mark Raffman)

Semper Fi x Relentless Dancer = HallsOfMontezumba (Katherine Carwile, Kitty Hawk, N.C.)

Semper Fi x Screech = Howls of Montezuma (Dudley Thompson, Cary, N.C.)

No Shirt, No Shoes x Relentless Dancer = Flatley Denied (Doug Hembrey, Manassas, a First Offender)

Poe x The Falcon = First Draft (Mark Nocera, Alexandria, Va.)

Poe x Super John = House of Flusher (Malcolm Fleschner, Palo Alto, Calif.)

Ancient Land x Ready to Roll = Fertile Crescent (Rob Huffman)

Positively Awesome x Market Analysis = How Great Dow Art (Chris Doyle)

South Bend x By Your Side = Dress to the Left (Brett Dimaio, Cumberland, Md.)

Storm the Court x Kowalski = Tennisy Williams (Matt Monitto, Bristol, Conn.)

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Kowalski x Poe = Lenooorrrrre! (Susan Zarrow)

Mr. Kringle x No Shirt No Shoes = St. Knickerless (Jon Gearhart, Des Moines)

Necker Island x No Shirt No Shoes = Nekkid Island (Chuck Smith, Woodbridge)

Shoplifted x Well Connected = BigMisunderstandin (Jon Ketzner, Cumberland, Md.)

Kid Mercury x Screech = Hg Wails (Bernard Brink, Cleveland, Mo.)

Shooters Shoot x King Guillermo = Fire at Will (Diana Oertel, San Francisco)

Weekend in Court x King Guillermo = Arraign in Spain (Mary Kappus, Washington)

Still running — deadline Monday, Oct. 5: our contest for a covid-19 or other current story line for a current or classic TV show. See wapo.st/invite1403.

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