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MASTER LIST OF ALL STYLE INVITATIONAL CONTESTS

The Society wishes to thank Russell Beland, Chris Doyle, Kyle Hendrickson, and Pat Myers for their help in assembling the archive that is linked to from this page.

          

WEEK DATE TITLE SYNOPSIS THEMES CONTEST LINKS WINNER RESULTS LINKS
1582 / 64 03/21/2024 You're Workin' on a Chain, Gang A classic connection game. CHN WOR Text WebPDF (none)
1581 / 63 03/14/2024 SOTU-Speak Use words from Biden's State of the Union speech to write some lines for another oration. BNK WOR POL Text WebPDF (none)
1580 / 62 03/07/2024 Hi, Anxiety! Tell us some funny ways to stress yourself out. ADV Text WebPDF Sam Mertens 1582: Text WebPDF
1579 / 61 02/29/2024 Captions Courageous Write a description for any of six photos CAP CAR Text WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1581: Text WebPDF
1578 / 60 02/22/2024 The Pepys Show Give us a diary entry from anyone in history. HIS CUL POL Text WebPDF Frank Osen 1580: Text WebPDF
1577 / 59 02/15/2024 Why the #$%#$% Not? The Washington Post is looking for some bold ideas -- Let's show it some! ADV Text WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1579: Text WebPDF
1576 / 58 02/08/2024 Praise the Lurid! Give us clickbait headlines for mundane stories. HEA Text WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1578: Text WebPDF
1575 / 57 02/01/2024 The Ughscars and the Phewlitzers Give us an idea for a bad book or movie. JOK Text WebPDF Judy Freed 1577: Text WebPDF
1574 / 56 01/25/2024 Oh, Grandpa, Stop! Turn a 'dad joke' into a less-tame 'grandpa joke' JOK Text WebPDF Pam Shermeyer 1576: Text WebPDF
1573 / 55 01/18/2024 The Invitational Week 55: Tour de Fours — Be STUD-ly Give us a new word or phrase containing 'DUST' in any order of letters. TDF NEO Text WebPDF Leif Picoult 1575: Text WebPDF
1572 / 54 01/11/2024 S Is for Smartass Presenting the Devil's Alphabet Soup LET POE Text WebPDF Judy Freed 1574: Text WebPDF
1571 / 53 01/04/2024 Dead Letters, our annual obit contest Write a funny verse about someone who died in 2023. POE EPI DLT Text WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1573: Text WebPDF
1570 / 52 12/28/2023 The Invitational, Week 52: Replaying Around -- The 2023 retrospective, Part II Enter or reenter our Week 26-50. PRE Text WebPDF William C. Kennard 1572: Text WebPDF
1569 / 51 12/21/2023 Look Back in Inker -- Our 2023 retrospective, Part 1 Enter or reenter our Week 1-25 contests. PRE Text WebPDF Karen Lambert 1571: Text WebPDF
1568 / 50 12/14/2023 Nextra! Nextra! Tell us the funny news events from 2024 CUL POL Text WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1570: Text WebPDF
1567 / 49 12/07/2023 Picture This A caption contest CAP CAR Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1569: Text WebPDF
1566 / 48 11/30/2023 Well, the Good News Is ... Put a positive spin on a bad-news headline HEA Text WebPDF Frank Osen 1568: Text WebPDF
1565 / 47 11/23/2023 Oh, For Namesakes! Compare two people who share part of a name. DIF Text WebPDF Terri Berg Smith 1567: Text WebPDF
1564 / 46 11/16/2023 "Air" "Quotes" A new forefinger contest WOR INS NEO Text WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1566: Text WebPDF
1563 / 45 11/09/2023 The Perfect(ly Ridiculous) Gift Offer up some products for people-who-have-everything catalogs. BUS CUL Text WebPDF Tom Witte 1565: Text WebPDF
1562 / 44 11/02/2023 Rhyme and Rhyme Again Write a funny "monorhyme", a poem whose lines all rhyme on the same sound. POE Text WebPDF Chris Doyle 1564: Text WebPDF
1561 / 43 10/26/2023 Let It Be a Lesson to Us Tell us some things to be learned from Costco, the bathroom, TV shows, etc. CUL ADV Text WebPDF April Musser Brand 1563: Text WebPDF
1560 / 42 10/19/2023 The 'Hole Story Write us a funny 'Am I The Asshole' question CUL INS FIC Text WebPDF Sam Mertens 1562: Text WebPDF
1559 / 41 10/12/2023 As the Word Turns 'Discover' new words by snaking through this random grid WOR LET GRD NEO Text WebPDF Frank Osen 1561: Text WebPDF
1558 / 40 10/05/2023 It's Parody Time Send up the news with those songs and videos you do so well MUS POE POL Text WebPDF Jonathan Jensen,
Tom Chalkley
1560: Text WebPDF
1557 / 39 09/28/2023 Tailgating On the Highway Pair a Dylan line with your own rhyming one MUS POE Text WebPDF Chris Doyle 1559: Text WebPDF
1556 / 38 09/21/2023 Cross Us Up Mirror a phrase, more or less WOR Text WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1558: Text WebPDF
1555 / 37 09/14/2023 Do You Have to Spell It Out for Us? Give us "backronyms" WOR CUL Text WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1557: Text WebPDF
1554 / 36 09/07/2023 U (Heart) TFG's BFFs Reach out to beleaguered Trump supporters and bathe them in the warmth of your love, to help bind the nation’s wounds POL CUL Text WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1556: Text WebPDF
1553 / 35 08/31/2023 Doody and Muldoon Write a Muldoon, a four-line poem that features at least two body parts and a place name, and at least one rhyme. POE Text WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1555: Text WebPDF
1552 / 34 08/24/2023 A Mirthday Party Link two people who share a birthday DIF Text WebPDF Michael Stein 1554: Text WebPDF
1551 / 33 08/17/2023 Ask Backwards XLII We give the answers. You give the questions. JEO Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1553: Text WebPDF
1550 / 32 08/10/2023 Holy Moly, It's Limerixicon XX Write a limerick featuring a word beginning "ho-". LIM POE Text WebPDF Chris Doyle 1552: Text WebPDF
1549 / 31 08/03/2023 The Tile Invitational X It's our 10th running of this coin-a-word game. SCR LET NEO Text WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1551: Text WebPDF
1548 / 30 07/27/2023 Poll-ish Jokes Come up with a ridiculous reader poll. QUE Text WebPDF Dan Sachs 1550: Text WebPDF
1547 / 29 07/19/2023 Alphabettering Write a funny sentence containing all 26 letters. WOR LET Text WebPDF Roy Ashley 1549: Text WebPDF
1546 / 28 07/13/2023 Put It in Bee-verse Write a funny poem using a spelling bee word BEE POE WOR Text WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1548: Text WebPDF
1545 / 27 07/06/2023 Their Base Behavior Tell humorously how some business or organization could alter its product or message to appeal to Trump’s cult. CUL POL Text WebPDF Diana Oertel 1547: Text WebPDF
1544 / 26 06/29/2023 Same Difference Tell us humorously how items on the list are alike, different, or otherwise linked. DIF Text WebPDF Jon Carter 1546: Text WebPDF
1543 / 25 06/22/2023 F Things Up Neologisms by adding Fs or changing letters to F CAL NEO Text WebPDF Chris Doyle 1545: Text WebPDF
1542 / 24 06/15/2023 Your (B)ad Here Tweak an ad slogan to use it for another product SLO BUS Text WebPDF Gregory Dunn 1544: Text WebPDF
1541 / 23 06/08/2023 Wrong enough for ya? Fake facts about the weather FIC Text WebPDF Sam Mertens 1543: Text WebPDF
1540 / 22 05/29/2023 Picture This It's caption contest time, with eight motley pictures to choose from. CAR CAP Text WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1542: Text WebPDF
1539 / 21 05/25/2023 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) DIF MOV LIT TEL Text WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1541: Text WebPDF
1538 / 20 05/18/2023 Rhymes Against Humanity Write a four-line poem about people in the news, using either of two poetic forms POE Text WebPDF Pam Shermeyer 1540: Text WebPDF
1537 / 19 05/11/2023 A Crooning Achievement Write a lyric for a politician to sing. MUS POL Text WebPDF Michael Stein 1539: Text WebPDF
1536 / 18 05/04/2023 Colt Following Now that we have the winner and punners-up of our venerable foal-name contest, it's time for 'grandfoals'. HOR Text WebPDF Laurie Brink 1538: Text WebPDF
1535 / 17 04/27/2023 The Poops Diorama Make some funny art with toilet paper and send us a photo. PIX Text WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1537: Text WebPDF
1534 / 16 04/20/2023 Pun for the Roses Our renowned horse name 'breeding' contest returns! HOR Text WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1536: Text WebPDF
1533 / 15 04/13/2023 The Very Last 'Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions' Tell us a stupid question followed by a funny retort. JOK Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1535: Text WebPDF
1532 / 14 04/06/2023 We Bee Back With Neologisms Make up words using letter sets from the NYT Spelling Bee game NEO WOR LET BEE Text WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1534: Text WebPDF
1531 / 13 03/30/2023 The Worst New Contest Ever Describe something that would be worse than a second Trump presidency POL Text WebPDF Gary Crockett 1533: Text WebPDF
1530 / 12 03/23/2023 Mess With Our Heads Reinterpret any headline by adding a 'bank head'. HEA Text WebPDF Jon Carter 1532: Text WebPDF
1529 / 11 03/16/2023 Hello, Dall-E! Our new contest partners you and a machine. ART Text WebPDF Jon Carter 1531: Text WebPDF
1528 / 10 03/09/2023 It's Our Birthday. Party Like It's 1993. As the Invite turns 30, enter your choice of contests from our year of infancy STY Text WebPDF Malcolm Fleschner 1530: Text WebPDF
1527 / 9 03/02/2023 Film Flim-Flam Use all the letters in a movie title to make a new movie MOV LET ANA Text WebPDF Sam Mertens 1529: Text WebPDF
1526 / 8 02/23/2023 Poke Us Till We Giggle Write a "poke", or a joke recast as a rhyming poem JOK POE Text WebPDF Mark Raffman 1528: Text WebPDF
1525 / 7 02/16/2023 Arty Har-har Give us an idea for a humorously audacious modern art work ART CUL Text WebPDF Jon Carter 1527: Text WebPDF
1524 / 6 02/09/2023 Picture This A caption contest CAR CAP Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1526: Text WebPDF
1523 / 5 02/02/2023 Where in Hell ...? Name a "circle" for some "evil", plus a suitable punishment CUL Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1525: Text WebPDF
1522 / 4 01/26/2023 Questionable Journalism Find a sentence published in the next week and tell us what question it could answer QUE Text WebPDF Michael Gips 1524: Text WebPDF
1521 / 3 01/19/2023 Send Us the Bill Our "Joint Legislation" contest LEG POL Text WebPDF Pam Shermeyer 1523: Text WebPDF
1520 / 2 01/12/2023 Nextra! Nextra! Read All About it. Predict the big news events of 2023 CUL POL Text WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1522: Text WebPDF
1519 / 1 01/05/2023 Dead Letters The post-Post humor contest barely skips a beat as the Czar and Empress begin with the annual obit poems. POE EPI DLT Text WebPDF Pam Shermeyer 1521: Text WebPDF
1518 12/11/2022 The final Post edition Some all-time favorite entries STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1517 12/04/2022 See you next week Nominate your favorite inking entries — your own or someone else’s — to be included in next week’s final edition. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1516 11/27/2022 Questionable Journalism Choose any sentence (or the major part of a sentence) from any publication dated Nov. 23-Dec. 5 and invent a question it could answer. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Judging
Canceled
1515 11/20/2022 Munich-ipals -- European "sister cities Choose any two or more towns from the 51 countries in Europe/Eurasia and come up with a joint endeavor the “sister cities” would undertake. LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Judy Freed 1519: Text WebPDF
1514 11/13/2022 Ask Backwards XLI Above are the answers; you supply the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Judging
Canceled
1513 11/06/2022 You're such a card Come up with a greeting card rhyme for an un-greeting-card occasion. POE CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Karen Lambert 1517: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1512 10/30/2022 Alphabetter Write a 26-word sentence or other passage whose words each start with a different letter — except that the X in the X-word may appear elsewhere in the word, as long as the word has an “ex” syllable. WOR LAN LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1516: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1511 10/23/2022 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. WOR NEO INS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rivka Liss-Levinson 1515: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1510 10/16/2022 Only U (or A, E, I or O) Write a humorous univocalic poem — one that uses only one of the vowels A, E, I, O or U POE WOR LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1514: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1509 10/09/2022 MASH MASH: combine 2 one-word movies Combine two single-word movie titles to make a new movie and describe it. MOV WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Terri Berg Smith 1513: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1508 10/02/2022 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bird Waring 1512: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1507 09/25/2022 All over the map! Choose one of the contiguous 48 U.S. states or D.C. Then write a funny slogan for that state by “traveling a route” from that state into several others. Use the first letters of the states in your route as the first letters of the words in your slogan. LOC SLO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1511: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1506 09/18/2022 Let's go magnet-fishing with new words From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. POE WOR DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1510: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1505 09/11/2022 Munici-pals Choose any two or more real U.S. or Canadian towns — they need to show up on a Google search — and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1509: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1504 09/04/2022 All set — anagram all 100 Scrabble tiles Write a Scrabblegram — an anagram of all 100 tiles in an English-language Scrabble set (your choice for the two blanks). Any punctuation is fine. SCR ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1508: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1503 08/28/2022 Sing of your supper--parodies about food Write a humorous song on the subject of food. POE MUS FOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1507: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1502 08/21/2022 It's Hi-time for Limerixicon XIX Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with “hi-. LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1506: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1501 08/14/2022 Try a little 'kindness' Tell about an “act of kindness” that you or someone else does that, well, won’t be appreciated. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Coleman Glenn 1505: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1500 08/07/2022 These go to 15 Make up a word or phrase whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 15 (no blanks!) and define it. LET WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1504: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1499 07/31/2022 Picture This, a cartoon caption contest Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Carol Lasky 1503: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1498 07/24/2022 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. WOR POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bob Kruger 1502: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1497 07/17/2022 The if-word Give us a "what if" scenario and its humorous result HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1501: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1496 07/10/2022 Same Difference -- compare two items on this list Tell us humorously how any two (or more) items on the provided list are alike or different, or linked in some other way. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1500: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1495 07/03/2022 We all need a break [There's no new contest this week -- our first skipped contest since 2019 -- to that the Empress can take a week off four weeks from now.] Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none) 1499: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1494 06/26/2022 Put it in bee-verse Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the words used in Round 4 or later of this year's bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. BEE POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1498: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1493 06/19/2022 Frankly speaking with feghoots Tell a feghoot -- a mini-story (a ridiculous one is fine) that ends in a groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, line from a song, etc. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1497: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1492 06/12/2022 Set us right -- conservative humor Send us conservative-leaning humor in a Q&A joke format or a knock-knock joke. POL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Leif Picoult 1496: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1491 06/05/2022 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. WOR LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bird Waring 1495: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1490 05/29/2022 It's parody time -- sing the news Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Stein 1494: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1489 05/22/2022 Let's movie things around Rearrange the words of a movie title to create a new movie, then describe it MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Donald Norum 1493: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1488 05/15/2022 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. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1492: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1487 05/08/2022 Colt following -- now it's the grandfoals Breed" any of the "foal" names provided in today's results (including the intro) and give the "grandfoal" a name that reflects both names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Laurie Brink 1491: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1486 05/01/2022 No can do: Signs of incompetence Give us a clue that someone was incompetent in a given field. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Cohen 1490: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1485 04/24/2022 Switchcraft -- transpose two letters in a word Switch the positions of two letters within a word, name, title or phrase, then describe the result. LET WOR CAL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1489: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1484 04/17/2022 Two ways about it What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Glenn 1488: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1483 04/10/2022 Pun for the Roses -- our famous foal-'breeding' contest Breed" any two of the provided names and name the "foal". As in actual thoroughbred racing, a name may not exceed 18 characters including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF John O'Byrne 1487: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1482 04/03/2022 The Tile Invitational IX Rearrange the letters of any of the letter sets provided to create a new term, then define or describe; you may use all seven letters, but also just six or five. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jamie Martindale 1486: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1481 03/27/2022 Mess with our heads Reinterpret some actual headline (or a major part of it), from any publication, print or online. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bill Dorner 1485: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1480 03/20/2022 Oh, you don't really mean that Define" inaccurately and humorously any of the provided words. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Mann 1484: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1479 03/13/2022 It's a WordleVite! Write a prhase of 5-letter words Write a phrase or sentence consisting of two to six five-letter words or names, then define it or say something funny about it. AND the Wordle part: once a letter is in the right, "green" place -- the same place as it is in the final word (like the P in "pouty" in the example provided) -- your subsequent words must keep those letters in their right places. WOR LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1483: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1478 03/06/2022 It's a small, small world Write a humorous poem, eight lines max, using only words from the provided list of 1,000 most common English words. POE WOR BNK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Pam Shermeyer 1482: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1477 02/27/2022 Thinking outside the big box Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided items listed on walmart.com<\em>. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bill Cromwell 1481: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1476 02/20/2022 Matchless humor -- show us some Googlenopes Find us a Googlenope -- a phrase in quotation marks that generates the message "It looks like there aren't many matches for your search" -- or a Googleyup, a phrase that surprisingly does have hits. GOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Richard Lorentz 1480: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1475 02/13/2022 Hail to the Commanders! Write a song (set to any familiar tune) or shouted cheer for the Washington Commanders. OR: Write for any other D.C. institution, e.g., the Metro, the Senate, the National Zoo, The Washington Post. MUS POE WAS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1479: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1474 02/06/2022 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1478: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1473 01/30/2022 Sign right here Write a funny message for the overhead highway sign. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stephen Dudzik 1477: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1472 01/23/2022 Phony money -- tell us fake financial trivia Tell us some fake trivia about money or the financial system. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Eric Nelkin 1476: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1471 01/16/2022 Tour de Fours XVIII: B-I-D-E with us Coin a word or phrase containing the letters B-I-D-E -- consecutively but in any order, and describe it. LET WOR TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1475: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1470 01/09/2022 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sarah Walsh 1474: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1469 01/02/2022 Post Mortems 2021, our obit poems Write a poem of no longer than eight lines (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2021. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Rackow 1473: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1468 12/26/2021 The Year in Redo, Part 2 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1440 through 1464. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1472: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1467 12/19/2021 The Year in Redo, Part 1 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1413 through 1439, except for Weeks 1414-1416. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Rifkin 1471: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1466 12/12/2021 Be invitationally correct Give us a funny "correction" that a newspaper or magazine might offer. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sam Mertens 1470: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1465 12/05/2021 Put your '22 cents in for our annual pre-timeline Name some humorous news event to happen in 2022. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Airozo 1469: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1464 11/28/2021 Picture this -- a caption contest Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 1468: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1463 11/21/2021 Fork over some (new) Spoonerisms Write and original Q-A joke featuring a spoonerism. WOR JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1467: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1462 11/14/2021 Time for a new career? Tell what would happen if any two people switched professions or other roles. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Coleman Glenn 1466: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1461 11/07/2021 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. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Donald Norum 1465: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1460 10/31/2021 These new words are on fleek From the provided list, write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. WOR POE DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Coleman Glenn 1464: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1459 10/24/2021 And we quote: 'It's Parody Time' Write humorous first-person lyrics for a song "by" some particular person. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1463: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1458 10/17/2021 Do adjust your set: TV anagrams+ Use all the letters of any TV show (including streamed ones), past or present, to create new show; or it can be an episode of the original. LET TEL ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Coleman Glenn 1462: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1457 10/10/2021 What is Ask Backwards XL? You are on "Jeopardy!"; various answers are provided. You provide the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Hazle 1461: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1456 10/03/2021 The hunting of the snark Ask an insulting rhetorical question in the form (or a variation) of "Is that your _______ or _______? QUE JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1460: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1455 09/26/2021 Good idea! Or not. Cite a "good idea' and, with a small change of wording, a "bad idea". WOR ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ryan Martinez 1459: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1454 09/19/2021 Punku 3 -- haiku with a pun Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Laura M. Clairmont 1458: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1453 09/12/2021 Haven't read it -- mis-subtitle a book Choose any book title listed on Amazon and misinterpret it by adding a subtitle. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Prevar 1457: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1452 09/05/2021 As the Word Turns Discover" a word or multiword term that consists of adjacent letters -- in any direction or several directions, up, down, back, forth, diagonally -- in the provided grid, and provide a humorous definition. WOR LET GRD NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Leif Picoult 1456: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1451 08/29/2021 Could have said it worse ourselves Give us a humorously bad "first draft" of a famous line from history, literature or entertainment. HIS CUL LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Marli Melton 1455: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1450 08/22/2021 Putting the 'anoid' in humanoid Humorously describe some aspect of our current society as a space alien and/or future anthropologist might interpret it. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Scott Richards 1454: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1449 08/15/2021 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1453: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1448 08/08/2021 Hear, hear -- it's Limerixicon XVIII Supply a humerous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with "he-". LIM POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1452: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1447 08/01/2021 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". HEA ENG Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1451: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1446 07/25/2021 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. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Roy Ashley 1450: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1445 07/18/2021 Put it in bee-verse -- poems with spelling words Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the words used in Round 8 or later of this year's bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. POE WOR BEE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1449: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1444 07/11/2021 It's a whole new all-game Slightly change the name of a sport, sports event or similar pastime to create a new one, and briefly describe it. ATH NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1448: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1443 07/04/2021 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, LET LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1447: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1442 06/27/2021 Same difference, or missing links Choose any two (or more) items from the utterly random list above and say how they're different, alike or otherwise linked. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich,
Jeff Rackow
1446: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1441 06/20/2021 \'Rick rolling: songs as limericks Sum up or otherwise reflect a well-known song as a limerick. MUS LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Emma Daley 1445: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1440 06/13/2021 It's parody time! Write a satiric song about anything in the news these days. POE MUS POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sophie Crafts,
Hildy Zampella
1444: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1439 06/06/2021 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. LET MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1443: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1438 05/30/2021 Nothing but the untruth: Fake trivia about the law Give us some bogus trivia about the law -- lawyers, courts, judges, police, odd laws, terminology, what have you. TRI POL FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bruce Carlson 1442: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1437 05/23/2021 One-offs: A 'typo' neologism contest You're a fat-fingered typist: Change a word, name or phrase by either adding or substituting one letter that's adjacent (in any direction) to the original one on a regular QWERTY keyboard, or by doubling the correct letter. LET CAL WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1441: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1436 05/16/2021 Haven't seen it: Fun with movie titles Misinterpret a movie title in a supposed plot description. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ann Martin 1440: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1435 05/09/2021 Who needs Peeps when we have CICADAS? Create a witty visual artwork that includes at least one real cicada or cicada casing (the body-shaped shell from which the insect emerges) and send us a photo of it. PIX Text PrintPDF WebPDF Deborah Hensley,
Kevin Dopart
1439: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1434 05/02/2021 Go ahead, mate my bay: Grandfoals Breed" any two of this week's inking foal names and name the "grandfoal. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Paul 1438: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1433 04/25/2021 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. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Ketzner 1437: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1432 04/18/2021 Turn tale and run with it Offer a new angle on a folk tale, nursery rhyme, children's song, etc., with a short poem, mini-story (under 100 words) or song parody. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1436: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1431 04/11/2021 The On-Our-Way-Back Machine Tell us how (in some funny way) things will be different as we emerge from the pandemic. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ben Aronin 1435: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1430 04/04/2021 Back to racing speed with the 'foals' Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2021 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously play off both parents' names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Matt Monitto 1434: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1429 03/28/2021 Forsoothsayers Quote a line or so from any Shakespeare work, and exemplify it with a contemporary quote, real or imagined. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1433: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1428 03/21/2021 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. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1432: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1427 03/14/2021 Rocky of ages, or Badenov for you? State any historical event -- right up to 2021 -- in the provided "A, or B" format. HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1431: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1426 03/07/2021 Mess with our (or others') heads Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1430: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1425 02/28/2021 Picture this -- a caption contest Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided cartoons. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Prevar 1429: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1424 02/21/2021 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. LET WOR BEE NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1428: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1423 02/14/2021 Muddled heads: Headline anagrams Choose a headline (or part of a headline) in any print or online publication dated Feb. 11-22 and rearrange all its letters into an anagram. ANA HEA LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1427: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1422 02/07/2021 The Collaboratory Think of a book, movie or song title. Then pair its creator, star, singer, etc., with an unrelated "collaborator" to produce a wordplay on the title. WOR MUS LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Harold Mantle 1426: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1421 01/31/2021 Alternaugural Address '21 Write a humorous passage -- a "quote", an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in Biden's inaugural address. WOR BNK POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF George Thompson 1425: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1420 01/24/2021 Singing on the job -- a parody contest Write a humorous "work song" for any job or profession. Set it to any well-known tune. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bob Kruger 1424: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1419 01/17/2021 Send us the bill -- 'joint legislation' Combine two or more names from the provided list of the new members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sarah Walsh 1423: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1418 01/10/2021 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Terri Berg Smith 1422: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1417 01/03/2021 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. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1421: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1416 12/27/2020 The Year in Redo, Part 2 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1388 through 1412. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1420: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1415 12/20/2020 The Year in Redo, Part 1 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1360 through 1387, except for Weeks 1361-1363. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1419: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1414 12/13/2020 Divining comedy: 2021 predictions Name some humorous news event to happen in 2021. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1418: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1413 12/06/2020 We're finna give you some new words Write a poem of eight lines or fewer featuring one or more of the provided terms. The terms must be used as they're defined in the new m-w.com listing. POE WOR DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1417: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1412 11/29/2020 Jumble bells -- anagram a song line Rearrange all the letters in a song title, or a line (or more if you dare!) from a song. Optional: Offer a parody of the original tune (or a few lines of it) that refers to the new title. LET MUS POE ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tony Crafter 1416: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1411 11/22/2020 Back end of a Bulwer Write a humorously awful final sentence or two to an imaginary novel. LIT LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hannah Seidel 1415: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1410 11/15/2020 Legends of the fall -- more fictoids Tell us some bogus trivia about autumn, or things that happen (or have happened) in autumn. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1414: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1409 11/08/2020 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. LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1413: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1408 11/01/2020 Re-Organization Slightly change the name of a nonprofit organization and describe it. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF John McCooey 1412: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1407 10/25/2020 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. BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1411: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1406 10/18/2020 The news could be verse Write a poem based on a recent news article, in which the lines' first letters spell out the title or subject of the poem. POE LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1410: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1405 10/11/2020 Okay, once more around the track Breed" any two of the provided foal names that got ink in Week 1400 and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kathy El-Assal 1409: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1404 10/04/2020 Ask Backwards XXXIX The answers are provided. You supply the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1408: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1403 09/27/2020 Who was that masked man? Current a short listing for a current or past TV show that has a coronavirus story line, or one reflecting some other issue in the news right now. CUL TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1407: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1402 09/20/2020 The fourteeners--a neologism contest Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 14 (no blanks!), and define it. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stephen Dudzik 1406: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1401 09/13/2020 How hai? A joke-haiku contest Write a joke (roughly) in the "It's so xxx" genre as a haiku. POE JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Mann 1405: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1400 09/06/2020 Back on track with our classic 'foal' contest Breed" any two of the provided names of the 100 horses nominated for the 2020 Triple Crown races and name the "foal" to humorously reflect the parents' names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve Langer 1404: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1399 08/30/2020 The lie-zy days of summer Tell us some bogus trivia about the summer or things that happen or have happened in the summer. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Rackow 1403: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1398 08/23/2020 This is the year that is Describe the year 2020 in a novel, colorful metaphor or simile. You may also offer an original graphic. LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1402: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1397 08/16/2020 Trope springs eternal Use any of the four provided standard settings -- (a) desert island, (b) bartender at a bar, (c) desert, (d) psychiatrist next to a couch -- and describe a cartoon that includes your choice of characters, along with a caption. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Cohen 1401: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1396 08/09/2020 Hail Limerixicon XVII: Write a limerick featuring a 'ha-' word Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ha-". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1400: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1395 08/02/2020 Add nauseam: A plus-one contest Add a "plus one" to some familiar numerical grouping, true or fictional ??? Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Cohen 1399: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1394 07/26/2020 Two movies, one line Cite a real or coined line, or give a description, that could work for two different movies, plays or TV shows. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1398: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1393 07/19/2020 Second chance (acned conches?) for anagrams Describe any of the provided anagram businesses, or offer its slogan. ANA BUS SLO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Edmund Conti 1397: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1392 07/12/2020 Picture this -- caption these cartoons Write a caption, either descriptive or in dialogue, for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1396: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1391 07/05/2020 No-covid zone -- a neologism contest Coin a new word or phrase that lacks C, O, V, I and D and describe it. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1395: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1390 06/28/2020 'Same difference' for a new time Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1394: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1389 06/21/2020 TankaWanka 4: Haiku plus tu Write a TankaWanka about something that's been in the news lately. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1393: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1388 06/14/2020 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. BUS ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1392: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1387 06/07/2020 Movie clips -- drop letters from the middle of a title Delete one or more letters (they must be consecutive) from the middle of a movie title, and describe the resulting new movie. LET MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sue Lin Chong 1391: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1386 05/31/2020 Colt following: It's the grandfoals! Breed" any two of the 70 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve Fahey 1390: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1385 05/24/2020 Don't you want to see new places? Change any place name slightly and describe the new place. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ben Sack 1389: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1384 05/17/2020 Of course there are stupid questions! Give us stupid questions, especially ones reflecting Our Current Situation. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1388: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1383 05/10/2020 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. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ellen Raphaeli 1387: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1382 05/03/2020 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1386: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1381 04/26/2020 Let's be equinoxious with fictoids about spring Tell us some untrue trivia about springtime or things that happen or happened in the spring. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1385: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1380 04/19/2020 Both sides now Delete one or more letters (in a row) from a word or brief phrase to find another word, and define it. LET WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1384: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1379 04/12/2020 Your wish: A pun -- a star Tell a joke, in your choice of form, whose punchline is a pun on a song title or lyric. JOK WOR MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1383: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1378 04/05/2020 It's (emergency) Parody Time Write a song about life in the Age of Corona, set to a familiar tune (or even one of your own, if you perform it on video). MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1382: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1377 03/29/2020 Make your own March Madness Think of some sport, game, art project or other activity that you can conjure up using various items that you might find around the house. ATH Text PrintPDF WebPDF John O'Byrne 1381: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1376 03/22/2020 Get thee to a funnery Add a character (or more) to a Shakespeare play and supply some resulting dialogue. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 1380: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1375 03/15/2020 Mess With Our Heads Reinterpret an actual headline (or a major part of it) by adding a bank head, or subtitle. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michelle Christophorou 1379: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1374 03/08/2020 Versus' verses in a rap battle Write a mini-"rap" between any two characters, real or fictional, as in the provided ERB example. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1378: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1373 03/01/2020 Prime time for some Amazon reviews Send us a humorous "review" for any of the provided Amazon-listed items. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Prevar 1377: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1372 02/23/2020 Trash talking, 1880-style Write a quatrain or -- heck -- two of Balliol rhyme about some person. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1376: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1371 02/16/2020 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. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1375: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1370 02/09/2020 What's in a name? Write something about a well-known person, real or fictional, using only the letters in that person's name. LET CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1374: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1369 02/02/2020 Shoot us some oops Tell us a concise original joke that revolves around a typo or misheard word. JOK WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1373: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1368 01/26/2020 Picture This -- cartoon captions Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sam Mertens 1372: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1367 01/19/2020 Pick me up at work, okay? Give a pickup line from someone in a particular profession, or from a particular person or fictional character. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Alan Duxbury 1371: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1366 01/12/2020 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bill Dorner 1370: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1365 01/05/2020 Dead Letters, our obit poem contest Write a poem of eight lines or fewer (plus an optional title) about someone who died in 2019. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1369: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1364 12/29/2019 Clue us in Supply clever, funny clues for as many as 25 of the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. CRO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 1368: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1363 12/22/2019 The Year in Redo, Part 2 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1334 through Week 1359. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1367: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1362 12/15/2019 The Year in Redo, Part 1 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1307 through 1333, except for Weeks 1309-1311. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1366: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1361 12/08/2019 2020 vision -- the year in preview Name some humorous news event to happen in 2020. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1365: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1360 12/01/2019 The lyin' in winter: Seasonal fictoids Give us some untrue trivia about winter or things that occur in winter. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1364: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1359 11/24/2019 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). WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Matt Monitto 1363: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1358 11/17/2019 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"). WOR BNK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1362: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1357 11/10/2019 It's parody time! Write a satirical song about anything in the news right now, set to a familiar tune. MUS POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1361: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1356 11/03/2019 Ask Backwards 38 Sixteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1360: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1355 10/27/2019 The inside word Highlight part of a word, name or short phrase in "air quotes" to give the word a new meaning or description. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1359: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1354 10/20/2019 As the Word turns 5: Taking our vowels 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. WOR LET GRD NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sam Mertens 1358: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1353 10/13/2019 What's playing at the retroplex Change a movie title to its "opposite" by reversing one or more words; then describe the new movie. MOV WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Rifkin 1357: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1352 10/06/2019 Hee-rotica -- Steamy prose for unsteamy life Write a short steamy scene (100 words would be considered long) about a non-steamy event. LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Strong 1356: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1351 09/29/2019 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. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1355: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1350 09/22/2019 Here's inspo for new-word poems Write a poem of eight lines or fewer featuring one or more of these recent additions to m-w.com. POE WOR DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1354: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1349 09/15/2019 Revise and extend these remarks Go to congress.gov/congressional-record and click on the PDF for any day's Congressional Record. Choose any sentence (or substantial part of one) and write a question that it could answer. POL QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sam Mertens 1353: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1348 09/08/2019 Same difference Explain humorously how any two or more of the provided items are alike, different or otherwise connected. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Ketzner 1352: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1347 09/01/2019 Reologisms Write a clever, funny definition for any of the provided Loser-concocted words and phrases, and/or show they'd be used. WOR DEF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bob Kruger 1351: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1346 08/25/2019 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. LET WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1350: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1345 08/18/2019 The confaketionary -- food fictoids Tell us some comically false "fact" about food, drink or dining. TRI FIC FOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Byron Hoover 1349: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1344 08/11/2019 Well, that's just great -- It’s Limerixicon XVI Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gr-". LIM POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1348: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1343 08/04/2019 The Empress pleads no contest It's been a couple of years, but the Empress gives you a break this week from your sacred obligation to submit Style Invitational entries every seven days ad infinitum. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1342 07/28/2019 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. LET SLO BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1346: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1341 07/21/2019 Portmanteautapping from E to R Coin a portmanteau word beginning with E through R, in which the words overlap by at least two letters, and describe it. LET WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1345: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1340 07/14/2019 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. LET CUL HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Jensen 1344: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1339 07/07/2019 Songs for a modern error Write humorous lyrics about some modern woe, set to a familiar tune. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1343: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1347: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1338 06/30/2019 Picture This -- cartoon captions Supply a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jean Sorensen 1342: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1337 06/23/2019 Lidder me this: anagram riddles Write a Q&A joke (or an A followed by a Q, if you're into "Jeopardy!") in which the punchline contains an anagram or one or more relevant words or names. ANA JOK QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1341: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1336 06/16/2019 Two ways about it What's something (printable) you could say in two -- or more -- of the provided situations. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Cohen 1340: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1335 06/09/2019 Put it in bee-verse! Or . . . Write a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer that includes at least one of the provided words, used in Round 9 or later of this year's Scripps National Spelling Bee; OR: write a joke in Q&A form that uses at least one of the words. WOR POE BEE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1339: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1334 06/02/2019 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. WOR POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve "Potomac" Smith 1338: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1333 05/26/2019 Check your (homo)phones Invent a homophone--a word that sounds the same as an existing word but is spelled differently--and define it. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Richardson 1337: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1332 05/19/2019 We'll call them Spellimericks Write a humorous limerick that's an acrostic: a pertinent five-letter word or name spelled out by the first letter of each line. LIM LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1336: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1331 05/12/2019 Paste Imperfect Choose a headline or sentence from The Post or another publication, print or online, dated May 9-20, 2019. Then change that headline or other text by:
     A. Deleting up to 40 consecutive characters from it (put brackets around the deleted text);
     B. Adding up to 40 consecutive characters from the same article or ad (write the additions in capital letters);
     or C. Both A and B, as long as the added text goes at the end of your headline or sentence.
HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1335: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1330 05/05/2019 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Hazle 1334: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1329 04/28/2019 Shakespeare + Thee: Tailgaters Select any line from a work by Shakespeare (poetry or prose) and pair it with your own line to create a humorous rhyming couplet. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Marni Penning Coleman 1333: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1328 04/21/2019 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. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1332: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1327 04/14/2019 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1331: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1326 04/07/2019 Foaling around Breed" any two names from the provided list of 100 horses and name the foal to reflect both names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bill Dorner 1330: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1325 03/31/2019 Stand up and jeer Give us some original standup jokes that would have been good at this year's White House Correspondents' Dinner. POL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1329: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1324 03/24/2019 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. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1328: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1323 03/17/2019 Selected shortened subjects Delete one or more letters from the beginning or end (or both) of a movie title and describe the resulting movie. LET MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Peckarsky 1327: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1322 03/10/2019 Back to the drawing board Come up with an idea for an invention that still needs a bug ironed out. SCI BUS ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1326: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1321 03/03/2019 Pumping Prime: Amazon reviews Send us a humorous "review" (like the provided samples from our earlier contests) for any of the provided items. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Hammond 1325: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1320 02/24/2019 Questionable journalism Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in the Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Feb. 21-March 4, and pair it with a question it might answer. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1324: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1319 02/17/2019 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. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1323: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1318 02/10/2019 Love the tiny tail stain! Create an anagram -- a phrase or sentence with the letters rearranged -- of any text (except merely someone's name), of any length. ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF J.J. Gertler 1322: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1317 02/03/2019 Punku 2: Haiku with puns Create a haiku containing a pun or similar wordplay. POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1321: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1316 01/27/2019 Lies, damn lies, with statistics Tell us some bogus trivia using "statistics" or some bogus quantitative meaure. TRI FIC SCI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Todd DeLap 1320: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1315 01/20/2019 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. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Calandra 1319: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1314 01/13/2019 Bill Us Now -- 'joint legislation' Combine two or more names from the provided list of the new members of Congress to “co-sponsor” a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1318: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1313 01/06/2019 Dead Letters -- our obit poem contest Write a poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2018. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 1317: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1312 12/30/2018 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1316: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1311 12/23/2018 Nextra! Nextra! The year in preview Name some humorous event to happen in 2019. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ira Allen 1315: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1310 12/16/2018 The Year in Redo, Part 2 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1282 through Week 1306. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1314: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1309 12/09/2018 The Year in Redo, Part 1 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1255 through Week 1281. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ellen Ryan 1313: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1308 12/02/2018 Picture this -- or these This week you have two choices: (1) Write a caption for one or more of these pictures, or (2) explain what is wrong with the picture. You might also combine two pictures into one -- or all four into one. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1312: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1307 11/25/2018 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. WOR LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1311: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1306 11/18/2018 PolitiCaroling: A song parody contest Write a song about something in the news lately -- political or otherwise -- using a Christmas, Hanukkah or New Year's tune. MUS POL POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1310: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1305 11/11/2018 Hits and Googles Find us either a Googlenope -- a phrase in quotation marks that generates no previous hits -- or a Googleyup, a phrase that surprisingly does have hits. GOO WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Eric Nelkin 1309: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1304 11/04/2018 All the muse that's fit to print Present a "what if" scenario and explain its effect. HIS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1308: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1303 10/28/2018 Neologisms to di- for Replace a digraph in an existing word or phrase with another digraph to make a new term. WOR LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Gleason 1307: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1302 10/21/2018 Ask Backwards 37 Fifteen "answers" are provided. Tell us the questions. Do one or more, up to a total of 25 A&Q's. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bob Kruger 1306: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1301 10/14/2018 Tell us a Fib(onacci) Write a humorous poem of 20 syllables divided among six lines like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8. And a least two -- any two -- of the lines must rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1305: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1300 10/07/2018 Botch office sensations Add "13" to an existing movie title, and some humorous trouble to the plot. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Matuskey 1304: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1299 09/30/2018 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. WOR CHN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1303: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1298 09/23/2018 It's IGH time for 3-word phrases Make up some entity that might take a three-letter abbreviation of GHI, HGI, GGG, GHH, etc., and then humorously describe it. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Mettinger 1302: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1297 09/16/2018 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. HEA LET CAL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1301: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1296 09/09/2018 A, we're Adorbs: New-word poems Use one or more of these words new to M-W.com in a humorous poem of eight lines max. WOR POE DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1300: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1295 09/02/2018 Really, now? A matter of degree. Tell us an indication to some problem, followed by an even more dire sign. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brian Allgar 1299: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1294 08/26/2018 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. WOR GRD NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1298: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1293 08/19/2018 Constitutional unconvention Humorously translate or explain some part of the U.S. Constitution. POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1297: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1292 08/12/2018 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-". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1296: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1291 08/05/2018 Film flam -- movie anagrams Rearrange the letters of a title of a movie or play to make a new title, then describe the new work. MOV LET ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chuck Helwig 1295: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1290 07/29/2018 Bobbing for Witte words Come up with both an object/situation and a neologism for it. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1294: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1289 07/22/2018 Fake gnus: bogus animal trivia Tell us a fictoid -- a humorously false "fact" -- about the nonhuman animal kingdom. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Schwartz 1293: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1288 07/15/2018 Your results may vary Write a funny disclaimer or warning for some product or service. BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1292: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1287 07/08/2018 It's parody time: Oldies for newsies Write some song lyrics about something in the news these days, set to a familiar tune. MUS POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1291: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1286 07/01/2018 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. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 1290: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1285 06/24/2018 That is so wrong! Supply a trivia question along with both the correct answer and a cleverly "wrong" guess. TRI QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Howard Walderman 1289: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1284 06/17/2018 Same difference Explain how any two of the items in the provided list are similar, different or otherwise linked. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jerome Uher 1288: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1283 06/10/2018 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. POE WOR BEE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1287: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1282 06/03/2018 Picture This Write a caption for one or more of the provided pictures. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rick Haynes 1286: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1281 05/27/2018 We only have (googly) eyes for you Send us a photo of something that you have made funny by pasting googly eyes on it; funny titles and captions are optional. PIX Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1285: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1280 05/20/2018 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. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brian Allgar 1284: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1279 05/13/2018 Just do it -- the 'real' way List some "accurate" directions for using some product or completing some task. CUL BUS ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1283: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1278 05/06/2018 Colt following: The 'grandfoals' Breed" any two of the 68 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents' names, in the style of today's inking entries. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Young 1282: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1277 04/29/2018 Come into Beeing with neologisms From any of the 15 provided Spelling Bee letter sets, coin a new term of one or two words and define it humorously. You may also supply an especially clever or funny definition of a real term. WOR LET BEE NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Hazle 1281: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1276 04/22/2018 What 4? A limerick contest Use a limerick using one of the provided lines as Line 5. LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1280: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1275 04/15/2018 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. LIT QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1279: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1274 04/08/2018 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Luke Baker 1278: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1273 04/01/2018 Restocking the Cabinet Explain why a particular person -- or thing -- ought to fill a Cabinet post or other U.S. government position. POL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1277: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1272 03/25/2018 The hex files: creative curses Come up with a creative curse. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1276: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1271 03/18/2018 Yodel Doyle's praises with a D-O-Y-L-E neologism Coin a new word or phrase that contains the letters D, O, Y, L and E. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brian Collins 1275: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1270 03/11/2018 The Style Invitational turns 5 x 5 Write a witty poem, on any subject, in any of these forms:
A. Five lines of five syllables each
B. Five lines of five words each
C. Five lines of iambic pentameter
POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1274: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1269 03/04/2018 Mess with our (or other) heads Reinterpret (or comment wryly on) a headline appearing in The Post (print or online) or another publication and dated March 1-12 by writing a bank head. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Elden Carnahan 1273: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1268 02/25/2018 Playing pinocchio Tell us some humorously bogus trivia about the news media or the publishing or broadcasting industries. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 1272: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1267 02/18/2018 Jingle bungle Suggest an ill-advised spokesman (dead or alive, or fictional), along with a humorously noooo slogan or jingle. SLO BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF John McCooey 1271: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1266 02/11/2018 The Tile Invitational V Create a five-, six-, or seven-letter word (or phrase) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1270: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1265 02/04/2018 Parody for the course Write a song relating to a class or course of instruction, or to school in general. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1269: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1264 01/28/2018 A cry for Yelp: 'Review' any place Write a humorous review, positive or negative, of anyplace (real of fictional) one might visit. CUL BUS LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1268: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1263 01/21/2018 Playing the short game Using the three-letter Olympic national abbreviations and/or the abbreviation for any college, tell what would happen if one abbreviated team played another. LET ATH Text PrintPDF WebPDF Meg Winters 1267: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1262 01/14/2018 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. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1266: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1261 01/07/2018 Post mortems -- our annual obit poem contest Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2017. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1265: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1260 12/31/2017 What lies (are) ahead for 2018 Jokingly predict some news event to happen in 2018. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve Honley 1264: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1259 12/24/2017 Beat the banned with euphemisms Come up with creative euphemisms for the provided words, or for other words that might offend someone or other. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1263: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1258 12/17/2017 The year in redo, Part 2 Enter (or reenter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1230 through Week 1254. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF William C. Kennard 1262: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1257 12/10/2017 The year in redo, Part 1 Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1203 through Week 1229, except for Weeks 1205 and 1206. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ivars Kuskevics 1261: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1256 12/03/2017 Picture this -- a caption contest Provide a funny caption for any of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1260: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1255 11/26/2017 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ann Martin 1259: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1254 11/19/2017 Inkorporation--a change-one-letter contest Change the name of a present or past business, store or agency (not just a product) by adding one letter, deleting one letter, transposing two letters or substituting one letter for another. LET BUS CAL WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1258: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1253 11/12/2017 Fashion x fiction: More fake trivia Tell us some totally bogus trivia about clothing or fashion. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Warren Tanabe 1257: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1252 11/05/2017 It's a med, med, med, med world Invent a clever name for a new medical product, and specify the condition it would treat. SCI Text PrintPDF WebPDF William Verkuilen 1256: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1251 10/29/2017 Thanking outside the box Tell us something to be thankful for. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF John O'Byrne 1255: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1250 10/22/2017 Poems of the year(s) Write a humorous poem incorporating three or more terms from a particular year or era listed on Time Traveler. POE HIS WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1254: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1249 10/15/2017 Ask Backwards 36 Choose any of the 15 provided items and follow it with a question that it could humorously answer. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Debbie Stewart 1253: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1248 10/08/2017 C'mon, fess up! Send us a brief "confession" -- there will be categories for true and just-kidding. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1252: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1247 10/01/2017 Script tease Offer a quote from a script whose title you've given a different plot. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1251: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1246 09/24/2017 Questionable journalism Find any sentence (or a substantive part of a sentence) that appears in The Post or another publication, in print or online, dated Sept. 21-Oct. 2, and pair it with a question it might answer. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steve Honley 1250: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1245 09/17/2017 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. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Garratt 1249: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1244 09/10/2017 Primed for product reviews Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. CUL BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1248: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1243 09/03/2017 We bid you: No T-R-U-M-P Coin a new term, or choose an existing one, whose letters do not include a T, R, U, M, or P, and write a humorous definition. WOR POL NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1247: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1242 08/27/2017 Generation Yux Give us a "then/now" joke. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bruce Carlson 1246: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1241 08/20/2017 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. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Barry Koch 1245: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1240 08/13/2017 We GIVE you Limerixicon XIV Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "gh-" or "gi-". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ann Martin 1244: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1239 08/06/2017 MASH 3 Combine two movie titles and  describe the result. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1243: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1238 07/30/2017 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peter Shawhan 1242: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1237 07/23/2017 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1240: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1236 07/16/2017 Portmanteaux faux Explain--inaccurately but amusingly--how a real word is a combination of two or more words, with an illustrative sentence, as in the provided examples, or some other funny way. WOR FIC TRI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1241: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1235 07/09/2017 The Sound of Science Write humorous lyrics on the subject of science or technology, set to a well-known tune. POE SCI MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1239: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1234 07/02/2017 It's incontestable Four weeks from now, the Empress will have just placed her dainty imperial toe back on our glittering shores. Which means that for the first time since January 2002, almost 800 contests ago—back during the late reign of her predecessor, theCzar—the Invitational will skip two contests in a row. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none) 1238: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1233 06/25/2017 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. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none) 1237: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1232 06/18/2017 Picture this -- a caption contest Write a caption for one or more of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1236: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1231 06/11/2017 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. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1235: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1230 06/04/2017 What in creation . . . ? Supply a brief monologue or dialogue about a Creator's specifications or planning for some living being. REL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1234: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1229 05/28/2017 Gorey bits from A to Z Send us one of more edgy rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Maria Zimmerman,
Stephen Gold
1233: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1228 05/21/2017 That movie is SO about you Name someone who was the "secret inspiration" for a certain movie. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1232: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1227 05/14/2017 Celebrate ortho-diversity! Name and describe a new life form -- and no letter in the term may be used twice. LET SCI NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Seth Tucker 1231: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1226 05/07/2017 Colt following: The 'grandfoals' Breed" any two of the 61 foal names that got ink this week, and name the offspring to reflect both parents names. HOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 1230: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1225 04/30/2017 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.) SLO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1229: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1224 04/23/2017 We beg you to differ Explain how any two (or more) items in the provided list are the same or different, or otherwise connected. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1228: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1223 04/16/2017 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1227: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1222 04/09/2017 Foaling around Breed" any two of the provided racehorses nominated for this year's Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont; and name the foal to reflect both of them. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1226: Text PrintPDF
1221 04/02/2017 Who's kidding whom? Take two people from history, past or present, and tell what their child would be like HIS CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Matuskey 1225: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1220 03/26/2017 O pedantry, O pedantry Give us some humorous pedantry. LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1224: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1219 03/19/2017 Cast your Bred upon us Write a Lik the Bred verse about someone in the news lately. POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF David "Charlestown" Lewis 1223: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1218 03/12/2017 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ellen Ryan 1222: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1217 03/05/2017 Mergers you wrote: Combine two businesses with puns Give a clever name for a combination of two or more businesses. BUS WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 1221: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1216 02/26/2017 As the word turns 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. WOR GRD NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1220: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1215 02/19/2017 A so-so contest (How so-so is it?) Write a humorous exaggeration in the form "x is so y that . . . WOR JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1219: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1214 02/12/2017 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. WOR POL BNK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1218: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1213 02/05/2017 Punku Write a haiku that incorporates a pun. POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1217: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1212 01/29/2017 The Tile Invitational IV  Give us a five-, six- or seven-letter word (or two words) by scrambling the letters of any of the provided sets and define it. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF William C. Kennard 1216: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1211 01/22/2017 The best tweets in history Write a stupidly disparaging tweet (140 characters or fewer, including spaces) about some laudable figure of past or present, true or fictional. HIS CUL LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1215: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1210 01/15/2017 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. LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Amy Harris 1214: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1209 01/08/2017 Invented facts: A fictoid contest Tell us a humorously untrue account of how a product or invention came to be, or got its name. HIS TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1213: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1208 01/01/2017 A RIP-roaring year: Obit poems Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2016. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1212: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1207 12/25/2016 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. CRO WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1211: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1206 12/18/2016 Do-over the do-over -- enter any of the year's contests Enter (or re-enter) any Style Invitational contest from Week 1149 to 1202, except for Week 1152, last year's do-over. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1210: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1205 12/11/2016 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. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF William C. Kennard 1209: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1204 12/04/2016 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. POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1208: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1203 11/27/2016 You've got the powers Tell us what you would do if you had one or more of the six magical powers provided. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1207: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1202 11/20/2016 Don't be afraid of the dark Write lyrics to a song that, in some way, express hope. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1206: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1201 11/13/2016 Tour de Fours XIII: What's there to NOVE? Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block N-O-V-E. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1205: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1200 11/06/2016 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. WOR MEN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1204: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1199 10/30/2016 We want some bad choices Offer one or more funny Questions for Terrible People, as shown. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 1203: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1198 10/23/2016 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". WOR ENG Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1202: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1197 10/16/2016 Picture This -- It's a Bob Staake caption contest Write a caption for any of the cartoons provided. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Steven Steele Cawman 1201: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1196 10/09/2016 Hyphen the Terrible Combine either half of a hyphenated word or compound term with either half of another such term to create a new hyphenated term, and describe the result humorously. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1200: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1195 10/02/2016 Don't change a letter! Alter a movie title only by changing word spacing, changing capitalization, and adding or deleting punctuation marks, accents, etc., then describe the result. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1199: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1194 09/25/2016 Nyetymologies: fake word origins Provide a humorously untrue explanation for the derivation of a word. WOR FIC TRI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1198: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1193 09/18/2016 Poedtry Write a Poed, which consists of four lines: The first line contains six one-syllable words. The second line contains three two-syllable words. The third line contains two three-syllable words. The fourth line contains one six-syllable word (or a name totaling six syllables.  And at least two of the lines must rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1197: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1192 09/11/2016 Ask Backwards The 15 provided phrases above are the answers. You provide  the questions to as many as you’d like (up to 25 entries  total). JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1196: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1191 09/04/2016 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 HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Roy Ashley 1195: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1190 08/28/2016 You're workin' on a chain, gang Create a chain of no more than 15 proper nouns — names of people (real or fictional), products, places, etc. — including one title of a work — in which each name relates somehow to the previous one. WOR CHN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1194: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1189 08/21/2016 Gee, it's Limerixicon XIII! Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ge". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1193: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1188 08/14/2016 Just short words, one more time Explain some concept or philosophy entirely in words of one syllable. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1192: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1187 08/07/2016 Just drop it, okay? Drop the last letter from an existing word, phrase or name and define the result. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1191: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1186 07/31/2016 We're always happy to verse you  Write a humorous poem, of any form, about or “by” the anagram of anyone’s name. POE ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Frankovich 1190: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1185 07/24/2016 The Rorschach of the crowd Interpret one of more of the provided genuine inkblots. You may look at them upside down or sideways. ROR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hildy Zampella 1189: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1184 07/17/2016 Plan C -- a third candidate? Explain why some novel person (or thing) should be president; you could also suggest a president-veep ticket. POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Annette Green 1188: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1183 07/10/2016 C'mon, be honest with us Write something in roughly the form "If X were more honest, (then) Y. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Annette Green 1187: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1182 07/03/2016 Where in the wor(l)d? (1) On What3words.com, find one or more humorously appropriate (or ironic) three-word codes at a particular place; or 2) find a three-word code, tell us where it is, and tell us what ought to be there. LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1186: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1181 06/26/2016 Put it in Bee-verse Write a short, humorous poem using one of the 36 provided words, all from the 2016 National Spelling Bee. POE WOR BEE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1185: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1180 06/19/2016 Strip search! Find a line of text from any comic strip or panel that appears on the Post's comics pages or on washingtonpost.com/comics, dated anywhere between June 16 and June 27, and either (a) supply a question that the original line could answer, or (b) follow it with your own line of dialogue or reply. COM QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Lawrence McGuire 1184: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1179 06/12/2016 Blasted alphabetical contests . . . Coin a three-word phrase whose words begin with A, B and C -- in any order -- and describe it. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Damm 1183: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1178 06/05/2016 A ______ of collective nouns Propose one or more funny new names for groups of things. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dudley Thompson 1182: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1177 05/29/2016 The ballad box Write a song related to this year's elections, set to a familiar tune. MUS POL POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Matt Monitto 1181: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1176 05/22/2016 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. EPI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1180: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1175 05/15/2016 Good luck with 13 Make up a word whose Scrabble letter values add up to exactly 13, and define it. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1179: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1174 05/08/2016 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1178: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1173 05/01/2016 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. WOR FOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jon Gearhart 1177: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1172 04/24/2016 Pieces of 'Pie' Write a short passage -- an observation, a joke, a dialogue, a poem, anything -- using only words that appear in the song "American Pie". WOR MUS BNK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mary Kappus 1176: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1171 04/17/2016 What's my (next) line? Take a line from any song and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous rhyming couplet; the second line should match the rhythm of the first, rather than the second line of the song itself. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jesse Etelson 1175: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1170 04/10/2016 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1174: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1169 04/03/2016 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. MOV LET LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kurt Stahl 1173: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1168 03/27/2016 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). JOK SCI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Duncan Stevens 1172: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1167 03/20/2016 So what's to liken? Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different, or connect them some other way. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mike Ostapiej 1171: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1166 03/13/2016 Questionable journalism Take a sentence (or most of a sentence) that appears in text (not a headline) in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com dated March 10-21 and make up a question that the sentence could answer QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Hutchins 1170: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1165 03/06/2016 B all you can B Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more B's, and/or by replacing one or more letters with B's, and define your new term. LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ivars Kuskevics 1169: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1164 02/28/2016 'Wait Wait' for us Compose a multiple-choice question about a Ridiculous but True fact a la the NPR show 'Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me.' QUE TRI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1168: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1163 02/21/2016 Put it in reverse Spell a word, name or phrase backward and define the result in a way that relates to the original. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ellen Ryan 1167: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1162 02/14/2016 An 8-year Re-Onion Write a fictional Onion-type headline. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Neal Starkman 1166: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1161 02/07/2016 Give us four Pinocchios Tell us some false "facts" about politicians, present or past. HIS POL TRI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1165: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1160 01/31/2016 A remeaning task Redefine an existing word or two-word term beginning with P through Z. WOR MEN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1164: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1159 01/24/2016 It's all in the game Come up with a funny/ridiculous board-type game and describe it. ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dion Black 1163: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1158 01/17/2016 What have we here? Tell us what one or more of these objects really are. CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1162: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1157 01/10/2016 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. CRO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1161: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1156 01/03/2016 Dead letters Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2015. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kathy Fraeman 1160: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1155 12/27/2015 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. LET MOV LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1159: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1154 12/20/2015 Tabby Road -- songs for cats Write a song for -- or about -- cats or other animals, set to a familiar tune. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stephen Gold 1158: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1153 12/13/2015 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. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1157: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1152 12/06/2015 Oops? You do it again. Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1098 through Week 1148, except for Week 1101, last year's do-over. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gregory Koch 1156: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1151 11/29/2015 To [a glass], snarkly Write a short, snarky (but witty) note to one of the provided glassbowls. CUL LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1155: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1150 11/22/2015 A deviant character Change the name of person or animal -- real or fictional -- by adding or subtracting one letter; substituting one letter for another; or switching the positions of two nearby letters, and describing the results. LET WOR CAL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Brechlin 1154: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1149 11/15/2015 Gestures of depreciation Suggest ways to celebrate National Love Your Lawyer Day -- or a made-up "holiday" celebrating some other profession. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1153: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1148 11/08/2015 It's TankaWanka II 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 it must include at least one rhyme. POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1152: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1147 11/01/2015 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. WOR GRD Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1151: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1146 10/25/2015 Stick it to us with a magnet Suggest a new Style Invitational honorable-mention magnet. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Howard Walderman 1150: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1145 10/18/2015 A DICEy situation Coin a word or multi-word term that contains the letter block D-I-C-E. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Todd DeLap 1149: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1144 10/11/2015 Someone else's business Name a real brand, along with something else it would be a better name for. BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Mann 1148: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1143 10/04/2015 Ask Backwards Provided are 15 answers, separated by asterisks. You supply the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 1147: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1142 09/27/2015 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. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1146: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1141 09/20/2015 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1145: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1140 09/13/2015 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. BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Drew Bennett 1144: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1139 09/06/2015 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). MUS POE WOR JOK ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1143: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1138 08/30/2015 Show us your touché Offer an elegantly snide (and original) insult of anyone living or dead. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mae Scanlan 1142: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1137 08/23/2015 Be a published author! Give us a spicy title for a boring book, real or imagined. LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Amy Harris 1141: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1136 08/16/2015 Gaah! It's Limerixicon XII Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "ga-". POE LIM Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1140: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
20150809 08/09/2015 It's August. Give that little brain of yours a rest. Or . . . There's no new contest this week: you and your fellow Losers get a week off to dust off your cranial synapses, write cranky letters to the editor, think of limericks featuring words beginning with ga-, whatever it is you people do. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1135 08/02/2015 The meter's running Suggest actions in daily life that should require a time limit -- maximum or minimum -- and come with an appropriate penalty for running over (or under). CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Carnahan 1138: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1134 07/26/2015 The 'Sty'le Invitational Red'ux' Put quotation marks around part of a word, name or phrase and define the result. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1137: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1133 07/19/2015 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. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1136: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1139: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1132 07/12/2015 You and what army? Military fictoids Give us some comically bogus trivia about the military, past or present, ours or theirs. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 20150809: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1131 07/05/2015 One man's trash Suggest a humorous way to reuse one or more of the items listed above -- or anything else advertised on RepurposedMaterialsinc.com. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Prevar 1135: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1130 06/28/2015 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. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bird Waring 1134: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1129 06/21/2015 Right in the pampootie Write a humorous short poem (eight lines or fewer) incorporating one of the 50 provided words. BEE POE WOR DIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1133: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1128 06/14/2015 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. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Lawrence McGuire 1132: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1127 06/07/2015 From the creators of . . . Think up a spinoff of a real TV series, past or present, and furnish a description or bit of dialogue. CUL TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1131: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1126 05/31/2015 Picture this Provide a humorous caption for any of the cartoons provided. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1130: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1125 05/24/2015 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. MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Panther 1129: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1124 05/17/2015 Heed! Indeed: Advice verse Write one of the provided reminders as a humorous poem of eight lines or fewer. POE ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1128: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1123 05/10/2015 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. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ricardo Rodriguez 1127: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1122 05/03/2015 Colt Following: 'Grandfoals' Breed" any two of the 65 foal names that got ink this week and name the offspring to reflect the parents' names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Paul 1126: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1121 04/26/2015 The an(n)als of civilization Briefly describe some "bad day in history" -- you may be creative in what you classify as such -- and sum it up with a humorous heading. HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1125: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1120 04/19/2015 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. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jaclyn Yamada 1124: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1119 04/12/2015 We want hue so bad Invent a name for a color and describe it. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF John McCooey 1123: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1118 04/05/2015 Breed 'em and weep Breed any two of the provided 100 racehorses nominated for this year's Triple Crown events and name the foal the reflect both names. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brad Alexander 1122: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1117 03/29/2015 You got another sing coming Write a song about a topic or person lately in the news, set to a familiar tune. MUS POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stephen Gold 1121: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1116 03/22/2015 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. LET LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peter Jenkins 1120: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1115 03/15/2015 Our type o' headline Change a headline in an article or ad in the Washington Post and then add a "bank head" or subtitle. HEA LET CAL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1119: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1114 03/08/2015 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1118: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1113 03/01/2015 Our occasional parodies Write a song celebrating someone's birthday or other personal occasion (rather than, say, a holiday), set to a familiar tune. MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1117: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1112 02/22/2015 Some SHARP words Coin a word or short term that includes all the letters S, H, A, R, and P. WOR LET NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1116: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1111 02/15/2015 When you riff upon a store Use a wordplay on a song title as a name or slogan for a real or imagined business. WOR BUS SLO Text PrintPDF WebPDF John O'Byrne 1115: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1110 02/08/2015 The mama of all humor Write a [Someone’s] Mama joke for some well-known figure, past or present, real or fictional. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Silberstein 1114: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1109 02/01/2015 Fictoids of Columbia Tell us some humorously untrue “facts” about Washington, D.C., and the surrounding area. WAS TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1113: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1108 01/25/2015 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. POE ART Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1112: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1107 01/18/2015 Send us the bill Combine two or more names from the list of members of Congress on this page to "cosponsor" a bill based on their combined last names, and state its purpose. LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dawn Kral 1111: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1106 01/11/2015 Show your resolve Suggest a New Year's resolution that someone might make 100 or more years in the future. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nancy Schwalb 1110: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1105 01/04/2015 A lit obit of fun Write a humorous poem of no longer than eight lines about someone who died in 2014. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1109: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1104 12/28/2014 A pair of threes Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination beginning with E- through H- — see the links at bit.ly/abbrevs-e-h — and say how they are alike or different. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1108: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1103 12/21/2014 Themes good enough for us Suggest an existing song to be used as the theme for a TV series or program for comic effect. MUS TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1107: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1102 12/14/2014 Let's get Sirius Suggest a new radio channel and describe it. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Pam Sweeney 1106: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1101 12/07/2014 The year in redo Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1047 through Week 1097, except for Week 1050. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1105: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1100 11/30/2014 Pun and ink -- the feghoot Contrive an elaborate scenario that ends in a novel groaner pun on a familiar expression, title, etc. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1104: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1099 11/23/2014 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. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1103: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1098 11/16/2014 Prime time for some Amazon reviews Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 1102: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1097 11/09/2014 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". CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1101: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1096 11/02/2014 Picture this Write a humorous caption for any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Mann 1100: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1095 10/26/2014 TankaWanka! 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 it must include at least one rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1099: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1094 10/19/2014 TAXI's the fare for Tour de Fours XI Coin a word or hyphenated term that contains the letter block T-A-X-I; the letters may be in any order, but there may be no other letters between them. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ann Martin 1098: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1093 10/12/2014 You're only as rich as you fee What are some really bad ideas for various businesses to make a few more bucks? BUS ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gordon Cobb 1097: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1092 10/05/2014 Are we having funds yet? Suggest a humorous fundraising "challenge" for any organization. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1096: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1091 09/28/2014 Good idea! or not. Come up with a good idea and, through a small change in wording, a bad idea. WOR ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1095: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1090 09/21/2014 Talk undirty to us Write a humorous poem in any form (no more than eight lines) that includes one or more of the provided words; the word must make sense in the poem in its TRUE meaning. WOR POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1094: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1089 09/14/2014 It's E-Z Find-a-Word -- your own! 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. WOR LET CHN NEO GRD Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1093: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1088 09/07/2014 Ask backwards with our answers, your questions Supply the questions to as many of the 16 supplied answers as you like. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danny Gallagher 1092: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1087 08/31/2014 The core ridiculum Come up with a comical class (any type of school) and provide a course catalog description. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1091: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1086 08/24/2014 Playing the dozens 1. Start with any 12-letter word, name or multi-word phrase.
