Week 148: The Tile Invitational XII
Make a new word from any of these 7-letter sets. Plus caption contest winners.
PAT MYERS
AND
GENE WEINGARTEN
OCT 30, 2025
Potty humor isn’t the only thing we feature among this week’s Invitational caption contest winners.
Say hello to Crappo. That’s him, above. You’ll get a more complete introduction to him below, in Group C of The Invitational’s caption contest results. In the meantime, we are going to help you Scrabble-rack your brains.
The last time we ran our annual Tile Invitational contest — it was Oct. 31, 2024 — we offered it as “a distraction from biting your nails as you sit on the couch next Tuesday.” Yes, less than one year ago, the country still had the option of not installing as its president a marginally literate brachydactylic megalomaniac. (We’re word people, after all. We can still play with letters.)
In the few pages it has left, The Washington Post still runs the print-only syndicated word game ScrabbleGrams. AT THIS LINK YOU CLICK ON RIGHT HERE a list of the four “racks” pictured below from the Oct. 28 Post, plus 32 more letter sets from the long-out-of-print Big Book of ScrabbleGrams; each unscrambles into a real seven-letter word, but that’s not the word you want.
For Invitational Week 148: Rearrange the letters of any of the 36 letter sets to create a new term, then define or describe it, as in the examples below. Your word may use all 7 letters or just 6, but you may use each letter in the set only once. (So if there are two L’s, you can use them both, but if there’s just one L, you can’t use it twice.) Your term can be one word, two words or more, hyphenated, abbreviated, etc.; we’re easy. (The point values of the various letters don’t come into play in this game.)
There’s a good chance that someone else will make up the same word you did, so having a funny definition or description (e.g., a sentence using your term) can be what gets you the ink. See the word list for IMPORTANT instructions on formatting your entries, but basically they should be in the form of the examples below.
LUTE TAX: What finally caused the peasants’ revolt against the Plantagenets.
MT. ANNOY: Your high-schooler’s pile of dirty clothes.
M.C. LOYER: “You got no game, you got no class / Gonna be habeas corpusin’ yo ass!”
BOUNCI: The name of the woman in Picture G of today’s caption contest results.
Entry deadline is Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET. Results will run here in The Gene Pool on Thursday, Nov. 13. As usual, you may submit up to 25 entries for this week’s contest, preferably all on the same form.
Click here for this week’s entry form, or go to tinyURL.com/inv-form-148.
(Note: If you are reading this in an email, please click on the headline at the top of the page to get an updated version of The Gene Pool online, with any amendments, emendations, etc. made after the email was sent. And with the elaborate real-time Q’s and A’s at the bottom)
This week’s winner receives — in plenty of time to enhance your Thanksgiving wardrobe — these handsome turkey-leg socks. (If you prefer chicken to turkey, they are chicken-leg socks.)
See Dumb Thing, Say Dumb Thing: Caption contest winners
In Invitational Week 146 we asked you to write captions for any or all of the following pictures we dredged up. Too many people to credit interpreted the action, such as it is, in Picture B to concern farting; we can’t imagine why you thought this would amuse us.
(This week’s winner and runners-up appear under the respective pictures, followed at the end by the Gene Pool Gene Poll, in which you can second-guess us.)
(Picture of man riding a hobby horse and brandishing his necktie)
First runner-up:
The entire remaining Pentagon press pool rides to defend Secretary Pete Hegseth against the Enemies of the People. (Tim Livengood, Columbia, Md.)
“It’s always the same nightmare,” Mr. Ed told his psychologist. (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.)
The origin story of Murray Higginbotham, Accountant of the Wild Frontier, is not widely known. (Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va.)
“I’m never going back to Peloton!” (Jeff Rackow, Bethesda, Md.)
Warning: Mixing Ambien with alcohol may cause unexpected sleep behaviors. (Lee Graham, Columbia, S.C.)