2. Add one letter OR drop one letter OR substitute another letter OR switch the position of two letters to create a new term, as in the examples given.
3. Define or describe the result humorously.
LET WOR CAL NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1090: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1085 08/17/2014 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. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Duffy 1089: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1084 08/10/2014 Limerixicon XI: Fi-, fo-, go! Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "Fl-" through "fo-". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1088: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1083 08/03/2014 Everybody get appy Offer up an idea for either a humorously useful app or a humorously counterproductive one. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Falk 1087: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1082 07/27/2014 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. MUS WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1086: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1081 07/20/2014 It's the stupidity, stupid Write us stupid questions that will make us laugh. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1085: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1080 07/13/2014 McGonagall with the windiness Memorialize a modern "tragedy" in a poem burdened with hilariously overwrought verse; lame, forced rhymes; and painfully uneven meter. Get the badness across in one verse of no more than eight lines. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Thomas Blain 1084: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1079 07/06/2014 Little piddle riddle Ask a question and answer it with a rhyme. POE QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rachel A. Bernhardt 1083: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1078 06/29/2014 Hyphen the Terrible Combine one side of any hyphenated word or compound term with one side of another word to make a new hyphenated term, and define it humorously. Both halves must appear in the same issue of The Post or another print newspaper, or in writing published the same day on washingtonpost.com or another online publication. HYP WAS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 1082: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1077 06/22/2014 Time marches Swiftly Give us a novel Tom Swifty, playing on either an adverb or a verb (e.g., "We care about the little people, the BP chairman gushed"). WOR CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Greg Arnold 1081: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1076 06/15/2014 Dactyly fractyly Send us some double dactyls that conform to Gene Weingarten's rules. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeremy Horowitz 1080: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1075 06/08/2014 Falsity is Job One Send us some fictoids about cars and trucks and driving and stuff. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 1079: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1074 06/01/2014 Let's go parody-hopping Describe a stage or movie musical in a parody of a song from a different musical. POE MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1078: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1073 05/25/2014 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 1077: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1072 05/18/2014 The Tile Invitational Come up with a 5-, 6-, or 7-letter term by scrambling any of the provided seven-letter ScrabbleGram sets, and define it. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1076: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1071 05/11/2014 A pair of threes Choose two or three entities represented by a single three-letter combination at bit.ly/3letterabs and say how they are alike or different. LET DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1075: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1070 05/04/2014 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1074: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1069 04/27/2014 It's a small, small world Write a humorous poem of no more than eight lines -- it doesn't have to rhyme -- using only the top 1,000 words on Wiktionary.org's list of the most common among 20 million words found in movie and TV scripts. POE WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ward Kay,
Mark Raffman
1073: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1068 04/20/2014 An iffy proposition Suggest some humorous action that you would take if you were in someone's position, more or less in the form "If I were _____ my first act would be _____. POL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ben Aronin 1072: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1067 04/13/2014 A(t)tribute to your wit Alter a well-known quote slightly and attribute it to someone else. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1071: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1066 04/06/2014 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jim Stiles 1070: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
20140330 03/30/2014 (We) give us a (spring) break There's no new contest this week, because the Empress will be on assignment overseas four weeks from now. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1065 03/23/2014 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. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1068: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1069: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1064 03/16/2014 HistoRebuffs Alter some moment in history and tell us -- in no more than about 50 words -- the likely outcome. HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1067: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1069: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1063 03/09/2014 Same difference Take any two items from the provided list and explain how they're similar or different. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Letizia 1066: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1069: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1062 03/02/2014 Scanning the headlines Write a rhyming poem about something currently in the news. POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 20140330: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1069: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1061 02/23/2014 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. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1065: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1060 02/16/2014 Picture this Write a caption, or captions, for one or more of the provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ward Kay 1064: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1059 02/09/2014 With parens like these . . . Add some words in parentheses to a well-known song title to make it funnier in some way. WOR MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1063: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1058 02/02/2014 Eastwood Ho Create a good-bad-ugly progression. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 1062: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1057 01/26/2014 Sportin' lie Give us some fake sports trivia. ATH TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Seth Tucker 1061: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1056 01/19/2014 Weather or nuts Coin a term relating to the weather, climate, etc. -- either literal or figurative -- and define it. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Megan Durham 1060: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1055 01/12/2014 Oh, K! This week, to commemorate both Kevin Dopart and his 1K ink blots: Change a word, phrase or name by adding one or more K's, and define your new term. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kristen Rahman 1059: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1054 01/05/2014 Dead letters Write a short, humorous poem commemorating someone (or maybe even something) who died in 2013. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 1058: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1053 12/29/2013 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. QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Folse 1057: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1052 12/22/2013 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. CRO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1056: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1051 12/15/2013 Love the tiny tail stain! Create an anagram -- a text with the letters rearranged -- of any text (except merely someone's name), of any length, referring to something or someone in the news. ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1055: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1050 12/08/2013 Just redo it Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 1000 through Week 1046. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1054: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1049 12/01/2013 Be rating Come up with a new movie rating and describe it. MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Shea 1053: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1048 11/24/2013 Ask Backwards You supply the questions to as many of the provided answers as you like. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1052: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1047 11/17/2013 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danielle Nowlin 1051: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1046 11/10/2013 Derive us crazy Offer a bogus but funny explanation of how a particular expression originated. HIS WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1050: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1045 11/03/2013 Songs for the asking Take a sentence, phrase or title from a song and provide a funny question it might answer. MUS QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Gray 1049: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1044 10/27/2013 Play it safe Come up with a comically safety-conscious rule for the workplace or elsewhere. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stan McCoy 1048: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1043 10/20/2013 Rechanneling celebrity Describe a TV reality show featuring a celebrity pursuing some unlikely endeavor. TEL CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tim Livengood 1047: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1042 10/13/2013 Tour de Fours X: Go SANE Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block S-A-N-E -- in any order, but consecutively, and define it. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1046: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1041 10/06/2013 What have you got to lose? Answer a question, real or rhetorical, that appears in a song. MUS QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Trevor Kerr 1045: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1040 09/29/2013 IRS my case Schedule A: Suggest a novel way for the government to determine taxes.

Schedule B: Suggest a deduction that you'd like to take, or that some real or fictional person past or present might like to take.

Schedule C: Suggest a cause you'd rather check off $3 for.

POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Edmund Conti 1044: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1039 09/22/2013 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. WOR POE BNK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 1043: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1038 09/15/2013 It's like this, see Answer a simple question with a ridiculously argued answer citing various connections and parallels. ??? Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 1042: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1037 09/08/2013 Outrage us Find something offensive about an inoffensive name of a product, organization, place, etc. BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Falk 1041: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1036 09/01/2013 Just for liffs Use a real place name, from anywhere in the world, as a new term. WOR LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Joel Knanishu 1040: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1035 08/25/2013 The Empy 500 Explain what news Bob Staake is trying to tell in any of the provided drawings. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 1039: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1034 08/18/2013 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]. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Falk 1038: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1033 08/11/2013 LimeriXicon Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with "fa-". LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Matt Monitto 1037: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1032 08/04/2013 Hid stuff Explain the symbolism "obviously" evident in any well-known site, artwork, etc., in 75 words or fewer. ART Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Shirley 1036: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1031 07/28/2013 The 'Sty'le Invitational Choose any word, name, or short term; emphasize a key, suddenly pertinent part of it with quotation marks; then redefine the word. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Barbara Turner 1035: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1030 07/21/2013 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. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1034: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1029 07/14/2013 Ditty Harry Write a descriptive theme song for a well-known movie, set to a well-known tune. MOV MUS POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 1033: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1028 07/07/2013 Joint Legislation Combine the names of two or more of the First Congress senators and/or representatives to create "joint legislation". LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Doug Hamilton 1032: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1027 06/30/2013 Built for two Give humorous related names for any pair of features in a given building, organization, etc. BUS POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Phil Frankenfeld 1031: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1026 06/23/2013 'Might' makes ink Give us a joke using any of the using any of the provided "you might be" templates. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chuck Smith 1030: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1031: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
20130616 06/16/2013 (We) give us a break The Empress is spending a week touring her dominions and so she's giving you a week off as well. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1025 06/09/2013 In so many words Create an original backronym for a name or other term, especially one that's been in the news lately. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jay Cummings 1029: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1024 06/02/2013 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. LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jennifer Gittins-Harfst 1028: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1023 05/26/2013 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. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1027: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1022 05/19/2013 What's the diff? Explain how any two of the provided items are alike or different. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 20130616: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1021 05/12/2013 'Gram theft Come up with a term by scrambling any of the letters sets in the provided list, and define it. LET SCR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Frank Osen 1025: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1026: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1020 05/05/2013 Colt following Breed any two of this week's winning foals and name the grandfoal. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Laurie Brink 1024: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1019 04/28/2013 What a turnoff Tell us some creative things that children and families could do during Screen-Free Week. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Art Grinath 1023: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1018 04/21/2013 Reologisms Write a clever, funny definition for any of the Loser-concocted neologisms from Week 1014 as well as from Week 1000 that deserve better definitions than their creators offered at the time. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Huffman 1022: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1017 04/14/2013 Vowel play Write a "univocalic" newspaper headline -- one that uses only one vowel throughout. LET HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 1021: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1016 04/07/2013 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Eckenwiler 1020: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1015 03/31/2013 Faux re mi Give us some humorously false trivia about music or musicians. MUS TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Paul Kondis 1019: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1014 03/24/2013 Join now Combine the beginning and end, or the beginnings and ends, of any two words in single Washington Post story or ad published March 21 to April 1 into a new word or two-word phrase, and define the result. WAS WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips 1018: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1013 03/17/2013 Har monikers Write a riddle that uses a pun of a person's name in the answer. JOK WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Natalie Beary 1017: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1012 03/10/2013 The news at 5 Write a limerick about a recent news event. LIM CUL POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 1016: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1011 03/03/2013 Top these! Try your hand at any of the contests mentioned in this look back. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 1015: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1010 02/24/2013 Picture this Write a caption for any of the five provided cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Glenn 1014: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1009 02/17/2013 What's in a name? Write something about some person, real or fictional, using only the letters in the person's name. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Matt Monitto 1013: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1008 02/10/2013 Switched reels Re-arrange all the words in the title of a movie, and describe the resulting work. WOR MOV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Roy Ashley 1012: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
20130203 02/03/2013 Primping for our big day There's no new contest this week, because four weeks from now, the Empress will devote this entire space to a celebration of the Style Invitational's 20th anniversary. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
1007 01/27/2013 Clue us in Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the provided grid. CRO WOR Text PrintPDF Barbara Turner 1010: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1006 01/20/2013 It's a ... a ... Create a new superhero (or duo) and describe the superpower, or not-very-superpower. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Reinemer 1009: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1005 01/13/2013 Send us the bill Name a piece of legislation "cosponsored" by two or more of the 98 new House and Senate members provided. LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rick Haynes 1008: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1004 01/06/2013 Dead letters Write a humorous poem about anyone who died in 2012. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter,
Nan Reiner
20130203: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1003 12/30/2012 Just do it Use a well-known advertising slogan for a different company, organization or product to humorous effect. SLO BUS POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 1007: Text PrintPDF
1002 12/23/2012 Wring out the OED Make up a false definition for any of the listed OED words. WOR DIC MEN Text PrintPDF Frank Osen 1006: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1001 12/16/2012 Make us ROFL Give us a funny, original acronym. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Dayna Fellows 1005: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
1000 12/09/2012 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. LET WOR CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 1004: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0999 12/02/2012 Drectrospective Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 946 through Week 995, except for Week 948. PRE Text PrintPDF Lawrence McGuire 1003: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0998 11/25/2012 Set the law on us Suggest an odd law for a particular place in the world. POL LOC Text PrintPDF Beverley Sharp 1002: Text PrintPDF
0997 11/18/2012 Unworthy causes Name a dubious charity and describe its mission. BUS Text PrintPDF Mark Raffman 1001: Text PrintPDF
0996 11/11/2012 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. CUL Text PrintPDF (none) 1000: Text PrintPDF
0995 11/04/2012 Ask backwards We give you the "answers" and you supply jokes in the form of a question. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Raffman 0999: Text PrintPDF
0994 10/28/2012 Stick it to us Suggest a slogan for one of our two new honorable-mention Loser Magnets for 2012-2013. SLO STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bruce Carlson 0998: Text PrintPDF
0993 10/21/2012 Versus, verses Write a short "rap battle" between any two characters, real or fictional. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Amanda Yanovitch 0997: Text PrintPDF
0992 10/14/2012 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. BUS TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Neal Starkman 0996: Text PrintPDF
0991 10/07/2012 Tour de Fours IX Create a new word or two-word term containing the letter block V, O, T, and E and define it. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Laurie Tompkins 0995: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0990 09/30/2012 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. DIF CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 0994: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0989 09/23/2012 On the double Come up with a double or multiple profession, and explain how each job complements the other(s). BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Hazle 0993: Text PrintPDF
0988 09/16/2012 A faster break Suggest ways to make sports and other leisure activities more time-efficient or exciting. ATH ADV Text PrintPDF Martin Bancroft 0992: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0987 09/09/2012 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. HEA Text PrintPDF Melissa Balmain 0991: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0986 09/02/2012 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. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF Mark Richardson 0990: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0985 08/26/2012 What art art thou? Tell us which Style Invitational contest any of the provided Bob Staake cartoons might be illustrating. CAR Text PrintPDF Beverley Sharp 0989: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0984 08/19/2012 Another brilliant contest Write something whose words begin with consecutive letters of the alphabet. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0988: Text PrintPDF
0983 08/12/2012 Limerixicon IX Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters "eq-" through "ez-". LIM LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0987: Text PrintPDF
0982 08/05/2012 The parody line Set your own, humorous words to the tune of a well-known song--except that you must preserve one of the original lines. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 0986: Text PrintPDF
0981 07/29/2012 Feeling testy Write a question that "ought to" be on a qualifying test for a particular job. BUS Text PrintPDF Barry Koch 0985: Text PrintPDF
20120722 07/22/2012 You can't lose this week! Because there’s not a new contest this week. Three and a half weeks from now, the Empress will be lounging on an exotic (okay, Delaware) beach, blissfully disconnected from this newspaper's "content management system," Methode, better known within the newsroom as "that piece of [not 'blueberry pie'] Methode. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
0980 07/15/2012 Def jam Supply a humorous definition for any of the provided Loser-penned neologisms. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Paul Burnham 0983: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0979 07/08/2012 The madding crowd Suggest funny, original ways to tick people off. ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Shea 0982: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0978 07/01/2012 A reason to rhyme the news Write a short verse about something that's been in the news recently. POE CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 0981: Text PrintPDF
0977 06/24/2012 Lost in Translation 2.0 Translate a line of text from English into another language using Google Translate; then copy that result and translate it back into English. You may also make intermediate steps into one or more other languages. GOO LAN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 20120722: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0976 06/17/2012 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. HYP WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 0980: Text PrintPDF
0975 06/10/2012 Gone mything Debunk a "Sixth Myth" about one of more of the recent "5 Myths" topics provided. CUL Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0979: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0974 06/03/2012 Eat our dust! Write a limerick humorously describing a book, play, movie, or TV show. LIM LIT TEL MOV POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 0978: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0984: Text PrintPDF
0973 05/27/2012 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0977: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0972 05/20/2012 Trends and neighbors Choose any two items on the provided list and explain how they are alike or different. DIF Text PrintPDF Bird Waring 0976: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0971 05/13/2012 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. LIT Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0975: Text PrintPDF
0970 05/06/2012 Couple it Take a line from any well-known poem and pair it with your own second line to make a humorous couplet. POE LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0974: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0969 04/29/2012 Colt following Breed any two "foals" in today's results, and name the grandfoal. HOR Text PrintPDF Kathy El-Assal 0973: Text PrintPDF
0968 04/22/2012 Take us for grants Come up with a proposal to the National Science Foundation or other research-funding organization for a study based on a stupid hypothesis. SCI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robert Schechter 0972: Text PrintPDF
0967 04/15/2012 Overlap dance II Create a phrase that overlaps two terms, each of two words or more, and describe the result. WOR Text PrintPDF Mae Scanlan 0971: Text PrintPDF
0984: Text PrintPDF
0966 04/08/2012 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. WOR LET CHN Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0970: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0965 04/01/2012 Foaling around Breed any two of the horses in this year's Triple Crown races and name their foal. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Susan Thompson 0969: Text PrintPDF
0964 03/25/2012 The Grossery Bag? Suggest a design and/or slogan to go on the side of the ardently desired Style Invitational Loser Bag. SLO STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Melissa Balmain 0968: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0963 03/18/2012 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. WOR CUL POL Text PrintPDF Gil Glass 0967: Text PrintPDF
0962 03/11/2012 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. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Cathy Lamaze 0966: Text PrintPDF
0961 03/04/2012 The end of our rhops Write a funny passage or headline whose words all have the same number of letters. LET HEA WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0965: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0960 02/26/2012 Raving reviews Send us a creative "review" for any of the provided items that are listed on Amazon. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF Melissa Balmain 0964: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0959 02/19/2012 Out of network Move a current or former TV program (or type of programming) to a different network and explain what would change. TEL Text PrintPDF Kurt Stahl 0963: Text PrintPDF
0958 02/12/2012 All's Weller Write a "wellerism," a sentence that starts with a quote, often a short proverb, and goes on to include some sort of wordplay on something in the quote. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jason Russo 0962: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0957 02/05/2012 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. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Bird Waring 0961: Text PrintPDF
0956 01/29/2012 Give us some bad ideas Finish any of the provided "You know" phrases. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Noah Meyerson 0960: Text PrintPDF
0955 01/22/2012 Twits' twist Create a phrase by combining a word or phrase with an anagram of that word or phrase, and define or describe it. ANA WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nancy Schwalb 0959: Text PrintPDF
0954 01/15/2012 Bring on the 'fight' jokes Tell us an original joke ending with “And then the fight started.” JOK Text PrintPDF David Genser 0958: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0953 01/08/2012 Clue us in Come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the crossword puzzle that's already run in The Post. CRO Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0957: Text PrintPDF
0952 01/01/2012 Dead Letters Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2011. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Stephen Gold 0956: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0951 12/25/2011 Say that again Double a word, or use a word and its homophone, to make a phrase, and define it. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Kathy Fraeman 0955: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0950 12/18/2011 Of all the nerve! Give us a humorous example of hypothetical chutzpah. ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 0954: Text PrintPDF
0949 12/11/2011 Analogies Give us an analogy using "a is to b as x is to y." WOR ANL Text PrintPDF Edmund Conti 0953: Text PrintPDF
0948 12/04/2011 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). PRE Text PrintPDF David Prevar 0952: Text PrintPDF
0947 11/27/2011 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Eric Fritz 0951: Text PrintPDF
0946 11/20/2011 Another round of Bierce Write a clever definition of a word, name or multi-word term. WOR MEN Text PrintPDF Melissa Balmain 0949: Text PrintPDF
0945 11/13/2011 Laugh-baked ideas Cleverly depict a person, event or phenomenon of the 21st century — real history as well as scenes from movies, books, videos, etc. — using edible materials, and send us a photo of your creation. PIX HIS MOV LIT Text PrintPDF Alethea Dopart,
Kevin Dopart
0950: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0944 11/06/2011 Uh, yeah, it's just you Give us one or more "Is it just me" questions. QUE Text PrintPDF Neal Starkman 0948: Text PrintPDF
0943 10/30/2011 Ask backward XXIX You are on "Jeopardy!" You supply the questions for as many of the provided answers as you like. JEO Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0947: Text PrintPDF
0942 10/23/2011 Singular ideas Give us an idea for a contest for which there's likely only one good entry. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 0946: Text PrintPDF
0941 10/16/2011 They don't say! Give us a quote that a particular person, present or past, real or fictional, sooo wouldn't have said. HIS FIC Text WebPDF Larry Flynn 0945: Text PrintPDF
0940 10/09/2011 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). HEA LET CAL Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0944: Text PrintPDF
0939 10/02/2011 MASH 2: The Retread Combine two movie titles and describe the result. MOV Text PrintPDF Kathye Hamilton 0943: Text PrintPDF
0938 09/25/2011 Free and Lear Write a limerick using the first two lines of any of Edward Lear's 115 limericks plus your own remaining three lines. LIM POE LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Hugh Thirlway 0942: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0937 09/18/2011 Staake it to him Write a caption for any of the five pages or details pictured from some of Bob's more than 50 picture books. CAP ART LIT Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0941: Text WebPDF
0936 09/11/2011 Hoho contendere Slightly alter a well-known foreign-language term and define it. LAN WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Greg Deye 0940: Text PrintPDF
0935 09/04/2011 The 400 blows Write a humorous poem--choose your form--about the Virginia earthquake, Hurricane Irene or another well-known natural event. POE CUL Text PrintPDF Matt Monitto 0939: Text PrintPDF
0934 08/28/2011 Same difference Explain how any two items in the provided list are similar or different. DIF Text PrintPDF Rob Huffman 0938: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0933 08/21/2011 Stories that count (to 56) Write a humorous story in exactly 56 words. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF (none) 0937: Text PrintPDF
0932 08/14/2011 We'll call them your-mama jokes Tell us an original "your mama" joke. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ben Aronin 0936: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0931 08/07/2011 Limerixicon 8 Supply a humorous limerick significantly featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters ea- through -el. LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 0935: Text PrintPDF
0930 07/31/2011 We WANT stupid complaints! Complain comically unreasonably about some innocuous thing appearing in the print Post or on washingtonpost.com over the next week or the previous few days. WAS Text PrintPDF Peter Jenkins 0934: Text PrintPDF
0929 07/24/2011 Now sit right back ... Write a funny song introducing a TV show, past or present. MUS TEL POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Nan Reiner 0933: Text PrintPDF
0928 07/17/2011 Play feature Use the title of a movie as the answer to a riddle or other question. MOV QUE Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0932: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0927 07/10/2011 Drive-By Shoutings Write a very short four-line “poem” promoting a product or company, or offering advice to drivers; the poem must rhyme, in ABAB or ABCB rhyme scheme. A fifth, non-rhyming line may state the product name or a conclusion. POE BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 0931: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0926 07/03/2011 Outrageous fortunes Come up with a fortune cookie line that you'd like to see. CUL Text PrintPDF Ward Kay 0930: Text PrintPDF
0925 06/26/2011 A remeaning task Redefine a word in the dictionary beginning with I through O. LET WOR MEN Text PrintPDF Jamie Pazur 0929: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0924 06/19/2011 Doomed to repeat it Create "Unreal Facts" about history. HIS TRI FIC Text PrintPDF Judy Blanchard 0928: Text PrintPDF
0923 06/12/2011 Chemical Wordfare Create a new chemical element or other chemical term. SCI Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0927: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0922 06/05/2011 A Banner Week Write entirely new, humorous lyrics to the tune of “The Star-Spangled Banner”; they can be on any subject. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Gary Crockett 0926: Text PrintPDF
0921 05/29/2011 Give Us Willies Write an original Little Willie poem, perhaps reflecting our current era. This is a venerable four-line genre in which Master W. does some nasty thing and doesn't tend to learn to be a Good Boy by poem's end. POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 0925: Text PrintPDF
0920 05/22/2011 Sarchiasm Write an original chiasmus, in which the elements of a phrase are inverted for comedic effect. WOR Text PrintPDF John Shea 0924: Text PrintPDF
0919 05/15/2011 Good Luck With 13 Alter a 13-letter word, phrase or name by one letter (add a letter, drop a letter, switch two letters somewhere in the word, or substitute one letter for another) and describe the result. LET WOR CAL NEO Text PrintPDF David Ballard 0923: Text PrintPDF
0918 05/08/2011 Colt Following Breed any two "foals" in today's results, or one foal with one of the real horse names used in today's entries--and name the "grandfoal." The name may not exceed 18 characters, including spaces, and your entry shouldn't remotely duplicate any of today's results. HOR Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0922: Text PrintPDF
0917 05/01/2011 Wryku Write a haiku--a sentiment that can be broken into three lines with exactly five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third--on any subject that's been in the news in the last couple of weeks. POE CUL Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0921: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0916 04/24/2011 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. HEA Text PrintPDF John Shea 0920: Text PrintPDF
0915 04/17/2011 Picture this Write a caption for any of the cartoons pictured here. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Jack Hingel 0919: Text PrintPDF
0914 04/10/2011 Foaling around Breed any two of 100 of the almost 400 horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races, and name the foal. HOR Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0918: Text PrintPDF
0913 04/03/2011 Bring up the rear Move the last letter of an existing word or name to the front of the word, and define the new term. LET NEO Text PrintPDF Kyle Bonney 0917: Text PrintPDF
0912 03/27/2011 Pair-a-phrase Lift a word that appears inside a longer word; pair it with the original word to create a phrase; and define it. WOR Text PrintPDF Michael Reinemer 0916: Text PrintPDF
0911 03/20/2011 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. ??? Text PrintPDF WebPDF Russell Beland 0915: Text PrintPDF
0910 03/13/2011 Your ad here Slightly alter an advertising slogan so that someone else could use it. SLO BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rachel Braun 0914: Text PrintPDF
0909 03/06/2011 Reprizing Suggest humorous uses for one or more of the items above, alone or in combination. CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 0913: Text PrintPDF
0908 02/27/2011 Recast away Fire an actor or actress from a movie or TV show, past or present, and offer a replacement for the role. MOV TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 0912: Text PrintPDF
20110220 02/20/2011 Give it a rest No new contest this week. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
0907 02/13/2011 Naming rite Come up with a creative, somehow fitting sponsor for some public facility or part of one. BUS Text PrintPDF Tom Panther 0910: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0906 02/06/2011 Your mug here Give us a new design for the Loser Mug. STY Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Gips,
Edmund Conti,
Howard Walderman
0909: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0905 01/30/2011 Anticdotes Give us an untrue anecdote responding to one of these past Editor's Query topics. WAS FIC Text PrintPDF Gary Crockett 0908: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0904 01/23/2011 We move on back Move the first letter in a word or name to the end of that word and define the resulting word. LET WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Marian Carlsson,
Dave Garratt
20110220: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0911: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0903 01/15/2011 Bill us now Combine the names of two or more members of Congress as co-sponsors of a bill. LEG POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Brechlin 0907: Text PrintPDF
0902 01/08/2011 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). WAS HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dixon Wragg 0906: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0901 01/01/2011 Dead Letters Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2010. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Christopher Lamora 0905: Text PrintPDF
0900 12/25/2010 Dear us! Submit a "Dear Blank" letter to us instead. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0904: Text PrintPDF
0899 12/18/2010 Clue us in Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. CRO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 0903: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0898 12/11/2010 Pre-current events Predict some humorous news event that would happen in 2011. CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Arthur Adams 0902: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0897 12/04/2010 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. WAS LAN ENG Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0901: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0896 11/27/2010 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. BUS REL POL Text PrintPDF Larry Yungk 0900: Text PrintPDF
0895 11/20/2010 Picture this Supply a caption for any of these cartoons. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Doug Frank 0899: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0894 11/13/2010 Look Back in Inker Enter any Style Invitational from Week 841 through Week 890 (except for Week 844). PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 0898: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0893 11/06/2010 Give us a hint Write a humorously witty story in 25 words or fewer. WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 0897: Text PrintPDF
0892 10/30/2010 Get a move on Change the location of something for humorous effect. Provide an explanation if you wish. LOC Text PrintPDF Drew Bennett 0896: Text PrintPDF
0891 10/23/2010 Mirror, Mirror Write a word-palindrome sentence, in which the first and last words are the same; the second and next-to-last, etc. WOR Text PrintPDF Peter Jenkins 0895: Text PrintPDF
0890 10/16/2010 Double-teaming Combine the names of any two pro sports teams -- even from different sports -- and describe the result. ATH Text PrintPDF Keith Maynard 0894: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0889 10/09/2010 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0893: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0888 10/02/2010 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 WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 0892: Text PrintPDF
0887 09/25/2010 Plus-Fours Write a limerick whose third or fourth line is one of those listed above. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Stephen Gold 0891: Text PrintPDF
0886 09/18/2010 Look both ways Give us a new term that's a palindrome and define it. WOR Text PrintPDF Tom Flaherty 0890: Text PrintPDF
0885 09/11/2010 Mess with our heads Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Sept. 10 through Sept. 20 and reinterpret it by adding a "bank head. HEA Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0889: Text PrintPDF
0884 09/04/2010 Rekindling the spork Combine two devices or other products to make a new one. BUS Text PrintPDF Scott Weinstein 0888: Text PrintPDF
20100828 08/28/2010 Not this week, honey No new contest this week -- it's the first break that the Empress has given the Obsessive Losers since February 2008. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
0883 08/21/2010 Same difference Choose any two items from the list above and explain why they are alike or are different from each other. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 0886: Text PrintPDF
0882 08/14/2010 Limerixicon VII Supply a humorous limerick prominently featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters dr-. LIM LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Carole Lyons 0885: Text PrintPDF
0887: Text PrintPDF
0881 08/07/2010 What's in a name? Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message. LET BUS POL Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0884: Text PrintPDF
0880 07/31/2010 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. WOR LET CAL Text PrintPDF Lennie Magida 20100828: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0887: Text PrintPDF
0879 07/24/2010 Say Venn Express some sentiment in the form of a Venn diagram. PIX Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0883: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0878 07/17/2010 Safety in blunders Tell us a way to make the nation more secure. SCI POL ADV Text PrintPDF Jon Graft 0882: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0877 07/10/2010 Quipped from the headlines Write a rhyming couplet about some matter in the news. POE CUL POL Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0881: Text PrintPDF
0876 07/03/2010 Oilies but goodies Write lyrics somehow related to the oil spill, set to an existing tune. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mae Scanlan 0880: Text PrintPDF
0875 06/26/2010 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. CUL Text PrintPDF Drew Bennett 0879: Text PrintPDF
0874 06/19/2010 Stat Us Write a funny Facebook status line. CUL Text PrintPDF Dudley Thompson 0878: Text PrintPDF
0873 06/12/2010 Back to Square 1A Replace the shaded letters in this grid with your own letters to come up with a different word or phrase -- either an existing word or one you make up -- and define it humorously. CRO LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Cathy Lamaze 0877: Text PrintPDF
0872 06/05/2010 Har Monikers Combine the first parts of each word in a famous person's or character's name -- in order -- and define it or use it in a sentence that somehow refers to its source. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Cliff Kellogg 0876: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0871 05/29/2010 Remarquees Change a movie title by one letter (or number, if the title includes a number) and describe the new film. LET MOV CAL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Gary Crockett 0875: Text PrintPDF
0870 05/22/2010 Let's play Nopardy Describe any of the above phrases in the form of a question. QUE GOO JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Russell Beland 0874: Text PrintPDF
0869 05/15/2010 Clue us in Send us funny, clever clues for any of the words already in this grid. CRO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dana Austin 0873: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0868 05/08/2010 Count the ways Give us some musings of a technical wonk. SCI Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 0872: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0867 05/01/2010 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. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Barry Koch 0871: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0866 04/24/2010 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Malcolm Fleschner 0870: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0865 04/17/2010 No Googlenopes left Come up with a humorous Googlenope. GOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mark Richardson 0869: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0864 04/10/2010 Oonerspisms Spoonerize a single word or a name by transposing different part of the word (more than two adjacent letters), and define the resultant new term. WOR Text PrintPDF Ann Martin 0868: Text PrintPDF
0863 04/03/2010 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0867: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0862 03/27/2010 Be cheerful Send us a cheer or fight song for any pro sports team or any national team. POE MUS ATH Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none) 0866: Text PrintPDF
0861 03/20/2010 It's incumbent upon us Combine the names of two or more freshman members of Congress to create "joint legislation." This week's pool of legislators includes only those who were elected to their seats before 1994, the first year we ran the freshman contest. LEG Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0865: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0860 03/13/2010 Ten, Anyone? Humorously define or describe something or someone in exactly 10 words. WOR Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0864: Text PrintPDF
0859 03/06/2010 Can't goods Cast a joke in one of the forms listed above. JOK Text PrintPDF Beverley Sharp 0863: Text PrintPDF
0858 02/27/2010 Same OED Make up a false definition for any of the words listed below. WOR DIC MEN Text PrintPDF Michael Gips 0862: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0857 02/20/2010 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. LET NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0861: Text PrintPDF
0856 02/13/2010 Titled Puerility Here are some untitled book covers. For any of them, tell us a title and synopsis of a book that will never be published. ART LIT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 0860: Text PrintPDF
0855 02/06/2010 The news could be verse Sum up an article (or even an ad!) in any Washington Post print or online edition from Feb. 6 through Feb. 15 in verse. POE WAS Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith 0859: Text PrintPDF
0854 01/30/2010 What's not to liken? Produce one or more similes in any of the following categories. LAN Text PrintPDF Russ Taylor 0858: Text PrintPDF
0853 01/23/2010 It's easy as DEF Create a brand-new word or phrase that contains a block of three successive letters in the alphabet; the series must go forward in the alphabet, not backward. LET WOR NEO Text PrintPDF John Glenn 0857: Text PrintPDF
0852 01/16/2010 Small, Let's get Write a rhopalic sentence (or fanciful newspaper headline) in which each successive word is one letter shorter. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Contompasis 0856: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0851 01/09/2010 Going to the shrink Downsize the title of a book, movie or play to make it smaller or less momentous and describe it. LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Adam Beland,
Russell Beland
0855: Text PrintPDF
0850 01/02/2010 Dead letters Write a humorous poem about someone who died in 2009. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0854: Text PrintPDF
0849 12/26/2009 Homonymphomania Create a new homonym (or homophone) for any existing word and define it. WOR Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0853: Text PrintPDF
0848 12/19/2009 Up and addin' Compose a humorous rhopalic sentence (or multiple sentences) in which each word is one letter longer than the previous word. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0852: Text PrintPDF
0847 12/12/2009 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. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF George Vary 0851: Text PrintPDF
0846 12/05/2009 Season's gratings Write a brief (50 words or fewer) holiday letter from a personage from past or present, or from fiction. HIS LIT CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peter Metrinko 0850: Text PrintPDF
0845 11/28/2009 Reologisms Write a description for any of 50 genuine Loser-created neologisms. WOR Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0849: Text PrintPDF
0844 11/21/2009 Healthy choice Enter any Style Invitational from Week 790 through Week 840, except for Week 793 and Week 798. PRE Text PrintPDF John Shea 0848: Text PrintPDF
0843 11/14/2009 Prefrains Provide a sentence or two of lead-in to the first line of a well-known book, poem, or song. LIT MUS POE Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0847: Text PrintPDF
0842 11/07/2009 Ask backwards Here are your 12 possible answers. Tell us your joke in the form of a question, please. JOK JEO Text PrintPDF Judy Blanchard 0846: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0841 10/31/2009 Food for naught Alter the name of a food or dish slightly and describe the result. FOO NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Zarrow 0845: Text PrintPDF
0840 10/24/2009 Frittering away the neurons Give us some more colorfully useful phrases; they don't have to be in the X'ing-the-Y form. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Elwood Fitzner 0844: Text PrintPDF
0839 10/17/2009 Overlap Dance Overlap two words that share two or more consecutive letters -- anywhere in the word, not just at the beginning or end -- into a single longer word, and define it. AND your portmanteau word must begin with a letter from A through D. LET WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Patricia Casey 0843: Text PrintPDF
0838 10/10/2009 Picture This Provide a caption for any of these pictures. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Andrew Hoenig 0842: Text PrintPDF
0837 10/03/2009 Strip Search Combine two comic strips that appear in The Washington Post or at washingtonpost.com/comics and describe the results. WAS COM Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 0841: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0836 09/26/2009 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. POL BUS REL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Bruce Alter 0840: Text PrintPDF
0835 09/19/2009 Tour de Fours VI Coin and define a humorous word that includes -- with no other letters between them, but in any order -- the letters T, H, R, and E. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 0839: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0834 09/12/2009 Fractured Compounds Combine two full words within any single article appearing in The Washington Post or on washingtonpost.com into a hyphenated compound word, and define or otherwise describe the result. HYP WOR NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sylvia Betts 0838: Text PrintPDF
0833 09/05/2009 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. WOR LET CAL Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0837: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0832 08/29/2009 Clue Us In You supply one or more clues for the words in a filled-in grid. CRO Text PrintPDF Jim Lubell 0836: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0831 08/22/2009 A Big To-Do Name a "bucket list" item for a well-known real or fictional character. LIT CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rick Haynes 0835: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0830 08/15/2009 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. HEA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 0834: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0829 08/08/2009 Limerixicon 6 Supply a humorous limerick prominently featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters di-. LIM WOR LET POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Andrew Burnet 0833: Text PrintPDF
0828 08/01/2009 Inhuman Puns Make a pun on the name of a familiar group, organization or company, and describe it or provide a quote from it. BUS JOK WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Craig Dykstra 0832: Text PrintPDF
0827 07/25/2009 Caller Idiot Name a real product or company and supply a stupid question or complaint for the consumer hotline person. BUS QUE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Hazle 0831: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0826 07/18/2009 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. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Mike Ostapiej 0830: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0825 07/11/2009 Disinstrumentals Write some words to music that has no words. POE MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Doyle 0829: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0824 07/04/2009 Jestinations Give us a slogan for any city or town. SLO LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jay Shuck 0828: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0823 06/27/2009 Wryku Compose a humorous (or at least wry or clever) haiku. POE Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0827: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0822 06/20/2009 For Real Folks Suggest some attractions for a Festival of Real American Folklife. CUL Text PrintPDF Wayne Rodgers 0826: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0821 06/13/2009 Spit the Difference How are any of the items on the list above alike or different? DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dan Ramish 0825: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0820 06/06/2009 Be Mister Language Person Supply a Mister Language Person-type question and answer. LAN QUE Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0824: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0819 05/30/2009 Art Re-View These objects are not what they seem to be, at first glance. They are something else entirely. What are they? CAR Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0823: Text PrintPDF
0818 05/23/2009 Name the Day Cite an actual holiday or one of those silly commemorative days, weeks or months for which you can find previous evidence, and supply a snarky description or slogan. CUL Text PrintPDF Don Kirkpatrick 0822: Text PrintPDF
0817 05/16/2009 Flopflip Reverse the first half and second half of a word or name and define the result. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Erik Wennstrom 0821: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0816 05/09/2009 Googillions Come up with an original phrase that generates at least 1 million listings on a Google search. GOO Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0820: Text PrintPDF
0815 05/02/2009 Wittecisms Create an original word containing -- in any order -- at least a W, an I, two T's and an E. LET WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Tom Witte 0819: Text PrintPDF
0814 04/25/2009 There Will Be Bloodline Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name their foal. HOR Text PrintPDF Jennifer Rubio,
Lois Douthitt
0818: Text PrintPDF
0813 04/18/2009 Aw, Shocks Give us a humorous example of the "shocking -- not. ADV Text PrintPDF Jeff Hazle 0817: Text PrintPDF
0812 04/11/2009 Rx-Related Humor Offer up some entirely false medical or psychological "fact. SCI TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Stephen Dudzik 0816: Text PrintPDF
0811 04/04/2009 Rock-Bottom Lines Tell us a sign that the economy couldn't get worse. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Russell Tuohy 0815: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0810 03/28/2009 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0814: Text PrintPDF
0809 03/21/2009 Unkindest Cutlines Supply cutlines, or captions, for any of these newspaper photos. CAP Text PrintPDF Elizabeth Molye 0813: Text PrintPDF
0808 03/14/2009 Take Us At Our Words Create a humorous poem or other writing using only the words contained in this week's Style Invitational column or results. POE WOR STY Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0812: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0807 03/07/2009 Pretty Graphic Expressions Express some insight as an equation or other mathematical expression. SCI Text PrintPDF WebPDF Phyllis Reinhard 0811: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0806 02/28/2009 DQ Very Much Give us a phrase or sentence that would nip a potential relationship in the bud (or elsewhere). ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peter Metrinko,
Greg Dobbins,
Ed Gordon
0810: Text PrintPDF
0805 02/21/2009 Brand Eccchs Give us an original name in any of the above categories (not an actual badly named product). BUS Text PrintPDF Cy Gardner 0809: Text PrintPDF
0804 02/14/2009 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. HEA CAL LET Text PrintPDF Jay Shuck 0808: Text PrintPDF
0803 02/07/2009 The Pepys Show Write a humorous diary or journal entry for someone, famous or not, for any point in history. HIS CUL POL Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0807: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0802 01/31/2009 Dreck TV Suggest a new cable TV channel, with a description or example of its programming. TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF John O'Byrne 0806: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0801 01/24/2009 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. You supply one or more of the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 0805: Text PrintPDF
0800 01/17/2009 Compairison Briefly define or sum up an existing word or short phrase, then change it very slightly and do the same with the result. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Lawrence McGuire 0804: Text PrintPDF
0799 01/10/2009 Send Us the Bill Come up with legislation that, given their names, two or more freshman senators or representatives might sponsor together. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Dudley Thompson 0803: Text PrintPDF
0798 01/03/2009 Dead Letters Write a humorous poem commemorating someone who died in 2008. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0802: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0797 12/27/2008 Be Resolute Make a humorous resolution for some particular person or institution to accomplish next year. POL BUS Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0801: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0796 12/20/2008 Sincerest Flattery Make up a pun on a familiar name of a real of fictional person and provide a fitting description or quote. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Christopher Lamora 0800: Text PrintPDF
0795 12/13/2008 Stimulate Us Tell us what the government ought to be spending our money on. POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Russ Taylor 0799: Text PrintPDF
0794 12/06/2008 Ripped Off From the Headlines Send us some Onion-type headlines. HEA Text PrintPDF Malcolm Fleschner 0798: Text PrintPDF
0793 11/29/2008 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. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Rob Cohen 0797: Text PrintPDF
0792 11/22/2008 Clue Us In Compile a set of funny alternative clues to a crossword penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. CRO Text PrintPDF Judith Cottrill 0796: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0791 11/15/2008 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. STY CHN Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0795: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0790 11/08/2008 If Only! Explain how the world would be different had some event not occurred. POL HIS CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0794: Text PrintPDF
0789 11/01/2008 Doctrine in The House? State a humorous, original "doctrine" for a person or other entity. POL Text PrintPDF Kevin Mellema 0793: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0788 10/25/2008 The Back End of a Bulwer Give us a comically terrible ending of a novel. LIT LAN Text PrintPDF LuAnn Bishop 0792: Text PrintPDF
0787 10/18/2008 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0791: Text PrintPDF
0786 10/11/2008 Top of the Staake So get your thoughts provoked for No. Umpteen of our cartoon caption contest. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Ned Bent 0790: Text PrintPDF
0785 10/04/2008 The Ballad Box Write a short, humorous song somehow relating to the presidential campaign, set to a familiar tune. POE POL MUS Text PrintPDF Barb Sarshik,
Andy Pike
0789: Text PrintPDF
0784 09/27/2008 Words to The Wiseacres Give us some proverbs for 21st-century life. CUL Text PrintPDF Michael Dailey 0788: Text PrintPDF
0783 09/20/2008 The Shill Game Name a celebrity or fictional character to endorse a real product or company. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF Marty McCullen 0787: Text PrintPDF
0782 09/13/2008 That's the Ticket! Explain why any of the items on the list below is qualified to be President of the United States. POL Text PrintPDF Rick Wood 0786: Text PrintPDF
0781 09/06/2008 Our Greatest Hit Start with a word or multi-word term that begins with I, J, K or L; either add one letter, subtract one letter, replace one letter or transpose two adjacent letters; and define the new word. LET WOR CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Barry Koch 0785: Text PrintPDF
0780 08/30/2008 Location, Location, Location Say how you know you're in a particular place. LOC Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0784: Text PrintPDF
0779 08/23/2008 Gripe for the Picking Rant about any issue that wouldn't make your top 100 for airing in The Post. WAS Text PrintPDF Chris Rollins 0783: Text PrintPDF
0778 08/16/2008 Tied Games Combine any two sports or nonathletic activities into a single sport or game. ATH Text PrintPDF Hugh Pullen 0782: Text PrintPDF
0777 08/09/2008 Limerixicon 5 Supply a humorous limerick featuring any English word, name or term beginning with the letters da-. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0781: Text PrintPDF
0776 08/02/2008 An Act of Sunny Side Note the silver lining in some otherwise disappointing turn of events. ??? Text PrintPDF Drew Bennett 0780: Text PrintPDF
0775 07/26/2008 Ad-dition Combine the beginning and end of any two words appearing in any single advertisement in The Post or on washingtonpost.com, from today through Aug. 4, and then define the new word. HYP WOR Text PrintPDF Beth Morgan 0779: Text PrintPDF
0774 07/19/2008 Tour De Forks Supply a name for a restaurant dish named after someone (or some product or organization) and describe it. WOR CUL FOO Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0778: Text PrintPDF
0773 07/12/2008 Always Looking for Sects Coin a religion or belief system and tell us its basic tenet or distinguishing characteristic. REL Text PrintPDF Lawrence McGuire 0777: Text PrintPDF
0772 07/05/2008 Make It Simile, Stupid Translate a sentence or two of literature or other good writing so that "Los Angeles residents under 40" can appreciate it. LAN LIT CUL Text PrintPDF Mike Ostapiej 0776: Text PrintPDF
0771 06/28/2008 Groaner's Manuals Come up with a humorous name for a guide or manual for, or a book about, a particular enterprise or organization. WOR BUS Text PrintPDF Beverley Sharp 0775: Text PrintPDF
0770 06/21/2008 A Knack for Anachronism Take a famous historical moment, literary passage, or movie scene and place it in an entirely different age. HIS LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Peter Metrinko 0774: Text PrintPDF
0769 06/14/2008 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Rick Haynes 0773: Text PrintPDF
0768 06/07/2008 The Events Described Herein Are Entirely Fictitious Come up with fictitious movie trivia. MOV TRI FIC Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0772: Text PrintPDF
0767 05/31/2008 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. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Beverley Sharp 0771: Text PrintPDF
0766 05/24/2008 Think to Shudder Come up with scenarios that are even more awkward (and more imaginative) than the wincers mentioned above. ??? Text PrintPDF David Prevar 0770: Text PrintPDF
0765 05/17/2008 It's Doo-Dah Day Write humorous lyrics commemorating any of the 50 states of the District, set to any of these Stephen Foster songs. POE LOC Text PrintPDF Barry Koch 0769: Text PrintPDF
0764 05/10/2008 Can You Up Chuck? Come up with entirely new and funny Chuck Norris Facts. CUL Text PrintPDF Robert Gallagher 0768: Text PrintPDF
0763 05/03/2008 Another Time Around the Track Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. HOR Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney,
Kevin Dopart
0767: Text PrintPDF
0762 04/26/2008 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Pam Dalrymple 0766: Text PrintPDF
0761 04/19/2008 Strip Mining Supply the text for any or all three of these Bob Staake comic strips. CAR COM Text PrintPDF Randy Lee 0765: Text PrintPDF
0760 04/12/2008 Whacksy Buildup Describe any of these Googlewhacks in the form of a question, "Jeopardy"-style. GOO JEO Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0764: Text PrintPDF
0759 04/05/2008 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Cy Gardner 0763: Text PrintPDF
0758 03/29/2008 Wrong Address Using any of the words of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, in whatever order you like, create your own passage. HIS WOR BNK Text PrintPDF Barry Koch 0762: Text PrintPDF
0757 03/22/2008 Gorey Thoughts From A to Z Send us some rhyming alphabet-primer couplets. POE LET Text PrintPDF Beth Baniszewski 0761: Text PrintPDF
0756 03/15/2008 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. HEA Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0760: Text PrintPDF
0755 03/08/2008 Take Another 'Whack Send us a phrase of two or more words that produces exactly one Web page on the Google search engine and describe the phrase. GOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Michael Levy 0759: Text PrintPDF
0754 03/01/2008 Canny Similarities Cite a humorous "uncanny similarity" between any two of the very different people listed above. DIF Text PrintPDF WebPDF Larry Yungk 0758: Text PrintPDF
20080223 02/23/2008 Get In Your Last Shot: Photo Contest's Final Days No new contest this week. While the sun never seems to set on the Empress, even she ventures outside the Forbidden City once in a while. Text PrintPDF (none)
0753 02/16/2008 Hot Off The Riddle Supply a simple riddle and both the wholesome answer and the (printable) Invitational answer. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kelton Vincent 0757: Text PrintPDF
0752 02/09/2008 The Might-Mates Right Fill out any of these five "you just might" joke-templates. JOK Text PrintPDF WebPDF Kevin Dopart 0755: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0751 02/02/2008 Strike Gold Slightly change the name of an existing or former TV show to create a program that can scab the writers' strike. TEL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Wilson Varga 0754: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0750 01/26/2008 Hit Us With Your Best Shot: Photo Contest No. 4 Illustrate, any way you like, any of the provided five captions with your own original photo. PIX CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jeff Brechlin 0756: Text PrintPDF