Bob worries that his choice of tie may have been inappropriate for his job interview on Zoom. (Judy Freed, Philadelphia)
******
(Picture of a woman raising her index finger and a bearded man saying
something to her)
Inattentive as always, Arthur loses yet another game of nose goes. (Chris Doyle, Denton, Tex.)
Ophelia wondered if Gregoire was really the haunted, tortured artist he claimed to be, or just some asshole with a beard. (John Kupiec, Fairfax, Va.)
“Stop portraitbombing me!” (Daniel Galef, Cincinnati)
She had touched him deeply, but he still didn’t enjoy his annual exam. (Jeff Hazle, San Antonio)
******
(picture of a toilet with two rolls of toilet paper on it (resembling eyes)
and a squashed roll of paper towels poking out from under the lid)
Third runner-up: “Yeah, I might not be good-looking, but I bet I get more ass than you.” (Jon Ketzner, Cumberland, Md.)
Second runner-up: “I’m Groucho’s cousin, Skid.” (Jon Gearhart, Des Moines)
The least famous Marx brother, Crappo. (Jesse Frankovich, Laingsburg, Mich.)
The ultimate shit-eating grin. (Mark Raffman; Rob Huffman, Fredericksburg, Va.)
According to Trump’s lawyers, he did have someone guarding the stolen classified documents. (Leif Picoult, Rockville, Md.)
Trump orders the FBI to investigate a smoking antifa frog found in a Portland bathroom. (Chris Doyle)
“So ya caught me smokin’ in the bathroom. Whatcha gonna do about it? Kick me out?” (Michael Stein, Arlington, Va.)
*******
(Picture of a leaning man with outstretched arms and closed eyes, with a
windmill in the background)
The winner of the Bigfoot air freshener:
Don Peyote. (Art Grinath, Takoma Park, Md.)
“I’m the king of the whirl!” (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va.)
Dustin “The Wind” Ventini could get any windmill going—he just needed a helping of beans. (Leif Picoult)
After striking out with all the “ladies” at the windmill, Lloyd drops some acid instead. (Jon Ketzner)
*******
(Picture of a dense crowd of bizarre faces)
The first HOA meeting at The Villages at Williamsburg descended into rancorous discord. (Jon Ketzner)
As the only woman present, Eleanor never more clearly grasped the adage “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.” (Sam Mertens, Silver Spring, Md.)
Back in the olden days, folks occasionally began to reconsider the notion of bathing only every other month. (Jon Ketzner)
A page from “Where’s Waldo’s Great-Great-Grandfather?” (Jesse Frankovich)
“Don’t look now, but I think that weirdo showed up.” (Daniel Galef)
The First Congress of the United States pretty much set the bar for the current institution. (Jonathan Jensen, Baltimore)
“I thought this ballroom was supposed to be for 999 people.” (Daniel Helming, Conshohocken, Pa.)
********
(Picture of two people ascending or descending the nose on Mount Rushmore's
George Washington)
“The hardest part will be recarving the top of the head to a combover.” (Dave Prevar, Annapolis, Md.)
“I have no clue what to do — I was in procurement until DOGE reassigned my ass out here.” (Jon Ketzner)
“Really, Stan? I told you to pee before we left the nostril.” (Judy Freed)
*****
(Picture of a young man and young woman smiling and on pogo sticks)
A Baptist couple attempt to jump-start the rapture. (Chris Doyle)
“And to think we got these Segways at DealDash.com for only $15!” (Dave Prevar)
“I mean, if sea levels do rise by six inches over the next ten years like they’re predicting, we’ll be fine, see?” (Duncan Stevens)
RFK Jr. plans to announce the Administration’s new preferred method for pregnancy termination. (Rick Haynes, Boynton Beach, Fla.)
The Lanternfly SWAT Team will squash the enemy by any means necessary. (Kevin Dopart)
The headline “See Dumb Thing, Say Dumb Thing” is by Kevin Dopart.