0749 01/19/2008 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. LET WOR MEN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peter Metrinko,
Pie Snelson
0753: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
20080223: Text PrintPDF
0748 01/12/2008 Dead Letters Write a humorous poem about a well-known personage who died in 2007. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0752: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0747 01/05/2008 Boeing Us Silly Suggest some comical ways to improve air travel, either in general or for yourself. CUL BUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverley Sharp 0751: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0746 12/29/2007 We Err The World Give us a motto or short slogan for any country in the world. SLO LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Thomas Murphy 0750: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0745 12/22/2007 Hurry Up and Slow Down! Suggest particular ways that would slow life down, or ways that would speed it up. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Christopher Lamora 0749: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0744 12/15/2007 You OED Us One Make up a humorous and false definition for any of the words listed below. WOR DIC MEN Text PrintPDF Bill Spencer 0748: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0743 12/08/2007 Picture This Write a caption for any of these Bob Staake cartoons. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Roger Dalrymple 0747: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0742 12/01/2007 Clue Us In Give us a whole new set of clues to a crossword puzzle penned by Ace Constructor Paula Gamache. CRO Text PrintPDF John O'Byrne 0746: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0741 11/24/2007 Well, What Do You Know? Tell us what Major Life Lessons can be derived from any of these venues or situations. ADV Text PrintPDF Fred Dawson 0745: Text PrintPDF
0740 11/17/2007 Give Us a Hint Offer clues in various situations that something isn't working out well. ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ben Aronin 0744: Text PrintPDF
0739 11/10/2007 Lies, All Lies Give us some humorous fictional revelation about a current or past political figure. HIS POL TRI FIC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Joel Knanishu 0743: Text PrintPDF
0738 11/03/2007 So What's To Liken? Take any two items from the utterly random list above and explain how they are different or how they are similar. DIF Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0742: Text PrintPDF
0737 10/27/2007 No River, No Woods Send us a funny parody of a well-known song, with lyrics that commemorate an occasion other than Christmas or Hanukkah. POE HIS MUS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0741: Text PrintPDF
0736 10/20/2007 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. QUE CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Rollins 0740: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0735 10/13/2007 Look Back in Inker Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 680 through Week 731. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Anne Paris 0739: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0734 10/06/2007 Turnaround Time Write a rhyming couplet containing two words that are anagrams of each other. POE ANA Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0738: Text PrintPDF
0733 09/29/2007 Just Drop It, Okay? Drop the first letter from an actual word or term to make a new word or term, and define it. LET WOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Deanna Busick 0737: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0732 09/22/2007 The Chain Gang Supply a chain of 25 names -- they may be names of people, places, organizations, products, etc., but they must be names -- beginning and ending with "George W. Bush. POL CHN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Danny Bravman 0736: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0731 09/15/2007 Doo Process Describe for us a wildly inefficient and ridiculous way to produce or prepare an ordinary dish or beverage. FOO ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Ellen Raphaeli 0735: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0730 09/08/2007 Time-Wastes For Everyman Describe activities that make entering The Style Invitational seem like a constructive use of one's time. STY ADV Text PrintPDF Anne Paris 0734: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0729 09/01/2007 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. WAS WOR ENG Text PrintPDF Russ Taylor 0733: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0728 08/25/2007 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. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0732: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0727 08/19/2007 We Get a C-Section Tell us some pros and cons of moving The Style Invitational to the Saturday Style section; or write us up some free promo-ad copying announcing the move. STY Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0731: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0726 08/12/2007 Limerixicon 4 Supply a humorous limerick based on any word in the dictionary beginning with cl- through co-. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Chris Strolin 0730: Text PrintPDF
0725 08/05/2007 Beggars For Description Describe, without being boring, a cartoon to fit any of the provided captions. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Cy Gardner 0729: Text PrintPDF
0724 07/29/2007 Abridged Too Far Sum up a book, play or movie in a humorous rhyming verse of two to four lines. POE LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Ellen Raphaeli 0728: Text PrintPDF
0723 07/22/2007 Name Your Poison Create a name and recipe for a cocktail and, if you like, describe when it might be served. FOO NEO Text PrintPDF Roy Ashley 0727: Text PrintPDF
0722 07/15/2007 Let's Play Nopardy! We supply 12 phrases and you get to provide questions they might answer. The phrases were entries in our Week 717 contest, which asked for Googlenopes -- phrases that showed no previous hits from the Google search engine. GOO JEO Text PrintPDF Steve Ettinger 0726: Text PrintPDF
0721 07/08/2007 Know Your Market For any of the provided photos, supply two captions: one that would appeal to The Style Invitational and one that would appeal to the Harrisburg Patriot-News. CAP STY Text PrintPDF Ben Aronin 0725: Text PrintPDF
0720 07/01/2007 The Course of Humor Events Sum up a historical event in a two-line rhyme or other clever and pithy epigram. POE HIS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0724: Text PrintPDF
0719 06/24/2007 We Har the World Come up with a creative name for a sports team for a town or city anywhere outside the United States. ATH LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Elwood Fitzner 0723: Text PrintPDF
0718 06/17/2007 Put Our Heads Together Create a new, funny headline from the words of any headlines appearing anywhere in a single day's Washington Post (or on washingtonpost.com) HEA Text PrintPDF Mae Scanlan 0722: Text PrintPDF
0717 06/10/2007 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. GOO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Malcolm Fleschner 0721: Text PrintPDF
0716 06/03/2007 The Hard Spell Write a humorous poem featuring one of the 75 words we've selected from this year's National Spelling Bee. POE BEE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0720: Text PrintPDF
0715 05/27/2007 Your Mug Here Send us an idea for a slogan for the back of the new Loser T-shirt. TSH SLO Text PrintPDF Lawrence McGuire,
Beverley Sharp,
Chris Doyle,
Russell Beland
0719: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0714 05/20/2007 Amalgamated Steal Merge two or more company or product names into a new, ORIGINAL company or product. BUS NEO Text PrintPDF Gregory Bartolett 0718: Text PrintPDF
0713 05/13/2007 Painings Name and interpret any of the provided paintings by Fred Dawson. ART Text PrintPDF Glen Crawford 0717: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0712 05/06/2007 Another Time Around the Track Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in the results of Week 708, and name THEIR foal. HOR Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0716: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0711 04/29/2007 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. HYP WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Dennis Lindsay 0715: Text PrintPDF
0710 04/22/2007 Aw, Shoot Send us a funny, clever, entirely original photo featuring kitchen utensils and/or small household tools. PIX Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0714: Text PrintPDF
0709 04/15/2007 A Return Engagement Come up with some novel change to the tax code: a tax on something ought to be taxed, a credit for something that should be rewarded, what the $3 should go to instead of presidential campaigns, etc. POL Text PrintPDF Ernie Staples 0713: Text PrintPDF
0708 04/08/2007 What Kind of Foal Am I? Breed any two from a list of 100 of the horses eligible for this year's Triple Crown races and provide an appropriate name for their foal. HOR Text PrintPDF Mark Eckenwiler 0712: Text PrintPDF
0707 04/01/2007 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. WOR LIT BNK Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0711: Text PrintPDF
0706 03/25/2007 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. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0710: Text PrintPDF
0705 03/18/2007 Simile Outrageous Come up with funny analogies, perhaps with some 21st-century references. ANL Text PrintPDF Jay Shuck 0709: Text PrintPDF
0704 03/11/2007 Another Game of Tag Create vanity plates for well-known people, real or fictional. CUL Text PrintPDF Phyllis Reinhard 0708: Text PrintPDF
0703 03/04/2007 Freak Trade Agreements Think of one thing to trade for another, and supply a short and funny explanation. BUS CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Rick Haynes 0707: Text PrintPDF
20070225 02/25/2007 (We) Give Us a Break The Empress takes a day off from judging to go lounge poolside in the Imperial Hammock, taking care first to don the Imperial Parka and Earmuffs and Moon Boots. Text PrintPDF WebPDF (none)
0702 02/18/2007 Unreal Facts Come up with a comically false factoid. TRI FIC Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0706: Text PrintPDF
0701 02/11/2007 Untitlement Here are the covers for what just might be Bob Staake's next four books. What are they called and what are they about? CAR ART LIT Text PrintPDF Andrea Kelly 0704: Text PrintPDF
0700 02/04/2007 Stump Us Come up with someone's slogan for the 2008 presidential campaign. POL SLO Text PrintPDF Ira Allen 0703: Text PrintPDF
0699 01/28/2007 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. LET CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary,
Barbara Turner
0702: Text PrintPDF
20070225: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0705: Text PrintPDF
0698 01/21/2007 Let's Get Personnel Send us some humorously creative questions that a job interviewer would ask an applicant, or some questions it might be fun to ask the interviewer. BUS CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0702: Text PrintPDF
0697 01/14/2007 We Beg You To Differ Take any two items from the truly random provided list and explain why they are different or why they are similar. DIF Text PrintPDF Dave Komornik 0701: Text PrintPDF
0696 01/07/2007 Send Us the Bill Come up legislation the newly-elected members of Congress might sponsor together. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0700: Text PrintPDF
0695 12/31/2006 Dead Letters Write a poem about someone who died in 2006. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0699: Text PrintPDF
0694 12/24/2006 Hopelessly Ever After Offer up a gloomy interpretation of any ungloomy piece of writing. LIT Text PrintPDF Cy Gardner 0698: Text PrintPDF
0693 12/17/2006 Everything Being Sequel Give a brief scenario for the sequel to a well-known movie. MOV ADV Text PrintPDF Andy Bassett 0697: Text PrintPDF
0692 12/10/2006 Reinkernation Enter any Style Invitational contest from Week 640 through Week 688. Every entry must include the word "three" or "third" or a creative variation. PRE WOR Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0696: Text PrintPDF
0691 12/03/2006 Haven't Got a Clue Make all the clues in the provided crossword ooh-clever or at least ah-that's-funny, even the little words. CRO WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0695: Text PrintPDF
0690 11/26/2006 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. WAS COM Text PrintPDF Martin Bancroft 0694: Text PrintPDF
0689 11/19/2006 Busted Play Come up with a more objectionable or stupid toy than a working fart-powered toy rocket. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0693: Text PrintPDF
0688 11/12/2006 Making Short Work Write a humorous six-word story. LIT WOR Text PrintPDF Michael Levy 0692: Text PrintPDF
0687 11/05/2006 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. CUL Text PrintPDF Peter Metrinko 0691: Text PrintPDF
0686 10/29/2006 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. ART Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0690: Text PrintPDF
0685 10/22/2006 Thank it Over Tell us some things to be thankful for. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Bruce Alter 0689: Text PrintPDF
0684 10/15/2006 Backtricking Spell a word backward and define the result, somehow relating the definition to the original word. LET NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0688: Text PrintPDF
0683 10/08/2006 What a Piece of Work String together words in a single scene, or two consecutive scenes, of "Hamlet" to produce one or more funny sentences, preferably unrelated to the original content. The words must appear in the order in which they appear in the play. LIT WOR BNK Text PrintPDF Dennis Lindsay 0687: Text PrintPDF
0682 10/01/2006 Punkin'd! Send us a funny, clever, entirely original photo featuring one or more pumpkins and/or other vegetables. PIX Text PrintPDF Jane Auerbach 0686: Text PrintPDF
0681 09/24/2006 Ticket to Write Write a jingle for a business (or its product), organization or government agency, set to a Beatles song. POE BUS POL MUS Text PrintPDF Jay Shuck 0685: Text PrintPDF
0680 09/17/2006 Rendered Speechless Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. CAR COM Text PrintPDF Ned Bent 0684: Text PrintPDF
0679 09/10/2006 Ask Backwards Here are the answers. You supply the questions to as many as you dare. JEO Text PrintPDF Elwood Fitzner 0683: Text PrintPDF
0678 09/03/2006 Limerick Smackdown! Chris Doyle and Brendan Beary will go head to head in a series of 10 limericks. LIM POE Text PrintPDF (none) 0682: Text PrintPDF
0677 08/27/2006 The News Gets Verse Sum up wittily in verse -- but not a limerick -- any article appearing in The Post or on washingtonpost.com from Aug. 28 through Sept. 4. POE LIM Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith 0681: Text PrintPDF
0676 08/20/2006 Tour de Fours III Coin and define a word containing -- with no other letters between them, but in any order you like -- the letters L, E, A and F. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Fran Pryluck 0680: Text PrintPDF
0675 08/13/2006 Cut Us Some Slack Come up with humorous ways to be lazy. ADV Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0679: Text PrintPDF
0674 08/06/2006 Limerixicon 3 Supply a humorous limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with ca-. LIM LET POE Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0678: Text PrintPDF
0673 07/30/2006 Mess With Our Heads Take any headline, verbatim, appearing anywhere in The Washington Post or on Washingtonpost.com from July 30 through Aug. 7 and reinterpret it by adding either a "bank headline," or subtitle, or the first sentence of an article that might appear under it. HEA Text PrintPDF Fred Winter 0677: Text PrintPDF
0672 07/23/2006 Just Sign This Write a funny message for an overhead highway sign. WOR Text PrintPDF Lisa Younce 0676: Text PrintPDF
0671 07/16/2006 Join Now! Hyphenate the beginning and end of any two multi-syllabic words appearing anywhere in the July 16 Style or Sunday Arts section, and then define the compound. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0675: Text PrintPDF
0670 07/09/2006 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. LET DIF CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Ben Aronin 0674: Text PrintPDF
0669 07/02/2006 Huddled Messes Suggest some bad advice for new arrivals to this country (legal or illegal). POL ADV Text PrintPDF Gordon Labow 0673: Text PrintPDF
0668 06/25/2006 Cut From the Chase Write an original John-Bunnell-style wrap-up to a crime story -- or one for a more minor transgression. CUL LIT LAN Text PrintPDF Bob Sprague 0672: Text PrintPDF
0667 06/18/2006 Questionable Journalism Take any sentence that appears in The Post or in an article on washingtonpost.com anytime from now through June 26 and supply a question it could answer. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0671: Text PrintPDF
0666 06/11/2006 Bedevil Us Give a mini-sermon explaining how some innocuous object or event signals the End of Days. REL Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0670: Text PrintPDF
0665 06/04/2006 Your One-in-a-Million Coin the millionth word in the English language and define it. The word must end in -ion. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Marty McCullen 0669: Text PrintPDF
0664 05/28/2006 A Thousand Times?! No! Come up with a new signature line for Russell Beland's -- or anyone else's -- e-mails. CUL STY Text PrintPDF Howard Walderman 0668: Text PrintPDF
0663 05/21/2006 Worth at Least a Dozen Words Interpret any of the provided cartoons as you see fit in a caption. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Michelle Stupak 0667: Text PrintPDF
0662 05/14/2006 How Low Will You Go? Humiliate yourself for ink, and a stupid prize. STY Text PrintPDF Fred Dawson 0666: Text PrintPDF
0661 05/07/2006 Name Any Good Movies Lately? Give us a funny new title for an existing movie. MOV Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0665: Text PrintPDF
0660 04/30/2006 Foaling Down: The Next Generation Breed any two of the winning "offspring" included in this week's results, and name THEIR foal. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Pam Sweeney 0664: Text PrintPDF
0659 04/23/2006 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. POE CUL POL Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0663: Text PrintPDF
0658 04/16/2006 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. LET CUL Text PrintPDF Randy Lee 0662: Text PrintPDF
0657 04/09/2006 Nuts Fruit Send in funny (but printable) images of real pieces of fruit. PIX Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0661: Text PrintPDF
0656 04/02/2006 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Mark Eckenwiler 0660: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0655 03/26/2006 Laughing Inside Take any article appearing in The Washington Post or online on washingtonpost.com from today through April 3 -- the more serious and/or mundane its headline, the better -- and write a funny poem or other passage using only words that appear in that article. POE BNK Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0659: Text PrintPDF
0654 03/19/2006 It Plays to Recycle Come up with funny ways to recycle things, people, writing (except for your old Invitational entries) or ideas. ADV Text PrintPDF David Prevar 0658: Text PrintPDF
0653 03/12/2006 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 WOR CUL Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0657: Text PrintPDF
0652 03/05/2006 Ask Backward You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. You supply the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF Sue Lin Chong 0656: Text PrintPDF
0651 02/26/2006 Show Us Some Character Add a character to a book or movie and tell us what happens in it. LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Jay Shuck 0655: Text PrintPDF
0650 02/19/2006 King Us Give us a scenario for a horror novel based on an everyday item. LIT Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0654: Text PrintPDF
0649 02/12/2006 Across the Wide What? Give us some Virginia-appropriate lyrics for "Shenandoah. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0653: Text PrintPDF
0648 02/05/2006 Caller IDiot Name a product or company and supply a stupid question to ask the consumer hotline person. BUS QUE ADV Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0652: Text PrintPDF
0647 01/29/2006 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. HEA LET Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0651: Text PrintPDF
0646 01/22/2006 Warped Perspectives Tell us how two different types of people, animals, organizations, etc., would interpret any of the provided cartoons. CAR Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0650: Text PrintPDF
0645 01/15/2006 A Hearty Har Har Write up a Valentine's sentiment to any personage, or to someone in some generic category. POE Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart,
Chris Doyle
0649: Text PrintPDF
0644 01/08/2006 Winter Limp Picks Brighten up the Winter Olympics with some new events and rules. Alternatively, you can suggest a commercial or ad campaign that could be tied in with the Winter Games or one of its sports. ATH BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Joel Knanishu 0648: Text PrintPDF
0643 01/01/2006 The Post's Mortems Give us a rhyming poem about some notable who died in 2005. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0647: Text PrintPDF
0642 12/25/2005 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. LET WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0646: Text PrintPDF
0641 12/18/2005 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. BUS Text PrintPDF Jane Auerbach 0645: Text PrintPDF
0640 12/11/2005 Whassa Motto Wid You? Give us a slogan or motto for any of the states, the District or the U.S. Territories. SLO LOC Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0644: Text PrintPDF
0639 12/04/2005 What's the Small Idea? Do you have a senseless idea for improving the day-to-day lives of everyday Americans? CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Kevin Dopart 0643: Text PrintPDF
0638 11/27/2005 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. MOV TEL ADV Text PrintPDF P.H. Stevenson 0642: Text PrintPDF
0637 11/20/2005 Full Steam Ahead Write a steamy passage of a novel that's ostensibly by some well-known person who isn't a novelist. LIT Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0641: Text PrintPDF
0636 11/13/2005 A Song From Tex Arcana Write a verse of a song about sea urchin sushi or any of the other provided ostensibly unlyrical topics. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0640: Text PrintPDF
0635 11/06/2005 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. PRE Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0639: Text PrintPDF
0634 10/30/2005 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. HEA Text PrintPDF George Smith 0638: Text PrintPDF
0633 10/23/2005 Your Secret Here! Send us some original secrets (they don't have to be true). FIC CUL Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0637: Text PrintPDF
0632 10/16/2005 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. WOR BUS Text PrintPDF Jonathan Guberman 0636: Text PrintPDF
0631 10/09/2005 Picture This What's going on in any of these cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Elwood Fitzner 0635: Text PrintPDF
0630 10/02/2005 Hyphen the Terrible Combine the beginning and end of any two multisyllabic words in this week's Invitational, and then define the compound. HYP WOR Text PrintPDF Tom Witte,
Chris Doyle
0634: Text PrintPDF
0629 09/25/2005 Odd Couplings Marry or otherwise combine famous names and supply the result. CUL Text PrintPDF Marcy Alvo 0633: Text PrintPDF
0628 09/18/2005 You Gotta Have Connections Choose any two or more items from the provided truly random list and describe how they are alike or different. DIF Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith 0632: Text PrintPDF
0627 09/11/2005 Per-Verse Write a limerick or other short poem with comically awful rhyming. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Jesse Frankovich 0631: Text PrintPDF
0626 09/04/2005 Course Light Come up with a comical college class, along with a description for the course catalog. CUL Text PrintPDF Doug Frank 0630: Text PrintPDF
0625 08/28/2005 Haven't Seen It Make up a new plot for an existing movie title. MOV Text PrintPDF Kevin Jamison 0629: Text PrintPDF
0624 08/21/2005 Limerixicon 2 Supply a limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with bd- through bl-. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0628: Text PrintPDF
0623 08/14/2005 Try to Remember Give us an original mnemonic for any list that someone might want to remember. WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0627: Text PrintPDF
0622 08/07/2005 Our Sunday Constitutional Write a new article or amendment to the Constitution, using on the words contained in the existing document (including amendments). POL WOR Text PrintPDF Marty McCullen 0626: Text PrintPDF
0621 07/31/2005 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. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0625: Text PrintPDF
0620 07/24/2005 Keep the Empress Employed Suggest some original, creative ways that The Post could increase its circulation. WAS Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0624: Text PrintPDF
0619 07/17/2005 WordCount Us In Write a poem of no more than four lines containing four or more consecutive words on the WordCount list. They must occur in the sentence in the order they appear on the list. POE WOR Text PrintPDF Michelle Stupak 0623: Text PrintPDF
0618 07/10/2005 Of D.C. I Sing Give us a song about Washington, set to a recognizable tune. POE MUS WAS Text PrintPDF Barb Sarshik 0622: Text PrintPDF
0617 07/03/2005 Best the Best Write something about any famous personage that uses only the letters in his or her name. LET CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0621: Text PrintPDF
0616 06/26/2005 Picture This, Kids Supply title and one-sentence synopsis for Bob Staake new kids' project, incorporating any of the provided cartoons. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Ron Stanley 0620: Text PrintPDF
0615 06/19/2005 Airy Persiflage Write some jokes you'd like to hear in an airport announcement. JOK Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0619: Text PrintPDF
0614 06/12/2005 In-Stock Characters Pitch us an idea for a summer movie featuring two or more of the provided characters. MOV Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0618: Text PrintPDF
0613 06/05/2005 Tour de Fours II Create and define a word that includes, consecutively, E, R, A and N. in any order. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0617: Text PrintPDF
0612 05/29/2005 Oh, and One More Thing What was the thing that didn't make the cut on any list? ??? Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0616: Text PrintPDF
0611 05/22/2005 Ask Backwards, Erudite Edition You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the sophisticated answers. You supply the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF Barbara Turner 0615: Text PrintPDF
0610 05/15/2005 MASH Find two well-known movies, plays, or TV shows whose title have a significant word in common, combine their titles, and describe the hybrid. MOV LIT TEL WOR Text PrintPDF Paul Whittemore 0614: Text PrintPDF
0609 05/08/2005 A2D2 Give us some funny "corrections" to brighten up Page A2. CUL Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0613: Text PrintPDF
0608 05/01/2005 Comeback Next Week Come up with original snide retorts to various rude questions or comments. JOK Text PrintPDF Roger Dalrymple,
Pam Dalrymple
0612: Text PrintPDF
0607 04/24/2005 Contest Fodder Created! Produce absurdly parochial views of historical events. HIS Text PrintPDF Anne Clark 0611: Text PrintPDF
0606 04/17/2005 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. POE Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0610: Text PrintPDF
0605 04/10/2005 Truly Stupendous Ideas Name two people with the same initials (the people can be living or dead, real or fictional) and explain how they are similar or different. DIF LET CUL Text PrintPDF Mark Eckenwiler 0609: Text PrintPDF
0604 04/03/2005 Fun for the Roses Breed any two of the horses on a list of those qualifying for this year's Triple Crown races, and tell us a good name for their foal. The name of the foal must be no more than 18 characters, including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF Lori Price 0608: Text PrintPDF
0603 03/27/2005 Sui Genesis Take one or two of the 50 chapters of the KJV Book of Genesis and draw thou from them, using words in the order in which they appear in the original, your own passage. REL WOR BNK Text PrintPDF Michelle Stupak 0607: Text PrintPDF
0602 03/20/2005 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. LET CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0606: Text PrintPDF
0601 03/13/2005 Anticdotes Give us an untrue anecdote in response to one of the provided Editor's Query topics. FIC Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0605: Text PrintPDF
0600 03/06/2005 Top of the Inking Tell us some ways the District of Columbia will change now that we have the Nationals. CUL ATH WAS Text PrintPDF Dudley Thompson 0604: Text PrintPDF
0599 02/27/2005 So What's the News? Tell us what the illustrated events are. CAR Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0603: Text PrintPDF
0598 02/20/2005 Site Gags Come up with an appropriate name for a cafeteria--or meeting room, or an employee lounge, or some other workplace spot--for a particular institution. WOR BUS Text PrintPDF Robin Grove 0602: Text PrintPDF
0597 02/13/2005 Eccchsibits Come up with some alternative museums and exhibits for the nation's capital. WAS ADV Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0601: Text PrintPDF
0596 02/06/2005 Take Her Words for It Use the words of this week's Ask Amy advice column, as a pool from which to compose your own useful (or useless) thoughts. You may ignore or change capitalization or punctuation. WOR BNK Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton 0600: Text PrintPDF
0595 01/30/2005 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. WOR Text PrintPDF Bruce Alter 0599: Text PrintPDF
0594 01/23/2005 History Loves Company Name an appropriate corporate sponsor for some historical event or for someone's life story. BUS HIS Text PrintPDF Jennifer LaFleur,
Jim Getz
0598: Text PrintPDF
0593 01/16/2005 Take This, Job, and . . . Come up with some entertainingly awful things that a Job's comforter might offer. A Job's comforter is someone who seems to be offering sympathy but instead just makes the person feel worse, either intentionally or unintentionally. ADV Text PrintPDF Rob Poole 0597: Text PrintPDF
0592 01/09/2005 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. ATH BUS CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Peter Larsen 0596: Text PrintPDF
0591 01/02/2005 Dead Letters Write rhyming poems about notable personages who have died in the past year. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0595: Text PrintPDF
0590 12/26/2004 Send Us the Bill Come up with a bill sponsored by any combination of the newly elected members of Congress and explain the purpose of the bill. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Angela Murphy-Walters 0594: Text PrintPDF
0589 12/19/2004 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. HYP WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0593: Text PrintPDF
0588 12/12/2004 Gadget If You Can Tell us what these nifty, indispensable items are. CAR Text PrintPDF John Conti 0592: Text PrintPDF
0587 12/05/2004 The B-List Come up with an In-Out list for 2005, or other pairings. CUL Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0591: Text PrintPDF
0586 11/28/2004 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 ----. REL JOK Text PrintPDF Steve Fahey 0590: Text PrintPDF
0585 11/21/2004 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. POE POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Barb Sarshik 0589: Text PrintPDF
0584 11/14/2004 Deliver Us a Post Come up with some new Cabinet or other positions that the president could establish, and describe the job responsibilities. POL Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0588: Text PrintPDF
0583 11/07/2004 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. HEA Text PrintPDF Michelle Stupak 0587: Text PrintPDF
0582 10/31/2004 Perversery Rhymes Update a nursery rhyme or children's song with an edgier text. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0586: Text PrintPDF
0581 10/24/2004 Evil Things in Store Think of evil or just plain stupid practices that the staff of a retail or other establishment might perpetrate. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Michael Cisneros 0585: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0580 10/17/2004 United Nations Combine the names of any two countries in the world and describe the new hybrid country. LOC Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0584: Text PrintPDF
0579 10/10/2004 Another Brilliant Contest! Do Enter! Write us a sentence or phrase consisting of words beginning with consecutive letters, in the A-to-Z direction. LET WOR Text PrintPDF Lawrence McGuire 0583: Text PrintPDF
0578 10/03/2004 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" Above are the answers. Send us the questions. JEO Text PrintPDF Robert Levin 0582: Text PrintPDF
0577 09/26/2004 Teledubbies Slightly change the title of a TV show, past or present, and describe it. TEL WOR Text PrintPDF Jack Cackler 0581: Text PrintPDF
0576 09/19/2004 Well, Excuuuuse Us! Come up with new excuses for any common human shortcoming or imperfection. ADV Text PrintPDF Erika Reinfeld 0580: Text PrintPDF
0575 09/12/2004 T Hee Hee Come up with new ideas for both front and back of the Loser T-shirts. TSH STY Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester,
Brendan Beary,
Russell Beland
0579: Text PrintPDF
0574 09/05/2004 Boor Us Silly Come up with some unwise attempts at humor--one either likely to backfire or to create other unpleasant consequences. JOK ADV Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0578: Text PrintPDF
0573 08/29/2004 Thine Ad Goest Here Propose biblical and other literary passages, poems, etc., that could benefit from product placement. POE REL LIT BUS Text PrintPDF Peter Metrinko 0577: Text PrintPDF
0572 08/22/2004 The Limerixicon Supply a limerick based on any word in the dictionary (except proper nouns) beginning with ai- through ar-. LIM POE Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brendan Beary 0576: Text PrintPDF
0571 08/15/2004 A Tour de Fours Create and define a word that includes T, H, E, and S in any order. The letters must appear consecutively. TDF NEO Text PrintPDF Frank Mullen III 0575: Text PrintPDF
0570 08/08/2004 Timeline Rhyme Lines Produce colorful chronological couplets about some historical event. They must rhyme and be in good meter. HIS POE Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0574: Text PrintPDF