Still running — deadline Saturday, Nov. 8, at 9 p.m. ET: Our contests for tombstone epitaphs for the still-living. Click below for details.
•
Week 148: The Tile Invitational XII
Make a new word from any of these 7-letter sets. Plus caption contest winners.
PAT MYERS
AND
GENE WEINGARTEN
OCT 30, 2025
Potty humor isn’t the only thing we feature among this week’s Invitational caption contest winners.
Say hello to Crappo. That’s him, above. You’ll get a more complete introduction to him below, in Group C of The Invitational’s caption contest results. In the meantime, we are going to help you Scrabble-rack your brains.
The last time we ran our annual Tile Invitational contest — it was Oct. 31, 2024 — we offered it as “a distraction from biting your nails as you sit on the couch next Tuesday.” Yes, less than one year ago, the country still had the option of not installing as its president a marginally literate brachydactylic megalomaniac. (We’re word people, after all. We can still play with letters.)
In the few pages it has left, The Washington Post still runs the print-only syndicated word game ScrabbleGrams. AT THIS LINK YOU CLICK ON RIGHT HERE a list of the four “racks” pictured below from the Oct. 28 Post, plus 32 more letter sets from the long-out-of-print Big Book of ScrabbleGrams; each unscrambles into a real seven-letter word, but that’s not the word you want.
For Invitational Week 148: Rearrange the letters of any of the 36 letter sets to create a new term, then define or describe it, as in the examples below. Your word may use all 7 letters or just 6, but you may use each letter in the set only once. (So if there are two L’s, you can use them both, but if there’s just one L, you can’t use it twice.) Your term can be one word, two words or more, hyphenated, abbreviated, etc.; we’re easy. (The point values of the various letters don’t come into play in this game.)
There’s a good chance that someone else will make up the same word you did, so having a funny definition or description (e.g., a sentence using your term) can be what gets you the ink. See the word list for IMPORTANT instructions on formatting your entries, but basically they should be in the form of the examples below.
LUTE TAX: What finally caused the peasants’ revolt against the Plantagenets.
MT. ANNOY: Your high-schooler’s pile of dirty clothes.
M.C. LOYER: “You got no game, you got no class / Gonna be habeas corpusin’ yo ass!”
BOUNCI: The name of the woman in Picture G of today’s caption contest results.
Entry deadline is Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025, at 9 p.m. ET. Results will run here in The Gene Pool on Thursday, Nov. 13. As usual, you may submit up to 25 entries for this week’s contest, preferably all on the same form.
Click here for this week’s entry form, or go to tinyURL.com/inv-form-148.
(Note: If you are reading this in an email, please click on the headline at the top of the page to get an updated version of The Gene Pool online, with any amendments, emendations, etc. made after the email was sent. And with the elaborate real-time Q’s and A’s at the bottom)
This week’s winner receives — in plenty of time to enhance your Thanksgiving wardrobe — these handsome turkey-leg socks. (If you prefer chicken to turkey, they are chicken-leg socks.)
See Dumb Thing, Say Dumb Thing: Caption contest winners
In Invitational Week 146 we asked you to write captions for any or all of the following pictures we dredged up. Too many people to credit interpreted the action, such as it is, in Picture B to concern farting; we can’t imagine why you thought this would amuse us.
(This week’s winner and runners-up appear under the respective pictures, followed at the end by the Gene Pool Gene Poll, in which you can second-guess us.)
First runner-up:
The entire remaining Pentagon press pool rides to defend Secretary Pete Hegseth against the Enemies of the People. (Tim Livengood, Columbia, Md.)
“It’s always the same nightmare,” Mr. Ed told his psychologist. (Mark Raffman, Reston, Va.)
The origin story of Murray Higginbotham, Accountant of the Wild Frontier, is not widely known. (Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va.)
“I’m never going back to Peloton!” (Jeff Rackow, Bethesda, Md.)
Warning: Mixing Ambien with alcohol may cause unexpected sleep behaviors. (Lee Graham, Columbia, S.C.)
Bob worries that his choice of tie may have been inappropriate for his job interview on Zoom. (Judy Freed, Philadelphia)
******
Inattentive as always, Arthur loses yet another game of nose goes. (Chris Doyle, Denton, Tex.)
Ophelia wondered if Gregoire was really the haunted, tortured artist he claimed to be, or just some asshole with a beard. (John Kupiec, Fairfax, Va.)
“Stop portraitbombing me!” (Daniel Galef, Cincinnati)
She had touched him deeply, but he still didn’t enjoy his annual exam. (Jeff Hazle, San Antonio)
******
Third runner-up: “Yeah, I might not be good-looking, but I bet I get more ass than you.” (Jon Ketzner, Cumberland, Md.)
Second runner-up: “I’m Groucho’s cousin, Skid.” (Jon Gearhart, Des Moines)
The least famous Marx brother, Crappo. (Jesse Frankovich, Laingsburg, Mich.)
The ultimate shit-eating grin. (Mark Raffman; Rob Huffman, Fredericksburg, Va.)
According to Trump’s lawyers, he did have someone guarding the stolen classified documents. (Leif Picoult, Rockville, Md.)
Trump orders the FBI to investigate a smoking antifa frog found in a Portland bathroom. (Chris Doyle)
“So ya caught me smokin’ in the bathroom. Whatcha gonna do about it? Kick me out?” (Michael Stein, Arlington, Va.)
*******
The winner of the Bigfoot air freshener:
Don Peyote. (Art Grinath, Takoma Park, Md.)
“I’m the king of the whirl!” (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va.)
Dustin “The Wind” Ventini could get any windmill going—he just needed a helping of beans. (Leif Picoult)
After striking out with all the “ladies” at the windmill, Lloyd drops some acid instead. (Jon Ketzner)
*******
The first HOA meeting at The Villages at Williamsburg descended into rancorous discord. (Jon Ketzner)
As the only woman present, Eleanor never more clearly grasped the adage “the odds are good, but the goods are odd.” (Sam Mertens, Silver Spring, Md.)
Back in the olden days, folks occasionally began to reconsider the notion of bathing only every other month. (Jon Ketzner)
A page from “Where’s Waldo’s Great-Great-Grandfather?” (Jesse Frankovich)
“Don’t look now, but I think that weirdo showed up.” (Daniel Galef)
The First Congress of the United States pretty much set the bar for the current institution. (Jonathan Jensen, Baltimore)
“I thought this ballroom was supposed to be for 999 people.” (Daniel Helming, Conshohocken, Pa.)
********
“The hardest part will be recarving the top of the head to a combover.” (Dave Prevar, Annapolis, Md.)
“I have no clue what to do — I was in procurement until DOGE reassigned my ass out here.” (Jon Ketzner)
“Really, Stan? I told you to pee before we left the nostril.” (Judy Freed)
*****
A Baptist couple attempt to jump-start the rapture. (Chris Doyle)
“And to think we got these Segways at DealDash.com for only $15!” (Dave Prevar)
“I mean, if sea levels do rise by six inches over the next ten years like they’re predicting, we’ll be fine, see?” (Duncan Stevens)
RFK Jr. plans to announce the Administration’s new preferred method for pregnancy termination. (Rick Haynes, Boynton Beach, Fla.)
The Lanternfly SWAT Team will squash the enemy by any means necessary. (Kevin Dopart)
The headline “See Dumb Thing, Say Dumb Thing” is by Kevin Dopart.
Still running — deadline Saturday, Nov. 8, at 9 p.m. ET: Our contests for tombstone epitaphs for the still-living. Click below for details.
InvisibleInk!
Idea: ()
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Judging: ()
Title: (Kevin Dopart)
Subhead: ()
Prize: ()
Add:H:1588: ()
VisibleInk!