0569 08/01/2004 Murphy's Lore Give Eric Murphy advice he deserves on the provided questions. QUE ADV Text PrintPDF Mai Nguyen 0573: Text PrintPDF
0568 07/25/2004 Tome Deftness Make a pun or similar wordplay on a book title. WOR LIT Text PrintPDF Wayne Rodgers 0572: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0567 07/18/2004 A Running Gag Explain how any of the provided bizarre cartoons by Bob Staake relates to the current presidential campaign. CAR POL Text PrintPDF Josh Tucker 0571: Text PrintPDF
0566 07/11/2004 Get Whack Type a two-word phrase into the Google search engine that produces exactly one result. GOO Text PrintPDF Pam Sweeney 0570: Text PrintPDF
0565 07/04/2004 Anthem Is as Anthem Does Give us a verse for an alternative U.S. national anthem, set to any well-known tune. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0569: Text PrintPDF
0564 06/27/2004 Redefine Print Redefine any word from the dictionary. WOR MEN Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0568: Text PrintPDF
0563 06/20/2004 Take Two Take any two of the provided items and explain how they resemble or differ from each other. DIF Text PrintPDF Mark Young 0567: Text PrintPDF
0562 06/13/2004 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. LET Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0566: Text PrintPDF
0561 06/06/2004 Deform of a Question Take any sentence appearing in The Washington Post or washingtonpost.com today through June 14, and make up a question to which the sentence could be an answer. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Marc Leibert 0565: Text PrintPDF
0560 05/30/2004 The 97.5-Meter Dash Suggest some time- and cost-saving measures so the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens will open on time. ATH ADV Text PrintPDF Marc Leibert 0564: Text PrintPDF
0559 05/23/2004 Your Slogan Here Come up with a clever slogan or sign for a business. SLO BUS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle,
Eric Murphy
0563: Text PrintPDF
0558 05/16/2004 Set Us Right Send us conservative-leaning humor in any of the provided genres. JOK POL Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0562: Text PrintPDF
0557 05/09/2004 Oh, for Namesakes! Take two people, real or fictional, who share some element of their names and explain the difference between them. DIF CUL Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0561: Text PrintPDF
0556 05/02/2004 So Zoo Us Combine any two kinds of animals, give its name and describe it. WOR Text PrintPDF Greg Pearson 0560: Text PrintPDF
0555 04/25/2004 A Tsk, A Task Come up with a super-wholesome passage of 25 words or fewer that would likely be banned by the admirable, ever-vigilant Neopets.com site. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF Jane Auerbach 0559: Text PrintPDF
0554 04/18/2004 Love the Tiny Tail Stain Write an anagram based on a name or event that's been in the news recently. ANA Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0558: Text PrintPDF
0553 04/11/2004 Picture This Tell us what's going on in one or more of the provided cartoons. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Allan Moore 0557: Text PrintPDF
0552 04/04/2004 What Kind of Foal Am I? Breed any two of the horses on a list of those qualifying for this year's Triple Crown races, and tell us a good name for their foal. Maximum 18 characters, including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF Kevin Cuddihy 0556: Text PrintPDF
0551 03/28/2004 Lost in Translation Find us some comical translations-and-back using Google translator. Feed some passage of English text into the tool--25 words max--and ask it to translate it into one of the five languages offered; then copy the result back into the tool and ask it to translate that back to English. GOO LAN Text PrintPDF Kevin Mettinger 0555: Text PrintPDF
0550 03/21/2004 Spring Cleaning Suggest creative uses for things you've already used, or never will use, or other disposable household thingies, singly or in combination. ADV Text PrintPDF Bird Waring 0554: Text PrintPDF
0549 03/14/2004 Show Us Your Best Quantities Come up with novel units of measure, and explain or quantify them. SCI Text PrintPDF Joseph Anthony 0553: Text PrintPDF
0548 03/07/2004 Inklings Tell us about certain people's childhood experiences and behaviors that hint at their destinies. CUL Text PrintPDF Walt Johnston 0552: Text PrintPDF
0547 02/29/2004 Give Us a Bad Name Take an existing product or business name and pair it with an incompatible one. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0551: Text PrintPDF
0546 02/22/2004 A Nice Pair of Cities Choose any two or more real U.S. towns and come up with a joint endeavor they would undertake. LOC Text PrintPDF Dudley Thompson 0550: Text PrintPDF
0545 02/15/2004 Put It in Reverse Spell a word backward and define it, with the definition relating in some way to the original word. LET NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0549: Text PrintPDF
0544 02/08/2004 You Gotta Have Heart Write us some valentine sentiments from one particular person (real or fictional) to another. POE CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0548: Text PrintPDF
0543 02/01/2004 Read Our Leaps Fill any readers of The Washington Post on Sunday, Feb. 29, 2032, on: (a) the day's lead news story; (b) the highest-flying company and its business; (c) the best-selling self-help book; and/or (d) the day's winning Style Invitational entry. WAS BUS LIT STY HIS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0547: Text PrintPDF
0542 01/25/2004 Discombobulate Us Come up with both an object/situation and a neologism for it, something that Bob Levey would never have stooped to print in his column. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0546: Text PrintPDF
0541 01/18/2004 Celled Up the River Give us a delicious scenario, in which a cellphone yakker's yakking could be taken profitably out of context. ??? Text PrintPDF Erika Reinfeld 0545: Text PrintPDF
0540 01/11/2004 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. CUL TEL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0544: Text PrintPDF
0539 01/04/2004 Dead Letters Pay tribute in verse to someone who died in 2003. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton 0543: Text PrintPDF
0538 12/28/2003 Try, Try Again Enter any previous Invitational. Your entry must be substantially different from the original winners. PRE Text PrintPDF Drew Knoblauch 0542: Text PrintPDF
0537 12/21/2003 The New York Post Liven up any article appearing in The Washington Post or its Web site over the next eight days by giving it an irresponsibly sensationalistic headline. WAS HEA Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0541: Text PrintPDF
0536 12/14/2003 And the Horse He Rodin On Come up with some words we can stick in the back of The Inker. STY Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow,
Josh Borken,
Andrew Elby
0540: Text PrintPDF
0535 12/07/2003 Picture This Can you tell us what astonishing news Bob Staake is trying to pass on with cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF John Shea 0539: Text PrintPDF
0534 11/30/2003 The Feminine Touch Propose how any male-dominated occupation or institution would change if it suddenly became female-dominated. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF Tom McCudden 0538: Text PrintPDF
0533 11/23/2003 Breed Apart Mate the clones of any two famous real people, living or dead--a male and a female, please--and hypothesize what traits or skills their offspring might have. CUL Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0537: Text PrintPDF
0532 11/16/2003 Short Pans Come up with a terse review (four words or fewer) of any work of art. ART Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0536: Text PrintPDF
0531 11/09/2003 Your Cynic Duties Come up with a saying that sounds as if it's going to be inspirational, but winds up being cynical, misanthropic or sad. WOR LAN JOK Text PrintPDF Tom McCudden 0535: Text PrintPDF
0530 11/02/2003 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. LET NEO Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0534: Text PrintPDF
0529 10/26/2003 United We Stanza Summarize in four rhyming lines of verse any famous document, theory, principle or speech. POE Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0533: Text PrintPDF
0528 10/19/2003 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0532: Text PrintPDF
0527 10/12/2003 Rite of First Defusal Come up with witty or bizarre things to say to defuse the tension in awkward moments. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Mark Young 0531: Text PrintPDF
0526 10/05/2003 Conventional Wisdumb Answer any of the provided questions. QUE Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0530: Text PrintPDF
0525 09/28/2003 It Won't Belong Now Tell us which of three cartoons provided does not belong, and why. CAR Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0529: Text PrintPDF
0524 09/21/2003 Around Things Moving Take the title of any book or movie, rearrange the words, and explain what the new book or movie is about. LIT MOV WOR Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0528: Text PrintPDF
0523 09/14/2003 Hard to Overstate Propose ways to make modern life just a little bit harder than it needs to be. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Danny Bravman 0527: Text PrintPDF
0522 09/07/2003 Being There Set the agenda for a flash mob, one of those existential, Web-arranged, sudden, pointless, instantaneous but brief gatherings of people at odd places, to do odd things. CUL Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0526: Text PrintPDF
0521 08/31/2003 Hyphen the Terrible Take the first half of any hyphenated word in today's Washington Post (or Tuesday's USA Today) and combine it with the second half of any other hyphenated word in the same story, and define the new word it produces. HYP WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Jane Auerbach 0525: Text PrintPDF
0520 08/24/2003 I, Object These items were ordered by well-known people. Who ordered them, and why? CAR CUL Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0524: Text PrintPDF
0519 08/17/2003 Hey, Baby, What's Your Sector? Come up with pickup lines that could be heard only in Washington. WAS JOK Text PrintPDF Cindy Burnham 0523: Text PrintPDF
0518 08/10/2003 Say, Kids, What Time Is It? Fill in the blanks in the following sentence: "You know it's time to ------ when ------. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF Michael Connaghan 0522: Text PrintPDF
0517 08/03/2003 Insert Joke Here Slip a single bogus sentence into next year's State of the Union address, figuring the Prez will probably just read it right off the teleprompter. POL Text PrintPDF Craig Zimmerman 0521: Text PrintPDF
0516 07/27/2003 Err Apparent Come up with unwise things to say in any of the provided circumstances. ADV Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0520: Text PrintPDF
0515 07/20/2003 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. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0519: Text PrintPDF
0514 07/13/2003 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" These are your answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Sanford Horn 0518: Text PrintPDF
0513 07/06/2003 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. WOR ADV Text PrintPDF Tom Kreitzberg 0517: Text PrintPDF
0512 06/29/2003 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. LET CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0516: Text PrintPDF
0511 06/22/2003 It All Impends Tell us what is something unusual about to happen in the provided cartoons. CAR Text PrintPDF Dave Hebda 0515: Text PrintPDF
0510 06/15/2003 Universal Embarrassment What would you like to see Miss Universe Pageant contestants asked live, on national TV? TEL ADV Text PrintPDF Jack Welsch,
Sugar Strawn
0514: Text PrintPDF
0509 06/08/2003 Be a Real Card Come up with a greeting card rhyme for an un-greeting-card occasion. POE CUL Text PrintPDF Joe Cackler 0513: Text PrintPDF
0508 06/01/2003 Letter Rip Take a word from the dictionary, add, change, or delete a single letter, and redefine the word. LET CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0512: Text PrintPDF
0507 05/25/2003 Crocktails Come up with a drink named for something or someone associated with Washington and describe the drink. WAS FOO Text PrintPDF Joe Cackler 0511: Text PrintPDF
0506 05/18/2003 The Battle of All Mottoes Provide a slogan for any federal department agency, department, office, etc. SLO Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0510: Text PrintPDF
0505 05/11/2003 The Rule of Dumb You are given $1 million. Conditions: (1) You must spend it all. (2) You must use it in a way that neither directly nor indirectly works to your financial benefit. (3) You may not use it to alleviate the suffering of anyone on Earth, or for any public-spirited project other than the joy of stupidity. ADV Text PrintPDF Mark Briscoe 0509: Text PrintPDF
0504 05/04/2003 Life Is Snort Write a schmaltzy last line of a "Life Is Short. LAN Text PrintPDF David K. Ronka 0508: Text PrintPDF
0503 04/27/2003 Doody and Muldoon Write poetry that out-Muldoons Paul Muldoon, the Princeton professor who won this year's Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Your poem must be a single quatrain, containing at least one rhyme and references to at least two body parts and one geographic name. POE Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0507: Text PrintPDF
0502 04/20/2003 Picture This Who are these people? What are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0506: Text PrintPDF
0501 04/13/2003 Questionable Sentences Take any sentence appearing anywhere in today's Washington Post and make it the answer to a question. WAS Text PrintPDF Tom Kreitzberg 0505: Text PrintPDF
0500 04/06/2003 Ergo-Nomics Create a sillygism--a syllogism that doesn't quite work. WOR Text PrintPDF Dan Dunn 0504: Text PrintPDF
0499 03/30/2003 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Emily Lloyd 0503: Text PrintPDF
0498 03/23/2003 Unamazing But True! Submit a true fact that is of absolutely no use, but interesting in a weirdly Invitationalist way. TRI Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0502: Text PrintPDF
0497 03/16/2003 Ask Backward You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Kevin Cuddihy 0501: Text PrintPDF
0496 03/09/2003 The Style Invitational: The First Dreckade Submit new entries to any of the old contests listed, and try to beat The Very Best of the Past 10 Years. PRE Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0500: Text PrintPDF
0495 03/02/2003 Words of One Syl- . . . Um, Just Short Words Take some complex issue of any sort and explain it to all us morons entirely in words of one syllable. CUL LAN Text PrintPDF R.N. Oerter 0499: Text PrintPDF
0494 02/23/2003 Quote-idian Take any extremely banal piece of familiar writing and rewrite it in the style of a famous writer, poet or lyricist. LIT POE LAN Text PrintPDF Jeff Brechlin 0498: Text PrintPDF
0493 02/16/2003 A Major Offensive Find something anywhere in today's Washington Post and complain about it with absurd oversensitivity. WAS Text PrintPDF Cecil Clark 0497: Text PrintPDF
0492 02/09/2003 Cheap Tricks Come up with extreme cost-conserving measures for these difficult economic times. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Lindsay Lacy 0497: Text PrintPDF
0491 02/02/2003 Hirschfeld Follies Try to figure out which celebrities Bob Staake is trying to draw in imitation of Al Hirschfeld. CUL CAR Text PrintPDF Ben Pitkin 0495: Text PrintPDF
0490 01/26/2003 Eyes on Reprise Submit any good entries you might have thought of, for any previous contest, after the deadline passed. PRE Text PrintPDF Helene Haduch 0494: Text PrintPDF
0489 01/19/2003 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. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF Beverly Miller 0493: Text PrintPDF
0488 01/12/2003 No Rest for the Query Come up with a vexing, funny question about life. QUE ADV Text PrintPDF John Durkin 0492: Text PrintPDF
0487 01/05/2003 Eee! Rotica Come with a passage in a novel that ineptly describes hanky-panky. LIT LAN Text PrintPDF Marc Leibert 0491: Text PrintPDF
0486 12/29/2002 A Word From Our Co-Sponsors Come up with bills the new members of Congress might sponsor. Each bill must have at least two sponsors. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0490: Text PrintPDF
0485 12/22/2002 Asterisky Business Write a joke with a punch line depending on knowledge so esoteric that it requires an asterisked explanation. JOK Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0489: Text PrintPDF
0484 12/15/2002 Manufracturing Take any product and explain how it would be different if it were designed by a different existing company. BUS Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0488: Text PrintPDF
0483 12/08/2002 Obitter Fate Give us an obit headline for some famous person, currently living or dead. HEA EPI CUL Text PrintPDF Dan Steinberg 0487: Text PrintPDF
0482 12/01/2002 Inspect Our Gadgets What are these gadgets? What do they do? CAR Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0486: Text PrintPDF
0481 11/24/2002 Homonymphomania Create a new homonym of any existing word, and define. The new word must be spelled in such a way that is obviously pronounced identically to the original word. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Michael Levy 0485: Text PrintPDF
0480 11/17/2002 In No Uncertain Terminations Come up with a way to stop any unwanted overture in its tracks. ADV Text PrintPDF Barry Blyveis 0484: Text PrintPDF
0479 11/10/2002 Invest Case Scenario Suggest new companies in which it might be unwise to invest. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF John Cogburn 0483: Text PrintPDF
0478 11/03/2002 Do You Mindset? Anticipate items for the Mindset List for the freshman class of the year 2020. CUL Text PrintPDF Tony Noerpel 0482: Text PrintPDF
0477 10/27/2002 A Load of Bulwer Give us the beginning of incompetently written novel. LIT LAN Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton,
Brian Barrett,
Chuck Smith
0479: Text PrintPDF
0481: Text PrintPDF
0476 10/20/2002 Portmanteautapping Make a new word by squishing together two existing words. The constituent words must share at least two letters. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Meg Sullivan 0480: Text PrintPDF
0475 10/13/2002 Bad Connection Take any two seemingly unrelated stories from anywhere in today's Washington Post and explain how their subjects are linked in some unholy conspiracy or other suspicious way. WAS Text PrintPDF (none)
0474 10/06/2002 Alphabettering Create a sentence that uses each letter of the alphabet at least once but that would never be heard on the politically correct, genteel, rarefied air of NPR. LET Text PrintPDF Milo Sauer 0478: Text PrintPDF
0473 09/29/2002 Offensive Line Find what's offensive in any of the provided cartoons, and explain. CAR Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0477: Text PrintPDF
0472 09/22/2002 Water Stupid Idea Propose bad ideas for saving water in the continuing drought. ADV Text PrintPDF Roy Ashley 0476: Text PrintPDF
0471 09/15/2002 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. ADV Text PrintPDF Kelley Lund 0475: Text PrintPDF
0470 09/08/2002 Czar Har Take the name of someone famous, rhyme it with a product, and describe the unholy union. POE CUL BUS Text PrintPDF Brendan Beary 0474: Text PrintPDF
0469 09/01/2002 Playing Check-In Suggest appropriate hotel check-in names for any celebrities, past or present, living or dead. CUL Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0473: Text PrintPDF
0468 08/25/2002 Ism This Stupid? Take any common prefix and attach it to any well-known "ism" and define the new term. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Paul A. Stone 0472: Text PrintPDF
0467 08/18/2002 Get Your But in Here Produce a line that fits this structure: (Real thing based upon current events) is (word or phrase suggesting some quality) but (other word or phrase suggesting a dissimilar or incompatible quality), like (funny analogy). ANL Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0471: Text PrintPDF
0466 08/11/2002 Spit the Difference Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. DIF Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0470: Text PrintPDF
0465 08/04/2002 Hyphen the Terrible Take the first half of any word or word combination in today's Post that is broken by a hyphen at the end of a line, and combine it with the second half of any other hyphenated word from the same story, and define the new word that is formed. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF James Pierce 0469: Text PrintPDF
0464 07/28/2002 Cursive Writing Come up with a new curse for this millennium. CUL JOK Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0468: Text PrintPDF
0463 07/21/2002 Retell Sales Give us the beginning of any well-known story as retold by any famous person, living or dead, except for Ronald Reagan. LIT CUL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0467: Text PrintPDF
0462 07/14/2002 Cast Away Come up with a terrible bit of miscasting in a movie or TV show, past or present, real or imagined. MOV TEL Text PrintPDF William Rothstein 0466: Text PrintPDF
0461 07/07/2002 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. WAS COM Text PrintPDF Meg Sullivan 0465: Text PrintPDF
0460 06/30/2002 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. LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0464: Text PrintPDF
0459 06/23/2002 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. BUS Text PrintPDF Mike Hammer 0463: Text PrintPDF
0458 06/16/2002 It's a Setup Come up with joke setups for any of the provided punch lines. JOK Text PrintPDF William Zamojcin 0462: Text PrintPDF
0457 06/09/2002 Letter Rip Give us the beginning of a letter to the editor that is certain never to see print. ??? Text PrintPDF Fil Feit 0461: Text PrintPDF
0456 06/02/2002 A Bad-Ask Contest You are still on Jeopardy!, and you still have to supply questions to the provided answers, but the winners will be the least funny answers. JEO Text PrintPDF Mark Young 0460: Text PrintPDF
0455 05/26/2002 Comixing Create new comic characters by crossing two existing characters, then describe the character. COM Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0459: Text PrintPDF
0454 05/19/2002 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Sue Lin Chong 0458: Text PrintPDF
0453 05/12/2002 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. POE POL Text PrintPDF Daniel Horner 0457: Text PrintPDF
0452 05/05/2002 Russellmania! (1) Design one or more steps for a 12-step program for the recovering Invitationalaholic; (2) Propose a devious method by which we might lure Russell Beland back. STY Text PrintPDF J.D. Berry 0456: Text PrintPDF
0451 04/28/2002 Make Your Pix Which two of the provided cartoons are related, and how? CAR DIF Text PrintPDF Dan Steinberg 0455: Text PrintPDF
0450 04/21/2002 Blues It or Lose It Write the first verse of a blues song expressing some Washington area woe. WAS MUS Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton 0454: Text PrintPDF
0449 04/14/2002 Cut and Pastiche Create a new, funny headline from the words of any headlines appearing anywhere in today's Post. You cannot subdivide words. HEA Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0453: Text PrintPDF
0448 04/07/2002 What Kind of Foal Am I? Mate any two of the horses qualifying for the Triple Crown races this year and propose a name for their foal. No name may exceed 18 characters, including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF Mark Eckenwiler 0452: Text PrintPDF
0447 03/31/2002 Acronimble Take any of the provided witty statements and use the first letters in each of the words to create a brand-new, unrelated funny statement. LET Text PrintPDF Jennifer Nelson 0451: Text PrintPDF
0446 03/24/2002 Poems Where the Heart Is Take any recent news event and summarize it in a rhyming poem of eight lines or fewer. POE POL Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0450: Text PrintPDF
0445 03/17/2002 Another Round of Bierce Add a few entries to Ambrose Bierce's famous "Devil's Dictionary. WOR DIC Text PrintPDF Mike Genz 0449: Text PrintPDF
0444 03/10/2002 Advice Squad Take any letter from today's advice columns and answer it in the voice of someone famous, living or dead. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Mike Genz 0448: Text PrintPDF
0443 03/03/2002 Sick Humor Come up with modern diseases of Washington life. WAS Text PrintPDF Deborah Searson 0447: Text PrintPDF
0442 02/24/2002 Titletales Take any real book or movie, change one word slightly, and describe the resulting new product. LIT MOV WOR Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Martin 0446: Text PrintPDF
0441 02/17/2002 Spit the Difference Take any two nouns that appear on the front page of today's Washington Post and explain how the nouns differ from each other. WAS WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0445: Text PrintPDF
0440 02/10/2002 Picture This What is going on in these cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Chris Hill 0444: Text PrintPDF
0439 02/03/2002 No Can Do Write signs of incompetence. ADV Text PrintPDF Kyle Bonney 0443: Text PrintPDF
0438 01/27/2002 What's the Pun Line? Ask a question and answer it, somewhere incorporating the name of a least one famous person. QUE CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0442: Text PrintPDF
0437 01/20/2002 The Telegraph Poll Tell us the beginning of a joke that badly telegraphs the punch line. JOK Text PrintPDF Seth Brown 0441: Text PrintPDF
0436 01/13/2002 Takes a Powder The contest resumes next week. Czar ran biographies of Elden Carnahan, Stephen Dudzik, Joseph Romm, and Art Grinath, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0435 01/06/2002 Vegies Out No contests until mid-January. Czar ran biographies of Tom Witte, Dave Zarrow, Sandra Hull, and Kevin Cuddihy, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0434 12/30/2001 Takes a Breather No contests until mid-January. Czar ran biographies of Jennifer Hart, Jonathan Paul, Mike Genz and Robin Grove, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0433 12/23/2001 Takes a Break No contests until mid-January. Czar ran biographies of Russell Beland, Sarah Gaymon, John Kammer, and Paul Kondis, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0432 12/16/2001 Sleeps With the Fishes. No contests until mid-January. Czar ran biographies of Chris Doyle, Sue Lin Chong, Paul Styrene, and Brian Broadus, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0431 12/09/2001 Please Bear With Us . . . There is no contest. Czar ran biographies of Chuck Smith and Jean Sorensen, each containing one lie. Text PrintPDF (none)
0430 12/02/2001 OMB Directive No. 2 Revisit any contest The Style Invitational has ever run, and rewrite our tawdry past by proposing a new first-prize winner serious and/or decorous enough to please the Ombudsman. PRE Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0440: Text PrintPDF
0429 11/25/2001 Shark Instruments Tell us what would be a sign that any current institution--TV show, newspaper feature, magazine, business, etc.--has jumped the shark. TEL CUL BUS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0438: Text PrintPDF
0428 11/18/2001 No Rest for the Query Answer any of the provided supposedly unanswerable questions in the voice of any famous person, living or dead. QUE CUL Text PrintPDF Elliott Schiff 0437: Text PrintPDF
0427 11/11/2001 Skinned Come up with events that have a smaller chance of happening than the Redskins winning the Super Bowl. ATH Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0439: Text PrintPDF
0426 11/04/2001 Captions Courageous Take any photograph or illustration from today's Washington Post and give it a more interesting caption. CAP Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0430: Text PrintPDF
0425 10/28/2001 Hyphen the Terrible Take the first half of any hyphenated word from any story in today's newspaper and combine it with the second half of any other hyphenated word in the same story, and propose a definition of the new word you've created. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0429: Text PrintPDF
0424 10/21/2001 Osama Chanted Evening Write poems about Osama bin Laden. POE Text PrintPDF Patricia Helmetag 0428: Text PrintPDF
0423 10/14/2001 Roling With Laughter Take a character from one movie, use him or her to replace a character in a second movie, and then explain how this change would affect the second movie. MOV Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0427: Text PrintPDF
0422 10/07/2001 Taught Language Come up with lessons learned from (1) the movies, (2) popular songs, (3) romance novels or (4) the comics page. MOV MUS LIT COM ADV Text PrintPDF Bob Sorensen 0426: Text PrintPDF
0421 09/30/2001 Picture This These objects are not what they seem to be, at first glance. They are something else entirely. What are they? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0425: Text PrintPDF
0420 09/23/2001 Ha Anxiety Make us laugh. JOK Text PrintPDF (none) 0424: Text PrintPDF
0419 09/16/2001 Don't Spare the Rodney Come up with indications that one might not be getting no respect. JOK Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0423: Text PrintPDF
0418 09/09/2001 Xtreme Invitational Come up with signs you are overdoing it any in any of the provided categories. ADV Text PrintPDF John Burton 0422: Text PrintPDF
0417 09/02/2001 Initially Mistaken Take any name of a person or thing, and construct an appropriate message using its letters, in order, as the first letters of the words of your message. LET Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0421: Text PrintPDF
0416 08/26/2001 Diff'rent Jokes Describe how things might have been different if a famous person, living or dead, had had one of the provided conditions. HIS Text PrintPDF Drew Knoblauch 0420: Text PrintPDF
0415 08/19/2001 Sentence Us to Death Take any sentence appearing anywhere in today's Washington Post, and invent a question that it answers. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0419: Text PrintPDF
0414 08/12/2001 No Rest for the Query Complete the provided rhetorical question by filling in the blanks. It must be a put-down. QUE JOK Text PrintPDF Paul Kocak 0418: Text PrintPDF
0413 08/05/2001 Bland Ambition Come up with one or more items from an underachiever's list of midlife resolutions. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Gail Fiorini 0417: Text PrintPDF
0412 07/29/2001 Painful Climaxes Come up with statements that start really dramatically, but leave you sorta flat at the end. LAN Text PrintPDF Cindy Coe,
Ray Aragon
0416: Text PrintPDF
0411 07/22/2001 X's and Oaths Take any oath, pledge, declaration or slogan and update it. SLO Text PrintPDF Jean Sorensen 0415: Text PrintPDF
0410 07/15/2001 Ask Backwards You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0414: Text PrintPDF
0409 07/08/2001 Nice Job, if You Get It Take anything that might need its image enhanced and rename it in a way the keeps its essential identity, but makes it seem nicer. ADV Text PrintPDF Gary Patishnock 0413: Text PrintPDF
0408 07/01/2001 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. LET POL Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0412: Text PrintPDF
0407 06/24/2001 Adverbiage Come up with a witticism or a joke by making a pun out of an adverb. Unlike Tom Swiftlys, your adverb must modify not a verb but an adjective. JOK WOR Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0411: Text PrintPDF
0406 06/17/2001 Bum Steerage Offer some spectacularly bad advice to any of the provided people. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF David Moore 0410: Text PrintPDF
0405 06/10/2001 The "Sty"le Invitational Take any word--this may include people or places--put a portion of it in "air quotes" and redefine it. You may not alter the spelling. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF Steve Fahey 0409: Text PrintPDF
0404 06/03/2001 Balloonacy Create a comic strip of one to four panels. For your dialogue or thought balloons, you may choose from the provided menu. You may invent one line of your own. CAR COM Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0408: Text PrintPDF
0403 05/27/2001 Cry, Uncle! Write the beginnings of an obituary that will provide the details of what happened to the Style Invitational Uncle. EPI Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0407: Text PrintPDF
0402 05/20/2001 Spitting the Difference Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. DIF Text PrintPDF Jim Pond 0406: Text PrintPDF
0401 05/13/2001 A Matter of Degree Describe a sign of some modest change in a situation and pair it with a sign of an extreme change in that same situation. ??? Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0405: Text PrintPDF
0400 05/06/2001 Life Is Snort Write a "Life is Short" entry in under 100 words, in the voice of a celebrity, living or dead. CUL Text PrintPDF Don Burdett 0404: Text PrintPDF
0399 04/29/2001 IT PAYS TO BE GENDEROUS Write a short film description that could persuade a woman that the guy movie he wants to see is really close to being a gal movie, or vice versa. MOV CUL Text PrintPDF Robin Grove 0403: Text PrintPDF
0398 04/22/2001 Animal Magnetism Make great literature and/or a significant expression of the human condition out of the provided randomly-selected words. Use whatever punctuation you choose and any of the words, but only those words, and use them only once. LIT CUL WOR Text PrintPDF Brian Foster 0402: Text PrintPDF
0397 04/15/2001 Sins of Omission Omit a letter or letters from a real-life sign to create a name for a new business, comically different from the original. Describe the new business or include a slogan that explains it. LET BUS Text PrintPDF Selma Mathias 0401: Text PrintPDF
0396 04/08/2001 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0400: Text PrintPDF
0395 04/01/2001 Devilishly Clever Describe someone's special little corner of Hell. REL Text PrintPDF Andy Lees 0399: Text PrintPDF
0394 03/25/2001 Life in the Blurbs Come up with a blurb used to sell a real or imagined book or movie that would be likely to have the opposite of the intended effect. LIT MOV Text PrintPDF Christina Mach 0398: Text PrintPDF
0393 03/18/2001 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. POE Text PrintPDF Lindsay Shafer,
Geoff Shafer
0397: Text PrintPDF
0392 03/11/2001 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, CAR COM Text PrintPDF Drew Knoblauch 0396: Text PrintPDF
0391 03/04/2001 Spinning Out of Control Take a headline in today's Washington Post and create a subhead that spins the story in an opposite or unexpected direction. HEA Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0395: Text PrintPDF
0390 02/25/2001 Canine Fashion Write: 1. A caption for the provided image explaining what is happening; 2. An explanation of why the image is not photography but art; 3. A description of what additional items might be needed to make the image complete. Sex and potty jokes will be disqualified. CAP ART Text PrintPDF Kelli Midgley 0394: Text PrintPDF
0389 02/18/2001 Operation Overkill Present a solution to a problem that goes just a little too far. ADV Text PrintPDF Saria Brewer 0393: Text PrintPDF
0388 02/11/2001 Pitches in the Dirt Come up with a sales pitch to get any surplus product off the shelves. BUS Text PrintPDF Mike Genz 0392: Text PrintPDF
0387 02/04/2001 By Jingo Come up with a joke that could be written and understood only by a Washingtonian. WAS JOK Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0391: Text PrintPDF
0386 01/28/2001 The Game of Clue What are some clues that someone might be any of the provided characterizations? JOK Text PrintPDF Judith Cottrill 0390: Text PrintPDF
0385 01/21/2001 Proceed Gingerly What is the still-secret invention, code-name "Ginger", that is said to meet the provided criteria? SCI Text PrintPDF Ervin Stembol 0389: Text PrintPDF
0384 01/14/2001 What's Your Story? Take at least four of the provided cartoons, arrange them in any sequence you wish, and make up a funny story that they would illustrate. CAR Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0388: Text PrintPDF
0383 01/07/2001 A Kinder, Gender Nation Take an noun and give us a reason or two why it should be either masculine or feminine. WOR Text PrintPDF Jim Martin 0387: Text PrintPDF
0382 12/31/2000 Pickup Schticks Write inept pickup lines, by either sex, to either sex. CUL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0386: Text PrintPDF
0381 12/24/2000 Idiom Savant Take any well-known idiom, or expression, and invent an interesting derivation for it. WOR FIC Text PrintPDF Gordon Labow 0385: Text PrintPDF
0380 12/17/2000 The New-Name Offense Propose changes for the names of places and things that need it, either because there is something wrong with their name, or because another name would be so much more descriptive. WOR LOC Text PrintPDF Lynne Filderman 0384: Text PrintPDF
0379 12/10/2000 Rather Unusual Come up with lines that could be uttered by Dan Rather, with his unbearably folksy excesses. CUL Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0383: Text PrintPDF
0378 12/03/2000 Bill Us Now Come up with a bill sponsored by any of the newly elected U.S. senators and representatives, and explain the purpose of the bill. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0382: Text PrintPDF
0377 11/26/2000 Week MMDCXLIV Provide a headline (and, if necessary, the first line of the text) for any article that will appear in The Washington Post on this day in the year 2050. HEA HIS Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0381: Text PrintPDF
0376 11/19/2000 Apply Yourself Supply bad openings to college application biographies. ADV Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0380: Text PrintPDF
0375 11/12/2000 Show Us Up Combine the names of two existing TV shows (past or present) to make an entirely new show. Then, describe the show. TEL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0379: Text PrintPDF
0374 11/05/2000 Bill Us Later Take a well-known expression and update it for the new millennium. CUL LAN Text PrintPDF Twyla Vernon 0378: Text PrintPDF
0373 10/29/2000 An Extra Large Challenge What should we put on the back of the new Style Invitational T-shirt? TSH STY Text PrintPDF Mike Elliott 0377: Text PrintPDF
0372 10/22/2000 Trial Balloons Fill in the balloons. CAR COM Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0376: Text PrintPDF
0371 10/15/2000 Ask Backward You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Meg Sullivan,
Fred Hayes
0375: Text PrintPDF
0370 10/08/2000 No End in Sight Write the beginnings of sentences you don't want to hear the end of. WOR Text PrintPDF Bill Chang 0374: Text PrintPDF
0369 10/01/2000 Punch Us Complete any of the provided jokes. JOK Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0373: Text PrintPDF
0368 09/24/2000 Hyphen the Terrible Combine the first half of any hyphenated word in a story in today's paper with the second part of a different hyphenated word from the same story, and provide a new definition. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0372: Text PrintPDF
0367 09/17/2000 Future Schlock Come up with a line that will surely not appear in an upcoming work. LIT Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0371: Text PrintPDF
0366 09/10/2000 Just Fulghum Come up with a list of at least three Major Life Lessons one can learn from any of the venues provided. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Martin Bredeck 0370: Text PrintPDF
0365 09/03/2000 Terse Verse Ask a question and then answer it with a rhyme. Your answer can be as many words as you wish, but all must have the same rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF David Genser 0369: Text PrintPDF
0364 08/27/2000 Low Marks Come up with a new punctuation mark. Tell us what it looks like, and what it is used for, and use it in a sentence. LAN Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton 0368: Text PrintPDF
0363 08/20/2000 It's Your Movie Take the title of any movie and make it the answer to a riddle. MOV JOK Text PrintPDF David Genser 0367: Text PrintPDF
0362 08/13/2000 Something Missing Tell us what is missing in each of the provided cartoons. CAR Text PrintPDF Sam Rosenberg 0366: Text PrintPDF
0361 08/06/2000 Bad Libs Select one subject, one verb, and one object from the provided lists, and then answer the riddle you create. WOR JOK Text PrintPDF Edward Asher 0365: Text PrintPDF
0360 07/30/2000 No Competition Create a list of 25 names, each linked in some way to the name before, and you must begin and end with Mary Ann Madden. CHN Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0364: Text PrintPDF
0359 07/23/2000 It's No Party Come up with a new political party and its main political tenet. POL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0363: Text PrintPDF
0358 07/16/2000 Finish the Fire Finish "We Didn't Start the Fire," to summarize 1990 to the present. MUS Text PrintPDF Chris Doyle 0362: Text PrintPDF
0357 07/09/2000 Coming to a Bad End Take some immortal line from literature or film and ruin it by adding a short phrase or sentence. MOV Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0361: Text PrintPDF
0356 07/02/2000 Med Icks Invent a clever name for a new medical product, and specify the condition it would treat. SCI NEO Text PrintPDF Chester Myslicki 0360: Text PrintPDF
0355 06/25/2000 Seeing Stars Tell us ways we can attract celebrity participation to this contest. STY CUL Text PrintPDF Jacob Weinstein 0359: Text PrintPDF
0354 06/18/2000 Everyone's a Critic Adopt the style of a famous writer and review any of the provided dishes. LIT LAN Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0358: Text PrintPDF
0353 06/11/2000 Patently Silly What do these devices do? CAR Text PrintPDF Jean Sorensen 0357: Text PrintPDF
0352 06/04/2000 A Laff Riot Take the name of a company and/or its commercial product and provide it a new definition. BUS MEN Text PrintPDF Jennifer Nelson 0356: Text PrintPDF
0351 05/28/2000 Dubya Fun Take any well-known statement, expression, slogan, etc., and rewrite it the way Dubya might have said it. POL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0355: Text PrintPDF
0350 05/21/2000 Employing Irony Propose bad career choices. ADV Text PrintPDF David Genser 0354: Text PrintPDF
0349 05/14/2000 Orienting Oneself Produce a haiku using only words found in today's Washington Post. Your entry must have three lines, the first containing exactly five syllables, the second containing exactly seven syllables, the third containing exactly five. POE BNK Text PrintPDF David Genser 0353: Text PrintPDF
0348 05/07/2000 When We're LXIV Fashion an entry by selecting one from each of the provided menu groups: a short poem, analogy or metaphor, slogan or aphorism, or "Did you ever wonder why" sentence with various limitations. POE ANL SLO JOK Text PrintPDF Mike Elliott 0352: Text PrintPDF
0347 04/30/2000 Capital Pun-ishment Take an expression, or a lyric for a song, or any recognizable line of prose, and make it the punchline of an awful pun. JOK LIT Text PrintPDF Bill Strider 0351: Text PrintPDF
0346 04/23/2000 Greasy Kids Tough Take any news event from history, recent or ancient, large or small, and rewrite it in 100 words or fewer as it might have appeared in KidsPost. HIS Text PrintPDF Mary Lou French 0350: Text PrintPDF
0345 04/16/2000 Picture This What is going on in these cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF David Genser 0349: Text PrintPDF
0344 04/09/2000 What Kind of Foal Am I? Envision the mating of any two of the 387 horses qualifying for this year's Triple Crown, and propose a name for their foal. The foal's name must be contained in 18 or fewer letters and spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF T.J. Murphy 0348: Text PrintPDF
0343 04/02/2000 Eastwood Ho. Create a Good-Bad-Ugly progression. JOK Text PrintPDF Teen Sheng 0347: Text PrintPDF
0342 03/26/2000 Plainly Ridiculous Take any direct quotation from any article in today's Washington Post and translate it into "plain English. WAS ENG Text PrintPDF Martin Bredeck 0346: Text PrintPDF
0341 03/19/2000 What's In a Name? Write something about any famous person that uses only the letters in his or her name. LET CUL Text PrintPDF Richard Grossman 0345: Text PrintPDF
0340 03/12/2000 ASK BACKWARDS 12 You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Sandra Hull 0344: Text PrintPDF
0339 03/05/2000 Campaignful Developments Come up with signs that a presidential campaign might be in trouble. POL Text PrintPDF Kelli Midgley 0343: Text PrintPDF
0338 02/27/2000 WHO WANTS TO WIN A TOILET? Propose even greater depths of shameless, tasteless sleaze to which Fox TV is likely to sink after the noisome debacle of "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? TEL Text PrintPDF Greg Pearson 0342: Text PrintPDF
0337 02/20/2000 DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY Take a quality you wish to quantify and devise the perfect icon to measure it. Then give us an example of the extremes. ??? Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0341: Text PrintPDF
0336 02/13/2000 THE "STY"LE INVITATIONAL Choose any word and emphasize a single part of it, as though you were saying the word out loud with "air quotes" around the key part. Then redefine the word. You cannot alter the spelling of the word. WOR INS NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte,
Elden Carnahan
0339: Text PrintPDF
0340: Text PrintPDF
0335 02/06/2000 A LOVER'S SPAT Come up with some inept "sweet nothings"--graceless terms of endearment. STY Text PrintPDF Ben F. Noviello 0338: Text PrintPDF
0334 01/30/2000 The New Style Invitational: Six Choices for Czar Vote for one of six possible editors of the Style Invitational, from among the current Czar and five worthy competitors. STY Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0336: Text PrintPDF
0337: Text PrintPDF
19990905 09/05/1999 SAVE THE STYLE INVITATIONAL No contest, no results, just a plea Text PrintPDF (none)
0333 08/01/1999 GET A LOAD OF THIS TA-TA Submit episodes for the three winning strips from Week 331. COM Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith
0332 07/25/1999 AUTHORS IN SEARCH OF A CHARACTER Come up with a three- or four-panel cartoon about any of the winning characters from Week 332. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chuck Smith,
Meg Sullivan,
Art Grinath,
David Genser
0333: Text PrintPDF
0331 07/18/1999 DRAWING ON CREATIVITY Come up with an idea for a fictional central character for a comic strip based in Washington, D.C., and the environs. Describe your character in as much detail as you wish, and give the strip a name. WAS COM Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan,
Joyce Rains
0330 07/11/1999 NERD PLANET FROM THE SUN Come up with comments from the Nerd Side even less interesting than the observation that the 21st century doesn't really start until 2001. ADV Text PrintPDF Marcia Reecer 0333: Text PrintPDF
0329 07/04/1999 THE STYLE INVITATIONAL: HELL Take the name of a person or institution. Find within it a hidden message. You may add spacing and punctuation, but you may not move letters around. LET Text PrintPDF WebPDF Russell Haynes,
Chrissy Haynes
0332: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0328 06/27/1999 NICE CAPADES Send in some pleasant observation, in which you take a really cheerful or heartwarming view of something that less charitable people might conceivably see differently. LAN Text PrintPDF Janet Arrowsmith-Love 0331: Text PrintPDF
0327 06/20/1999 ASK BACKWARDS You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF David Genser 0330: Text PrintPDF
0326 06/13/1999 COMIC RELIEF Look at today's comics pages, select one panel and one panel only from any comic strip, and rewrite the dialogue. COM CAP Text PrintPDF David Genser 0329: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0325 06/06/1999 THE BURMA ROAD Propose welcoming doggerel for states or cities patterned after Burma Shave signs. POE SLO LOC Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0328: Text PrintPDF
0324 05/30/1999 A PREQUEL OPPORTUNITY OFFERING Come up with a "prequel" to some classic film or work of literature. You must produce a title and a brief plot summary, which of course must take place prior to the main action of the original work. MOV LIT Text PrintPDF Aaron Kravitz 0327: Text PrintPDF
0323 05/23/1999 THE CONGRESSIONAL RECORD INVITATIONAL Come up with not-quite-ready inventions, past or present. SCI BUS ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Brian Broadus 0326: Text PrintPDF
0322 05/16/1999 YOU NAME IT Take a well known pair or group of names, extend one of them in some manner, and explain how the group dynamic changes. CUL Text PrintPDF Tom Glynn 0325: Text PrintPDF
0321 05/09/1999 INTERPRET THIS Take any of the provided cartoons and come up with a matched pair of interpretations for what is happening. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Art Grinath 0324: Text PrintPDF
0320 05/02/1999 WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Dante D. Bruno 0323: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0319 04/25/1999 REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY Create an original chiasmus, an ancient literary form in which meaning is derived by pairing two words or phrases, and then reversing their order. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Craig McGowan 0322: Text PrintPDF
0318 04/18/1999 HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE Combine the first half of any hyphenated word in a story in today's paper with the second part of a different hyphenated word from the same story, and provide a new definition. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0321: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0317 04/11/1999 PICK US A WINNER Come up with flawed contest ideas, and the single, obvious, too-good-to-beat entry. STY ADV Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0320: Text PrintPDF
0316 04/04/1999 CALLING THE TOON What are these things? CAR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jennifer Hart,
Sandra Hull
0319: Text PrintPDF
0315 03/28/1999 FERMENTING TROUBLE Write a rhyming poem, eight lines maximum, on the subject of cheese or any of the provided items. POE FOO Text PrintPDF Niels Hoven 0318: Text PrintPDF
0314 03/21/1999 IT'S THE LIST YOU CAN DO Start with the name of a famous person, living or dead, real or fictional, either a full name or partial name. Progress through a series of other names or phrases. Each name or phrase must be related to the prior item either by being a homophone or a definition. Eventually, arrive at a name or a phrase that is an appropriate pairing with the original name. CHN Text PrintPDF Elisa Nichols 0317: Text PrintPDF
0313 03/14/1999 THE STYLE INVITATIONAL SOUVENIR SHOP Come up with bad names for a new store at a mall. WOR BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Brian Broadus 0316: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0312 03/07/1999 BOOKS AND BOOKS Combine any two works of literature--no movies or TV--into one, give its title and describe it in a brief, appealing blurb that might appear in Publishers' Weekly. LIT Text PrintPDF Mike Long 0315: Text PrintPDF
0311 02/28/1999 A JERRY-BUILT CONTEST Find cleverly disguised threats to public morality or hallowed American values that may be secretly lurking out there in our culture. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0314: Text PrintPDF
0310 02/21/1999 IT'S LIKE THIS Come up with really lame analogies. ANL Text PrintPDF J.F. Knowles 0313: Text PrintPDF
0309 02/14/1999 A STINKING PILE OF THESES Write an all-purpose first line or paragraph for any doctoral dissertation, designed to impress the heck out of academics. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF David Genser 0312: Text PrintPDF
0308 02/07/1999 GIVE US NO MO Write an updated version of those old children's selecting rhymes. Your rhyme must (1) rhyme and (2) conform, at least loosely, to a point-and-shoot cadence that permits the elimination of one item from a group. POE Text PrintPDF David Genser 0311: Text PrintPDF
0307 01/31/1999 IF YOU BOYCOTT THIS TASK / YOU WON'T WIN THE FLASK Come up with rhyming couplets to warn us about the perils of modern life. POE CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Howard Walderman 0310: Text PrintPDF
0306 01/24/1999 YOUNGIAN THERAPY Suggest ways in which the Style Invitational or any other Washington area institution can become more relevant to younger people. WAS STY CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Meg Sullivan 0309: Text PrintPDF
0305 01/17/1999 ASK BACKWARDS CMXVI2 You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0308: Text PrintPDF
0304 01/10/1999 TIME OF THE SIGNS Come up with appropriate signage to appear outside any business or retail establishment in the Washington area, including government offices. WAS BUS POL Text PrintPDF David Genser 0307: Text PrintPDF
0303 01/03/1999 BOOM TIMES Come up with old and new concerns for the baby boom generation. CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Elden Carnahan 0306: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0302 12/27/1998 UNSTATED TRUTHS Come up with lines that you'll never hear the provided people say. ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Beverly Miller 0305: Text PrintPDF
0301 12/20/1998 PICTURE THIS What is happening in these cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jonathan Paul 0304: Text PrintPDF
0300 12/13/1998 A BRAND NEW CONTEST Come up with celebrity-brand products. BUS Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0303: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0299 12/06/1998 ANOTHER LEFTIST RAG Write the day's tabloid headlines with your left hand only. (This means you can use no keys to the right of 6, T, G and B.) LET Text PrintPDF Eric Lenning 0302: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0298 11/29/1998 THE RIGHT STUFF Write a sentence, or phrase, or entire passage, using only your right hand on the keyboard. This means you may use no keys to the left of N, H, Y and 7. LET Text PrintPDF Barbara Collier 0301: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0297 11/22/1998 FREE FOR OIL Take any article in today's paper, and write an outraged letter to the editor about it that totally misses the point, either by misreading a word or misunderstanding the topic. WAS CUL POL REL Text PrintPDF David Genser 0300: Text PrintPDF
0296 11/15/1998 BILL US LATER Choose among the names of any of the newly elected U.S. senators or representatives and propose a bill they might sponsor. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Mike Genz 0299: Text PrintPDF
0295 11/08/1998 PANEL DISCUSSION Supply the contents of the missing panel in the provided cartoon strips. CAR COM Text PrintPDF David Genser 0298: Text PrintPDF
0294 11/01/1998 PRODUCT LIARBILITY Take the name of any commercial product and redefine it. BUS MEN Text PrintPDF WebPDF J. Larry Schott 0297: Text PrintPDF
0293 10/25/1998 THE VERSE OF AMERICA Take any story in today's Washington Post and create a poem or song by stringing together various phrases from that story. Each phrase must be a least two words long. POE Text PrintPDF Greg Arnold 0296: Text PrintPDF
0292 10/18/1998 PAYING THE BILL Propose appropriate punishments for President Clinton. POL ADV Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0295: Text PrintPDF
0291 10/11/1998 HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE Take any story in today's paper, find a word that breaks with a hyphen at the end of a line, and combine it with the second half of different hyphenated word in the same story. Then supply a definition for the new hybrid word. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Susan Reese 0294: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0290 10/04/1998 THE WORLD THEORIES Codify some of life's more populist theories. CUL Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0293: Text PrintPDF
0289 09/27/1998 PLAY IT AGAIN, SHAM Submit entries to any previous contest, ideas you might have thought of after the contest deadline had passed. PRE Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0292: Text PrintPDF
0288 09/20/1998 PICTURE THIS What is happening in these pictures? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0291: Text PrintPDF
0287 09/13/1998 BEFORE AND AFTERMATH Begin with a real name, append to it a word, name or expression that completes the bridge, and finally define the resulting phrase. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Douglas Riley 0290: Text PrintPDF
0286 09/06/1998 CLINTOONS Make your own Clintoon, a comic strip consisting of any or all of the provided drawings. CAR COM POL Text PrintPDF Meg Sullivan 0289: Text PrintPDF
0285 08/30/1998 ELEVENIS, ANYTWO? Take a common phrase containing a specific number, add or subtract one, and explain the revised phrase. NEO Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0288: Text PrintPDF
0284 08/23/1998 ASK BACKWARDS MCLXVII You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Jami Cashell 0287: Text PrintPDF
0283 08/16/1998 UH-OH Come up with "uh-oh" lines, statements that occur in the middle of a seemingly benign speech or conversation, suddenly alerting the listener that he is about to hear some bad news. ??? Text PrintPDF Philip Vitale 0286: Text PrintPDF
0282 08/09/1998 TAKING SNIDES Take any story anywhere in today's Post and append to it a single snide observation, concerning either the headline or the text of the story. WAS Text PrintPDF Ralph Scott 0285: Text PrintPDF
0281 08/02/1998 CALCULATE THE ODDS Tell us which of the two provided items does not belong with the other two, and why. DIF Text PrintPDF J. Larry Schott 0284: Text PrintPDF
0280 07/26/1998 EXPRESSING IT NICELY Come up with colorful expressions for any of the six provided activities, to make them sound a little less tawdry. WOR Text PrintPDF Joe Kobylski 0283: Text PrintPDF
0279 07/19/1998 TREACLE-DOWN THEORY Come up with a treacly and deeply moving piece of crap. It must somehow mine joy and goopy inspiration from the vicissitudes of life. It must also rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF Niels Hoven 0282: Text PrintPDF
0278 07/12/1998 THE STALE INVITATIONAL Begin with a word. Add, subtract or change a single letter only, and then provide a new definition. LET CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0281: Text PrintPDF
0277 07/05/1998 LIFE IN THE BLURBS Come up a simple plot summary to help attract the modern audience to any classic work of fiction. It must be literally true and defensible. LIT Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0280: Text PrintPDF
0276 06/28/1998 SPIT THE DIFFERENCE Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. DIF Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0279: Text PrintPDF
0275 06/21/1998 THERE ONCE WAS CONTEST FROM NANTUCKET . . . Write a limerick in which the first line is about someone who comes from some place in the Washington area. LIM WAS POE Text PrintPDF Courtney Knauth 0278: Text PrintPDF
0274 06/14/1998 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. WAS COM Text PrintPDF Sandra Hull 0277: Text PrintPDF
0273 06/07/1998 UNSEENS WE'D LIKE TO SEE Provide examples of any of the provided categories of things that will never happen. ADV Text PrintPDF E.J. Lloyd 0276: Text PrintPDF
0272 05/31/1998 PICTURE THIS What is happening in these cartoons? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Edward Mickolus 0275: Text PrintPDF
0271 05/24/1998 YOGI BEARER Come up with new Yogi-isms, which seem to make sense, but collapse like a soufflé when you poke it a little WOR LAN Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0274: Text PrintPDF
0270 05/17/1998 PALINODE--HAVE PUN, WILL TRAVEL Write a "palinode", retracting something said in an earlier poem. Your poem must be four lines long and contain at least one rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF Jon Chananie 0273: Text PrintPDF
0269 05/10/1998 SIGNS, AND THE TIMES Come up with new, helpful signage for downtown streets. You must state the problem, and propose the sign to rectify it. CUL LOC Text PrintPDF David Litman 0272: Text PrintPDF
0268 05/03/1998 WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? Take the names of this year's Triple Crown nominees, mate any two of them, a propose a name for the foal. The foal's name must be contained in 18 characters, including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF WebPDF Chris Kaufman 0271: Text PrintPDF
0267 04/26/1998 THE CONCEPT CONCEPT Come up with a situation for a "People Unclear on the Concept" cartoon. Describe the situation and supply any necessary dialogue. CAR CAP Text PrintPDF WebPDF John B. Allen 0270: Text PrintPDF
0266 04/19/1998 DEFINITELY WEIRD Take any word from the dictionary and redefine it. WOR MEN Text PrintPDF WebPDF Jacob Weinstein 0269: Text PrintPDF
0265 04/12/1998 A SPORK OF GENIUS Come up with new products like the spork: combinations of two existing products that work together in some special way. Name the device and explain its function. BUS NEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF T.J. Murphy 0268: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0264 04/05/1998 ASK BACKWARDS You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF WebPDF Sue Lin Chong 0267: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0263 03/29/1998 THE GAME OF THE NAME Propose a bad name for the provided categories. WOR ADV Text PrintPDF WebPDF Erica Magram 0266: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0262 03/22/1998 CAMPAIGN FOR ONE Design a line for Niels Hoven to deliver in his campaign for a student government office that will wake up a snoozing audience. POL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0265: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0261 03/15/1998 WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY II Alter some crucial moment in history, and then tell us the likely outcome. HIS Text PrintPDF WebPDF Andrew B. Gibson 0264: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0260 03/08/1998 IT'S A SNAP Come up with replacements for the two hackneyed answers: "Is the Pope Catholic?" and "When Hell freezes over. JOK Text PrintPDF Sue Lin Chong 0263: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0259 03/01/1998 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. LET POL BUS WAS Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0262: Text PrintPDF
0258 02/22/1998 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. CUL Text PrintPDF Christina Courtney 0261: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0257 02/15/1998 LET US PLAY Create a game, or a prank, that can be played using any two or more of the provided objects. ADV Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0260: Text PrintPDF
0256 02/08/1998 THE PYLE INVITATIONAL Come up with hip, contemporary riddles and answers. The punch line must contain a painful pun. JOK Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith,
Dave Ferry
0259: Text PrintPDF
0255 02/01/1998 SCANDAL IN THE WIND Each of the provided items is somehow related to the current presidential scandal. Tell us how. POL Text PrintPDF Drew Knoblauch 0258: Text PrintPDF
0254 01/25/1998 DOUBLE JEOPARDY! Take any sentence appearing anywhere in today's Washington Post, and make up a question to which it could be a plausible answer. WAS QUE Text PrintPDF David Genser 0257: Text PrintPDF
0253 01/18/1998 IT'S A PITY Enter any of the provided contests. Winners will be judged entirely on the basis of how pitiful an attempt at humor the entry is. PRE Text PrintPDF WebPDF David Sherman 0256: Text PrintPDF
0252 01/11/1998 MAKE YOUR MOVIE Propose people who were the secret inspiration for famous movies. MOV Text PrintPDF Charlie Steinhice 0255: Text PrintPDF
0251 01/04/1998 QUOTH THE MAVEN Take any famous line, change it by one letter only (add, subtract or change a single letter), and reattribute it. LET CAL Text PrintPDF Meredith Robinson 0254: Text PrintPDF
0250 12/28/1997 OH, GREAT Complete the sentence "Wouldn't it be great if . . . WOR JOK Text PrintPDF Barry Blyveis 0253: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0249 12/21/1997 BAD NEWS, GOOD NEWS Supply a silver lining for any scourge or social ill facing America or the world. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0252: Text PrintPDF
0248 12/14/1997 STICKER SCHLOCK Come up with a message for our new, mildly sought-after Style Invitational bumper sticker, something that summarizes the grandeur and dignity of this stupid contest. BUM STY Text PrintPDF Brian Broadus 0251: Text PrintPDF
0247 12/07/1997 BLACK AND WHITE AND WED ALL OVER Propose the marriage of any two people, and the song they should not play at their wedding. The people must be a man and a woman. MUS CUL POL Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0250: Text PrintPDF
0246 11/30/1997 OUR OWN DEVICES What do these contraptions do? Tell us in 50 words or fewer. CAR Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0249: Text PrintPDF
0245 11/23/1997 LIKE FUN Complete any of the provided "A is like B because" sentences. WOR ANL Text PrintPDF Dave Ferry 0248: Text PrintPDF
0244 11/16/1997 HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE Coin new words, and provide a definition, by combining the first half of a hyphenated word for any story in today's Post with the second half of another hyphenated word in the same story. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Robin Grove 0247: Text PrintPDF
0243 11/09/1997 VERSE THAN EVER Write a rhyming poem of two to eight lines as a tribute to someone famous who died in 1997, the more awful the better. We will particularly value rhymes that thud, and extremes of emotion and sentiment. POE EPI DLT Text PrintPDF Charlie Steinhice 0246: Text PrintPDF
0242 11/02/1997 SACRED COW PIES Take cheap shots at sacred institutions only, places and things that are so noble and wholesome they are beyond reproach, from among the items provided. POL CUL REL JOK Text PrintPDF Charlie Steinhice 0245: Text PrintPDF
0241 10/26/1997 CAN YOU BEAT THIS? Come up with headlines describing the defeat of one pro team by another. HEA Text PrintPDF David Genser 0244: Text PrintPDF
0240 10/19/1997 ADDING INSULT Come up with elegant insults directed at any famous person, living or dead, such as the real encomiums above. CUL POL JOK Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0243: Text PrintPDF
0239 10/12/1997 NAME THAT TOON Send us the captions for cartoons not provided. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0242: Text PrintPDF
0238 10/05/1997 CHALK IT UP TO STUPIDITY Propose apologies for yourself in the style of Bart Simpson writing on his blackboard. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0241: Text PrintPDF
0237 09/28/1997 ASK BACKWARD You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Bob Dalton 0240: Text PrintPDF
0236 09/21/1997 CALLING THE TOON. What is happening here? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Hank Wallace 0239: Text PrintPDF
0235 09/14/1997 ROOTS Make up historical explanations--they should be vaguely plausible--for the etymology of any term you wish. The term should be the punch line. HIS WOR FIC Text PrintPDF Sue Lin Chong 0238: Text PrintPDF
0234 09/07/1997 THE JOKE'S ON YOU Complete any of the provided jokes as it would be told by someone famous, living or dead. JOK CUL POL Text PrintPDF Stephen A. Simon 0237: Text PrintPDF
0233 08/31/1997 SEEKING PARODY Take any paragraph appearing on Page A1 of today's Washington Post, and rewrite it in the style of any famous writer. WAS LIT LAN Text PrintPDF Phil Frankenfeld 0236: Text PrintPDF
0232 08/24/1997 PRIMAL URGES Update, for the millennium, the old "A is for Apple" reading primer. An entry must include the four letters in one of these blocks: A-D, E-H, I-L, M-P, Q-T, U-Z. LET POE Text PrintPDF Jacob Weinstein 0235: Text PrintPDF
0231 08/17/1997 GIVING QUARTER Suggest a motto for the "tails" side of any of the state-themed quarters. SLO LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Barry Blyveis 0234: Text PrintPDF
0230 08/10/1997 TALES FROM THE CRYPTOGRAM Take any proper noun--a person, a book, a movie, whatever--and create for it an appropriate cryptogram. LET Text PrintPDF Don Juran 0233: Text PrintPDF
0229 08/03/1997 WE CAN'T HEAR YOU Supply an example for any of the five "Things you don't want to hear" categories provided. ADV Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0232: Text PrintPDF
0228 07/27/1997 MAKE MY DAY Supply advice to today's spoiled kids about how bad things were when we were growing up. CUL Text PrintPDF Barry Blyveis 0231: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0227 07/20/1997 WILD PITCHES Come up worthy successors to Joe Camel. Name the product, and describe the totally inappropriate cartoon character that would be created to represent it. CAR BUS Text PrintPDF Dave Ferry 0230: Text PrintPDF
0226 07/13/1997 GOING WITHOUT Complete some variation of the expression "An A without a B is like a C without a D. WOR ANL Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0229: Text PrintPDF
0225 07/06/1997 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. TSH BUM Text PrintPDF Tom Witte,
Dan Kaplan
0228: Text PrintPDF
0224 06/29/1997 DRAWING CONCLUSIONS What is wrong with these pictures? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Dan Kaplan 0227: Text PrintPDF
0223 06/22/1997 ATTEMPTING REENTRY Submit entries to any past contest, so long as you never submitted them before. PRE Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0226: Text PrintPDF
0222 06/15/1997 TRIP DEUCES 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. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Robin Grove 0225: Text PrintPDF
0221 06/08/1997 SONG SUNG BROWN Pick any song, pick a well-known line, and give us the discarded first draft. If it is part of a rhyme, you must maintain the rhyme. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Lily Fu Swenson 0224: Text PrintPDF
0220 06/01/1997 RSVP Provide an answer to any of the dumb questions from Week 217. QUE ADV Text PrintPDF David Kleinbard 0223: Text PrintPDF
0219 05/25/1997 VERBOSITY Come up with new, obnoxious, self-conscious faux verbs and use them in sentences. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0222: Text PrintPDF
0218 05/18/1997 CALLING THE TOON Who are these people? What are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Dave Yourell 0221: Text PrintPDF
0217 05/11/1997 NO QUESTION ABOUT IT Come up with truly stupid questions. QUE ADV Text PrintPDF Edith Eisenberg 0220: Text PrintPDF
0216 05/04/1997 WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? Pair up any two of the 400-plus horses who have qualified for this year's Triple Crown races, and name their foal, in a maximum of 18 characters, including spaces. HOR Text PrintPDF Larry Marcus 0219: Text PrintPDF
0215 04/27/1997 SON OF A PITCH Write lavish blurbs in 50 words or fewer so some sucker will want to pay a lot of money for the provided items. WOR LAN Text PrintPDF Jerry Pannullo 0218: Text PrintPDF
0214 04/20/1997 ASK BACKWARDS IX You are on "Jeopardy!" These are your answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Greg Arnold 0217: Text PrintPDF
0213 04/13/1997 A SIN OF THE TIMES Submit campaign or other political practices that would be illegal and/or unethical. POL ADV Text PrintPDF Bill Moulden 0216: Text PrintPDF
0212 04/06/1997 DUMB AS THE POST Come up with even stupider crimes than those committed by Montgomery County's "gentleman burglars. ADV Text PrintPDF Sandra Hull 0215: Text PrintPDF
0211 03/30/1997 GIVE US THE BACKS OFF YOUR SHIRTS Design the back of the fourth Style Invitational T-shirt, with anything that captures the transcendent indignity of this contest. TSH STY Text PrintPDF Craig Ulander 0214: Text PrintPDF
0210 03/23/1997 RANDOM MEMO Supply embarrassing "While You Were Out" phone messages that might be left for famous people, in plain sight, while they are away from their desks. CUL Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0213: Text PrintPDF
0209 03/16/1997 WE NEED SOME SEASONING Come up with the first signs of spring in Washington. WAS Text PrintPDF Tommy Litz 0212: Text PrintPDF
0208 03/09/1997 SEND IN THE CLONES Suggest questions a commission to investigate the moral, legal and practical question raised by cloning might consider. POL REL SCI Text PrintPDF Joan Schloo 0211: Text PrintPDF
0207 03/02/1997 TIED TO BE FIT Each of the eight provided items is related, in some fashion, to one or more of the provided individuals. You make the connections. CUL Text PrintPDF David Genser 0210: Text PrintPDF
0206 02/23/1997 HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE II Create a new word by combining the first half of any hyphenated word in today's newspaper with the second half of any other hyphenated word elsewhere in the same story, and supply a definition. HYP NEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0209: Text PrintPDF
0205 02/16/1997 SOME PIG Beg for the prize: convince us why you, and you alone, deserve to get it. STY Text PrintPDF Jon Williams 0208: Text PrintPDF
0204 02/09/1997 DOUBLE EXPRESSO Take any well-known colorful expression, and modernize it. CUL Text PrintPDF Maja Keech 0207: Text PrintPDF
0203 02/02/1997 CAN IT GET MUCH VERSE? Create Very Bad Poetry, containing banalities masquerading as profundities, overstretched metaphors, etc. Special attention should be paid to dreadful syntax and painful rhyme POE Text PrintPDF Charlie Steinhice 0206: Text PrintPDF
0202 01/26/1997 THE ELEMENTS OF SMILE Interpret any of the provided computer emoticons, or "smileys. SCI Text PrintPDF Alex Neill 0205: Text PrintPDF
0201 01/19/1997 THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE Come up with a new element and its symbol, and provide a brief description of its chemical or physical properties. SCI Text PrintPDF Irwin Singer 0204: Text PrintPDF
0200 01/12/1997 CAPTION CRUNCH IV Supply a new caption to any photograph appearing anywhere in today's Post, to make it funnier. CAP Text PrintPDF Jessica Mathews 0203: Text PrintPDF
0199 01/05/1997 WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. DIF Text PrintPDF Rob Klotz 0202: Text PrintPDF
0198 12/29/1996 YOU MUST BE MAD II Come up with proposals designed to infuriate special interest groups. POL CUL Text PrintPDF Bob Sorensen 0201: Text PrintPDF
0197 12/22/1996 DAVE'S WORLD Make David Twenhafel laugh. Any sort of delightful drollery or amusing witticism will do, so long as it is not the sort of lowbrow fare we usually favor. STY JOK Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0200: Text PrintPDF
0196 12/15/1996 YOU MUST BE MAD Come up with a contemporary Scene We'd Like to See. COM CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Bob Kulawiec,
Art Grinath
0199: Text PrintPDF
0195 12/08/1996 THE MARTHIAN CHRONICLES Come up with items for Martha Stewart's December-January calendar of projects. CUL Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0198: Text PrintPDF
0194 12/01/1996 ADVICE SQUAD Answer any of the provided questions unwisely. ADV Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0197: Text PrintPDF
0193 11/24/1996 ASK BACKWARDS VIII You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF John O'Brien,
Chuck Smith
0196: Text PrintPDF
0192 11/17/1996 HILL'S BILLS Come up with bills any of the new members of Congress might jointly sponsor. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Tommy Litz 0195: Text PrintPDF
0191 11/10/1996 GOING THROUGH A PHRASE Come up with phrase for an American English phrasebook that would provide no practical help whatsoever to a foreigner trying to get along in the United States. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Jacob Harley 0194: Text PrintPDF
0190 11/03/1996 OFFICE YOU CAN'T REFUSE Come up with a Principle for the Workplace. BUS Text PrintPDF John Kammer 0193: Text PrintPDF
0189 10/27/1996 YOU CAN PRANK ON IT Come up with a hoax or prank that begins with any of the provided scenarios. ADV Text PrintPDF Gary Lefkowitz,
Paul Kondis
0192: Text PrintPDF
0188 10/20/1996 BLANKETY BLANKS Complete any of the above sentences, substituting your own phrases for the well-known omitted words. WOR Text PrintPDF Joe Shepherd 0191: Text PrintPDF
0187 10/13/1996 RACE TO THE FINISH LINE In 75 words or fewer, continue in a productive fashion the story line of the provided real first lines of famous literary works. LIT Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul,
Susan Reese
0190: Text PrintPDF
0186 10/06/1996 CALLING THE TOON Who are these people? What are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Philip Vitale 0189: Text PrintPDF
0185 09/29/1996 WONDERLUST Come up with replacements for the Seven Wonders of the World. To qualify, an object must really exist, and be manmade and, in some way, awesome. HIS Text PrintPDF Don Maclean 0188: Text PrintPDF
0184 09/22/1996 ED ANGUISH Create an argument on some social issue, in 75 words or fewer, taking an extreme liberal view. CUL POL Text PrintPDF John Kammer 0187: Text PrintPDF
0183 09/15/1996 COCKNEY RHYMING SLANG II Create hawkers' rhymes for modern-day occupations like lobbyists, lawyers, talk show hosts, actuaries, etc., at a maximum of four lines. It must contain at least one rhyme. POE Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0186: Text PrintPDF
0182 09/08/1996 CAN YOU STOP THIS? Come up with a conversation stopper, a line likely to end all further discourse, perhaps even empty a room. ADV Text PrintPDF Tom Henry 0185: Text PrintPDF
0181 09/01/1996 YOU CAN TAKE IT TO DEBUNK Take a common slogan or saying and prove it wrong with at least one example. SLO Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0184: Text PrintPDF
0180 08/25/1996 WHEN IN DOUBT, PUN Take any headline in today's Post and improve it by somehow turning it into a pun. HEA WAS Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart,
Kate Renner
0183: Text PrintPDF
0179 08/18/1996 A CLOCKWORK, UM, UM, ... ER Write single sentences containing no fewer than three examples of rhyming slang. POE LAN Text PrintPDF Richard DeMello,
Stephen Dudzik,
Stephen Dudzik,
Stephen Dudzik,
Jonathan Paul,
Tommy Litz,
Russell Beland,
Kevin Cuddihy,
Mark Greenblatt,
Tom Green,
Roy Ashley
0182: Text PrintPDF
0178 08/11/1996 DEEP THROATS Come up with Deep Thoughts, in the style of Jack Handey of "Saturday Night Live." A Deep Thought is a short, simple, seemingly inspirational observation that winds up being cynical, ironic, or just plain weird. ADV Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0181: Text PrintPDF
0177 08/04/1996 SOUNDS LIKE TROUBLE Tell us what any of the provided sounds are. ??? Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0180: Text PrintPDF
0176 07/28/1996 WRITE IN THE KISSER In the style of any famous author, write a description of any one of these people: Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Prince Charles or Sylvester Stallone. POL CUL Text PrintPDF Kitty Thuermer 0179: Text PrintPDF
0175 07/21/1996 FOSSIL FOOLS What would aliens mistakenly conclude about us from any of the provided items? SCI Text PrintPDF Art Grinath 0178: Text PrintPDF
0174 07/14/1996 THE EDGE OF MIGHT Complete any of the four provided "you might" phrases. JOK Text PrintPDF Jon Miller,
Brian Thurber
0177: Text PrintPDF
0173 07/07/1996 DEAD RECKONING Propose a question that might be asked by a living celebrity to a famous dead person. You must name the living person, name the dead person, and tell us the question. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Ken Kaufman 0176: Text PrintPDF
0172 06/30/1996 POEDTRY An entire poetic form, making its global debut in the Style Invitational. The first line must contain only six words of one syllable each; the second line, three words of two syllables each; the third line, two words of three syllables each, and the final line a single word of six syllables. At least two lines must rhyme. The general subject matter should be mundane. POE Text PrintPDF Roger L. Browdy 0175: Text PrintPDF
0171 06/23/1996 ON SECOND THOUGHT Ideas that never got off the drawing board, for good reason. ADV Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0174: Text PrintPDF
0170 06/16/1996 THE ELEMENTS OF SMILE Why are these people smiling? CAR Text PrintPDF Ned Bent 0173: Text PrintPDF
0169 06/09/1996 DIFF'RENT JOKES Tell us the difference between any two of the provided items. DIF Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith 0172: Text PrintPDF
0168 06/02/1996 LICENSE TO CARRY A PUN Come up with original jokes like those provided. JOK Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0171: Text PrintPDF
0167 05/26/1996 CRAPSEY Resurrect the "cinquain," a long-deceased poetic form, poems so ickily precocious and pretentious they make haiku look like Kipling. There are five lines, the first containing two syllables, the second containing four syllables, the third six, the fourth eight and the last, with grave finality and thunderous drama, only two. Your subject matter must be suitable for the 1990s. POE Text PrintPDF Christine Tabbert 0170: Text PrintPDF
0166 05/19/1996 DOO WAH DOODY We are looking for really bad lyrics to real rock songs. Your lyrics must be from a reasonably popular song, and you must include the name of the singer or songwriter. POE MUS Text PrintPDF Carolyn Armstrong,
Dave Ferry,
Don Beale,
Jane Hanna,
Jessica Mathews,
Jessica Mathews,
Scott Barney,
Dean Meservy,
Arthur J. Murphy,
Sandy Tenenbaum,
Jeff Wadler,
Pam Wadler,
Steve Rouzer
0169: Text PrintPDF
0165 05/12/1996 WHEEL OF TORTURE Complete any of the provided "Wheel of Fortune" phrases. WOR Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0168: Text PrintPDF
0164 05/05/1996 MEAN MEANINGS Translate things politicians say into what they really mean. POL Text PrintPDF M. Schmidtman,
Tom Witte
0167: Text PrintPDF
0163 04/28/1996 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. HOR Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0166: Text PrintPDF
0162 04/21/1996 MAY WE HAVE YOUR PRETENSION, PLEASE? Come up with the most pretentious original sentence possible. LAN Text PrintPDF Tommy Litz 0165: Text PrintPDF
0161 04/14/1996 CAPITOL MISTAKES Come up with very, very bad advice for first-time visitors to Washington. WAS ADV Text PrintPDF Phil Plait 0164: Text PrintPDF
0160 04/07/1996 SEEKING WISE GUYS Come up with cool new bad-guy terms. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Moe Hammond 0163: Text PrintPDF
0159 03/31/1996 ODDBALLS Which item in each series does not belong? Explain your answer. ??? Text PrintPDF Christine Jackson 0162: Text PrintPDF
0158 03/24/1996 SO SUE US Come up with frivolous lawsuits. CUL Text PrintPDF Sue Lin Chong 0161: Text PrintPDF
0157 03/17/1996 WARNING SIGNS Complete any of these "you might be about to" warning sentences. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Stephen Breton 0160: Text PrintPDF
0156 03/10/1996 HYPHEN THE TERRIBLE Create new word by combining the first half of a hyphenated word with the second half of a hyphenated word. Both words must appear in the same story anywhere in today's Washington Post. Each entry must provide a definition for the newly created word. HYP WAS NEO Text PrintPDF Jean Sorensen 0159: Text PrintPDF
0155 03/03/1996 COMPARISON SHOPPING Explain the difference between any two of the above items. DIF Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0158: Text PrintPDF
0154 02/25/1996 ENTER LAUGHING Make up a knock-knock joke. The subject of the third line must be something crude, silly, or profound. JOK Text PrintPDF Kevin Cuddihy 0157: Text PrintPDF
0153 02/18/1996 STUMP US Complete this sentence, "I should be elected President of the United States because. . ." and launch your campaign. POL Text PrintPDF Dan Kravitz 0156: Text PrintPDF
0152 02/11/1996 WE ARE CURIOUS (YELLOW) Take any headline in today's Washington Post and rewrite it in tabloid fashion so the story seems a lot more scandalous and/or lurid than it is. HEA WAS CUL Text PrintPDF Mike Hammer 0155: Text PrintPDF
0151 02/04/1996 STRIP MINING Come up with a concept for a new, controversial strip to replace an existing one in The Post. COM WAS Text PrintPDF Fred Dawson 0154: Text PrintPDF
0150 01/28/1996 TRIAL BALLOONS What are the people saying? CAR Text PrintPDF Rahul Simha 0153: Text PrintPDF
0149 01/21/1996 O, NO! Come up with a palindrome, a line that reads the same backward and forward, and then use it as a punchline to a joke. WOR Text PrintPDF Dave Ferry 0152: Text PrintPDF
0148 01/14/1996 RORSCHACH OF THE CROWD IV Interpret these ink blots. ROR Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0151: Text PrintPDF
0147 01/07/1996 JUST FOR LIFFS Come up with original liffs, which identify a familiar, tantalizing concept without a word to define it, and pairs it with a perfectly good but underutilized word that just loafs around on maps and street signs. WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Dave Harstad 0150: Text PrintPDF
0146 12/31/1995 IT'S LIKE THIS Produce an A and B to complete the expression "A makes about as much sense as B. WOR ANL Text PrintPDF Alan Evans 0149: Text PrintPDF
0145 12/24/1995 LOOIE, LOOIE Come up with paired, themed ladies' room and men's room signs for various types of public places. CUL Text PrintPDF Susan Reese 0148: Text PrintPDF
0144 12/17/1995 JUST REBUS ALONE Come up with a rebus, a phrase or sentence composed of letters, pictures, and symbols. Your entry must contain at least two pictures or illustrations from today's Washington Post. WAS Text PrintPDF Jonathan Paul 0147: Text PrintPDF
0143 12/10/1995 IT'S MY PARODY (& I'LL TRY IF I WANT TO) Rewrite any common jingle or theme song in the style of famous writer. POE MUS Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith 0146: Text PrintPDF
0142 12/03/1995 EXHIBITING BAD TENDENCIES Come up with the winner of next year's Turner Prize, which says its aim is to expand ideas of what is art. ART Text PrintPDF Fred Dawson 0145: Text PrintPDF
0141 11/26/1995 ASK BACKWARD VII You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Mark Goldenberg 0144: Text PrintPDF
0140 11/19/1995 WHAT IF YOU GIVE IT A TRY? Come up with "What-If" scenarios and logical outcomes. HIS Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0143: Text PrintPDF
0139 11/12/1995 EMPLOYMENT LINES Come up with jobs that make even your crummy job seem good. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Virginia Maggi 0142: Text PrintPDF
0138 11/05/1995 LIST BUT NOT LEAST Come up with Top-10-style lists for any of the above four subjects. CUL Text PrintPDF Fred Dawson 0141: Text PrintPDF
0137 10/29/1995 VELVIS LIVES Come up with a title and/or art gallery blurb for this velvet Elvis painting. ART Text PrintPDF WebPDF John Rather 0140: Text PrintPDF
0136 10/22/1995 NEW END IN SIGHT Come up with new endings to make literary classics more suitable for Hollywood in the 1990s. MOV Text PrintPDF Jerry Podlesak 0139: Text PrintPDF
0135 10/15/1995 JERRY-BUILT SOLUTIONS Come up with Seinfeld-isms: whiny, quirky musings on little questions of life. ADV Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0138: Text PrintPDF
0134 10/08/1995 A SIMPLE CLERIHEW ERROR Revive clerihews. A clerihew is a biographical poem in four lines divided into two rhyming couplets. The rhyme scheme is aa bb. The first line of the clerihew must contain the name of the subject of the poem. The lines must be of disparate meter, the clunkier the better. POE Text PrintPDF Jerry Belenker 0137: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0133 10/01/1995 LIKE, WOW. Come up with funny analogies. ANL Text PrintPDF Michael Connaghan 0136: Text PrintPDF
0132 09/24/1995 GIVE US THE BACKS OFF OUR SHIRTS. What should our loser's T-shirt say on the back? Your goal is to somehow capture the spirit of the contest. TSH STY Text PrintPDF George C. Montgomery 0135: Text PrintPDF
0131 09/17/1995 DROODLEYSQUAT Come up with "droodles," simple geometric drawings with funny explanations. ART Text PrintPDF Sally Booher 0134: Text PrintPDF
0130 09/10/1995 NICELY STATED Create a fictional city to be humorously paired with a real state abbreviation. LOC Text PrintPDF Tommy Litz 0133: Text PrintPDF
0129 09/03/1995 REMAKE US HAPPY Come up with alternative story lines to movie titles, new or old. MOV Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith,
Tom Witte,
Sarah Worcester
0132: Text PrintPDF
0128 08/27/1995 LIKE, DUH Come up with snappy answers to stupid questions. JOK Text PrintPDF Phil Plait 0131: Text PrintPDF
0127 08/20/1995 GADGET IF YOU CAN Choose one or more of these devices and describe their use. CAR Text PrintPDF Kevin P. Riley 0130: Text PrintPDF
0126 08/13/1995 EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' What are these people, etc., saying or thinking? CAR Text PrintPDF Peyton Coyner 0129: Text PrintPDF
0125 08/06/1995 ASK BACKWARD VI You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0128: Text PrintPDF
0124 07/30/1995 SPOON-FEED US. Come up with spoonerisms, expressions based on the transposition of the initial sounds of two paired words. LET Text PrintPDF Steven Papier 0127: Text PrintPDF
0123 07/23/1995 WHY IS POOP FUNNY? Come up with creative answers to any of the five questions above that might be asked by a 5-year-old. ADV Text PrintPDF Jill Gross 0126: Text PrintPDF
0122 07/16/1995 THE UNKINDEST CUTE OF ALL Come up with a new story line for "Peanuts", some plot development or new character that will put the strip back on the road to relevance. COM Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0125: Text PrintPDF
0121 07/09/1995 IT'S NO USE Come up with useless products. BUS ADV Text PrintPDF Russell Beland 0124: Text PrintPDF
0120 07/02/1995 SIMILE OUTRAGEOUS Come up with inept analogies, rotten comparisons as a literary device. ANL Text PrintPDF Jeffrey Carl 0123: Text PrintPDF
0119 06/25/1995 MUZAK TO OUR EAR Come up with unfortunate Muzak songs to hear on the phone while on hold. You can use either a song title or a lyric. MUS POE Text PrintPDF Howard Tenenbaum 0122: Text PrintPDF
0118 06/18/1995 WEAK 118 Take any photo caption or headline appearing anywhere in today's Post and alter its meaning by adding, deleting, or changing one letter. CAP HEA WAS Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0121: Text PrintPDF
0117 06/11/1995 GIVE 'EM HELOISE Come up with a tribute to Heloise, that queen of inanely creative recycling. CUL Text PrintPDF Gene Van Pelt,
Peyton Coyner
0120: Text PrintPDF
0116 06/04/1995 WRITE PURE POETRY Write a complete sentence using only the letters contained on the top row of a typewriter. Alternatively, you can use the letters of the first four lines of the standard eye chart. LET Text PrintPDF Jennifer Hart 0119: Text PrintPDF
0115 05/28/1995 THE MNEMONIC PLAGUE Come up with new mnemonic devices to remember complicated lists. WOR Text PrintPDF Jacob Weinstein 0118: Text PrintPDF
0114 05/21/1995 THE JOKE'S ON YOU Come up with jokes to culminate in any of these six punch lines. JOK Text PrintPDF Russell Beland,
Jerry Pannullo,
Greg Arnold
0117: Text PrintPDF
0113 05/14/1995 WHAT KIND OF FOAL AM I? Take a list of horses nominated to the Triple Crown races this year, choose any two, and propose a name for their offspring. HOR Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0116: Text PrintPDF
0112 05/07/1995 POOP FICTION Come up with the opening lines of a book so bad it will compel you to stop reading immediately; maximum 50 words. LIT Text PrintPDF Kevin Mellema 0115: Text PrintPDF
0111 04/30/1995 ASK BACKWARDS V Here are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Tom Witte 0114: Text PrintPDF
0110 04/23/1995 DO NOT INHALE THIS PAGE Come up with absurd warning labels that might be found on common products. CUL BUS Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0113: Text PrintPDF
0109 04/16/1995 SEND US YOUR MAIL PARTS We're looking for funny examples of pidgin English that try to say one thing, but actually say something quite different. LAN Text PrintPDF Cissie Owen 0112: Text PrintPDF
0108 04/09/1995 NEAR MISSES Come up with the first drafts of great lines in history, entertainment or literature. HIS CUL LIT Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0111: Text PrintPDF
0107 04/02/1995 CLUSTERS' LAST STAND Take an actual star cluster, redraw the lines into a different image, and give it a new name. SCI Text PrintPDF David "Stockton" Smith,
Joseph Romm
0110: Text PrintPDF
0106 03/26/1995 DRAWING CONCLUSIONS Who are these people, and what are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Pete Clime 0109: Text PrintPDF
0105 03/19/1995 WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? Come up with Good Ideas and then convert them to Bad Ideas through slight changes in wording. WOR ADV Text PrintPDF Ira Moskowitz 0108: Text PrintPDF
0104 03/12/1995 HERE, DOGGEREL Create poems so bad they thud. The first line must be a name. The second line can be as long or as short as you wish. The third line must sound the same as the first line, using the name as a verb or some other part of speech. POE Text PrintPDF Jessica Mathews 0107: Text PrintPDF
0103 03/05/1995 SEND HELP. Come up with ways to raise some badly needed cash for the District of Columbia. WAS Text PrintPDF Jim Martin 0106: Text PrintPDF
0102 02/26/1995 HELP! I'M A PRISONER IN THIS CONTEST Come up with fortune cookie messages that you would love to see, but never will. ADV Text PrintPDF Jon Patrick Smith 0105: Text PrintPDF
0101 02/19/1995 [deliberately left blank] [deliberately left blank] Text PrintPDF Allan Grady 0104: Text PrintPDF
0100 02/12/1995 THE JOKE'S ON YOU Retell any of these jokes as they would be told by some celebrity, living or dead. JOK CUL Text PrintPDF Paul Kondis 0103: Text PrintPDF
0099 02/05/1995 WHAT'S WRONG WITH THESE PICTURES? What's wrong with these pictures? CAR Text PrintPDF George Wills 0102: Text PrintPDF
0098 01/29/1995 YOUR CHEATIN' ART Come up with titles for country music songs featuring any one or more of the following themes: cheatin', thievin', drinkin', truckin', lovin' or dogs. MUS Text PrintPDF Anthony Roisman,
Lois Roisman
0101: Text PrintPDF
0097 01/22/1995 NEWTONIAN PHILOSOPHY Come up with more Newt Gingrich philosophy to explain the differences between men and women, Democrats and Republicans, dogs and cats, whatever needs explaining. POL Text PrintPDF Greg Arnold 0100: Text PrintPDF
0096 01/15/1995 STICK IT IN YOUR ERA Come up with a catch phrase for the 1990s. CUL SLO Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0099: Text PrintPDF
0095 01/08/1995 HOW'S THAT AGAIN? Take any headline appearing anywhere in The Post this week and completely rewrite the first lines of the story to put a different, unintended spin on it. HEA Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0098: Text PrintPDF
0094 01/01/1995 WEEKS 1-93 Come up with a great answer to any previous Style Invitational contest, an answer you may have thought of after the contest was over. PRE Text PrintPDF Gary McKethan 0097: Text PrintPDF
0093 12/25/1994 I WANT THE MONGOOSE Tell us, in 50 words or fewer, why you must have this elegant piece of taxidermy featuring a snake being killed by a mongoose. STY ART Text PrintPDF Judith Daniel 0096: Text PrintPDF
0092 12/18/1994 PLOTBOILERS Tell us what excerpts from celebrities' novels might look like. LIT Text PrintPDF Robert Pack 0095: Text PrintPDF
0091 12/11/1994 ASK BACKWARD IV You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0094: Text PrintPDF
0090 12/04/1994 BILL US NOW Come up with funny legislation based on the names of the 102 freshman congresspersons. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Jerry Pohl 0093: Text PrintPDF
0089 11/27/1994 CHILD'S PLAY Come up with bad ideas for new toys for the Christmas season. CUL ADV Text PrintPDF Paul A. Alter 0092: Text PrintPDF
0088 11/20/1994 GIVE US SOME GOOD NEWS Come up with ways things are going to be different now that Republicans have ascended to power. POL Text PrintPDF Arthur Adams 0091: Text PrintPDF
0087 11/13/1994 WEST EASY, ANN Come up with good things about West Virginia, in 50 words or fewer. LOC Text PrintPDF WebPDF Dave Zarrow 0090: Text PrintPDF
0086 11/06/1994 EXCUSES, EXCUSES Come up with funny excuses for various malfeasances. ADV Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0089: Text PrintPDF
0085 10/30/1994 PLAY MYTHTY FOR ME Come up with new urban myths, those vaguely believable, wildly paranoid stories that circulate by word of mouth until they are generally accepted as true. CUL Text PrintPDF Ben Lea 0088: Text PrintPDF
0084 10/23/1994 THE WASHINGTON IRVINGS Come up with creative names for the high school football teams of real towns in America. ATH LOC Text PrintPDF Karla J. Dickinson 0087: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0083 10/16/1994 BEDROOM FARCE What questions were left out of the Great American Sex Survey? CUL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Robb Mathews 0086: Text PrintPDF
0082 10/09/1994 PICTURE THIS Who are these people, and what are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0085: Text PrintPDF
0081 10/02/1994 HEADS, YOU LOSE Take any two or more headlines anywhere in today's Washington Post, and combine them to make a funnier headline. HEA WAS Text PrintPDF Dave Zarrow 0084: Text PrintPDF
0080 09/25/1994 NICK KNACKS Come up with a great nickname for any contemporary celebrity. CUL Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0083: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0079 09/18/1994 TERROR-DACTYL Send us a double dactyl. The first line must be a nonsense phrase of five to seven syllables containing exactly two downbeats. The second line must be a name, in five to seven syllables but only two downbeats. The remaining six lines must contain four to seven syllables and two downbeats each, with Lines 4 and 8 rhyming. Somewhere in the poem, one line must consist of only one word. POE Text PrintPDF Kitty Thuermer 0082: Text PrintPDF
0078 09/11/1994 SEEKING SMART MORONS Come up with an oxymoron for our times, an expression made bogus by the fact that it combines incompatible, contradictory ideas. WOR Text PrintPDF Jessica Mathews,
L. Woodall
0081: Text PrintPDF
0077 09/04/1994 THE RORSCHACH OF THE CROWD II What do these ink blots mean? ROR Text PrintPDF Dennis Goris 0080: Text PrintPDF
0076 08/07/1994 ADIOS. Tell us, in 40 words or fewer, what is great about August in Washington. It's August, and we're out of here. WAS Text PrintPDF Sue Witner 0079: Text PrintPDF
0075 07/31/1994 CURSES! Come up with modern maledictions in the wise and entertaining Yiddish tradition. LAN Text PrintPDF Joseph Romm 0078: Text PrintPDF
0074 07/24/1994 SHIRT HAPPENS In 10 words or fewer, what should the back of the "Year 2" T-shirt say? TSH STY Text PrintPDF Cindi Rae Caron 0077: Text PrintPDF
0073 07/17/1994 LUNACY Tell us what Neil Armstrong should have said upon stepping onto the moon's surface, instead of what he did, the greatest gaffe in the history of Historic Sayings. HIS Text PrintPDF Stuart Segal 0076: Text PrintPDF
0072 07/10/1994 OH, HELL Come up with the perfect vision of Hell for a famous person, living or dead. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Jackson Bross 0075: Text PrintPDF
0071 07/03/1994 CAPTION CRUNCH III Come up with a new, funnier caption for any picture or illustration anywhere in today's newspaper. CAP WAS Text PrintPDF Richard E. Brock,
Ellen Meyerson
0074: Text PrintPDF
0070 06/26/1994 SOUNDS LIKE A BAD IDEA Come up with jokes based on noises. JOK Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0073: Text PrintPDF
0069 06/19/1994 LAYING DOWN THE LAW Send us some exciting new principles that explain why things happen they way they happen. SCI Text PrintPDF Pat Scully 0072: Text PrintPDF
0068 06/12/1994 GIVE US A SIGN Come up with new astrological signs for the 1990s, together with one day's horoscope. CUL Text PrintPDF Christie Houser 0071: Text PrintPDF
0067 06/05/1994 FAMOUS LAST WORDS Make up the last words of famous dead people whose last words are unknown. EPI CUL POL Text PrintPDF WebPDF Peyton Coyner 0070: Text PrintPDF
0066 05/29/1994 THE SON-OF-SMITH LAW In 50 words or fewer, what do we do about the Chuck Smith problem? STY Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0069: Text PrintPDF
0065 05/22/1994 DESPERATELY SEEKING HUMOR Write a personal ad. It may be for a celebrity or for anyone in need of adroit euphemism. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF Nick Dierman 0068: Text PrintPDF
0063 05/15/1994 BAD ABOUT YOU Come up with a lame idea for a Style Invitational contest, an idea destined to create unfunny results. STY Text PrintPDF Elden Carnahan 0067: Text PrintPDF WebPDF
0062 05/08/1994 BAD NEWS BEARERS Come up with statements one would not want to hear from friends, relatives, service personnel, etc. CUL Text PrintPDF Sarah Worcester 0066: Text PrintPDF
0061 05/01/1994 NO HARD FEELINGS Fill in the balloons in these cheerful farewell panels drawn by Marc Rosenthal, the Style Invitational artist who is being replaced by Bob Staake. CAR Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0065: Text PrintPDF
0060 04/24/1994 ASK BACKWARDS III You are on "Jeopardy!" These are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Bruce Evans 0063: Text PrintPDF
0059 04/17/1994 A GRAVE AFFAIR Write appropriate epitaphs for the not-yet-dead. EPI Text PrintPDF Ira P. Robbins 0062: Text PrintPDF
0058 04/10/1994 PLAY IT AGAIN, DENZEL Bring Casablanca into the 1990s. Write the opening of a plot outline, in 120 words or fewer. MOV Text PrintPDF David Laughton 0061: Text PrintPDF
0057 04/03/1994 CALLING THE TOON Who are these people, and what are they doing? CAR CAP Text PrintPDF Peyton Coyner 0060: Text PrintPDF
0056 03/27/1994 DO THE HOOKY POKEY Come up with inventive ways to call in sick or otherwise persuade your employer you must miss a day. ADV Text PrintPDF E.J. Wassmer 0059: Text PrintPDF
0055 03/20/1994 ESCAPE CLAUSES Send us self-serving moral loopholes through which the enterprising 1990s transgressor can crawl. ADV Text PrintPDF Helen Sheingorn 0058: Text PrintPDF
0054 03/13/1994 ODD COUPLING Write comical combinations of famous names, by marriage or other conceit. CUL Text PrintPDF Paul Sabourin 0057: Text PrintPDF
0053 03/06/1994 CRUEL FETE Tell us how the Invitational has changed America. STY Text PrintPDF Paul Kondis 0056: Text PrintPDF
0052 02/27/1994 PERJURED TESTIMONIALS Come up with inappropriate celebrity endorsements for real products. BUS CUL Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0055: Text PrintPDF
0051 02/20/1994 CAPTION CRUNCH, VOL. II Supply captions for any of these pictures. CAP Text PrintPDF Paul Kondis 0054: Text PrintPDF
0050 02/13/1994 GIVE US THIS DAY There are no holidays between Presidents' Day and Memorial Day, a cheerless run of more than three months. Let's stick one in there, somewhere. The holiday should celebrate something or someone uniquely American. Tell us the date, the name of the holiday and how it should be observed. CUL Text PrintPDF Laura M. Clairmont 0053: Text PrintPDF
0049 02/06/1994 A SLALOM OCCASION Come up with events for a Washington Olympics. They can be winter or summer sports, based on bureaucracy or other themes peculiar to Washington, and must include a brief description of the event. WAS ATH Text PrintPDF Paul Styrene 0052: Text PrintPDF
0048 01/30/1994 SNIVEL WAR Beg for the coveted Style Invitational T-shirts. TSH STY Text PrintPDF Daniel Riley 0051: Text PrintPDF
0047 01/23/1994 CAN YOU DO VERSE? Bad Valentine's Day poetry. Any rhyme scheme, any form of literary dysfunction. POE Text PrintPDF Michael Paulkovich 0050: Text PrintPDF
0046 01/16/1994 WE WANT STUPID ENTRIES ONLY Make up a sentence that, were it not for this contest, would never be uttered. STY LAN Text PrintPDF Thomas Edward Knibb 0049: Text PrintPDF
0045 01/09/1994 INVITATION TO A DUAL, II. Deliver us a Good News-Bad News scenario. CUL Text PrintPDF Linda K. Malcolm 0048: Text PrintPDF
0044 01/02/1994 ADVERB PUBLICITY Write us a Tom Swiftly or two, updated for the '90s. Each must include a reference to a famous person or institution. WOR CUL Text PrintPDF Mrs. Airey's English class 0047: Text PrintPDF
0043 12/26/1993 GOOD LORD! What does God look like? REL Text PrintPDF Tom Gearty 0046: Text PrintPDF
0042 12/19/1993 HEY, IT COULD BE WORSE There are worse things in life than the Washington Redskins. Just tell us what they are. WAS Text PrintPDF Mike Thring 0045: Text PrintPDF
0041 12/12/1993 READ-END COLLUSION Design a Style Invitational bumper sticker to be awarded to all Honorable Mentions. BUM STY Text PrintPDF Stephen Dudzik 0044: Text PrintPDF
0040 12/05/1993 NOT WRONG. JUST INCORRECT. What's next on the political correctness agenda? CUL Text PrintPDF Steven King 0043: Text PrintPDF
0039 11/28/1993 WAY OUTSIDE THE LINES Name a new crayon color for the 1990s, with a description. CUL Text PrintPDF Paul Styrene 0042: Text PrintPDF
0038 11/21/1993 ASK BACKWARDS II You are on "Jeopardy!" Here are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Tom Meyer 0041: Text PrintPDF
0037 11/14/1993 A STATE OF DISGRACE? Propose any of the following for D.C.: A State Name, A State Flower, A State Bird, A State Slogan, A State Capital, A Governor, An Insulting State Joke. WAS Text PrintPDF Peggy Hyde,
Gene Lawhun
0040: Text PrintPDF
0036 11/07/1993 SCAM ON WRY Come up with a prank you can play, for fun, profit, or deliverance of a well-needed comeuppance. ADV Text PrintPDF Kirby Lamb 0039: Text PrintPDF
0035 10/31/1993 LIGHT AT THE END? Tell the federal government what it should do with the 14-mile-long, 15-foot-diameter sausage-shaped tunnel it dug near Waxahachie, Tex., for the Superconducting Super Collider project that was scrapped by Congress last week. POL Text PrintPDF Michael Sweet 0038: Text PrintPDF
0034 10/24/1993 INSPECT A GADGET What do these machines do? CAR BUS Text PrintPDF Reef family 0037: Text PrintPDF
0033 10/17/1993 POST IMPRESSIONISM Give us the opening lines of a big story from American history as it might have been written by someone whose work appears in The Washington Post. Maximum 100 words. You must choose one of three news stories: "Lincoln Assassinated," "Stock Market Crashes" or "Man Walks on Moon. HIS WAS Text PrintPDF Stephen Licht 0036: Text PrintPDF
0032 10/10/1993 FATAL ART ATTACK In 50 words or fewer, describe a performance art concept that might get public funding. Winners will be audacious enough to seem like art, but pretentious enough to seem to have a social "message. ART Text PrintPDF Tom Gearty 0035: Text PrintPDF
0031 10/03/1993 INVITATION TO A DUAL Divide the world into two types of people. CUL Text PrintPDF Chris Rooney 0034: Text PrintPDF
0030 09/26/1993 THE RORSCHACH OF THE CROWD Interpret any of the provided ink blots. ROR Text PrintPDF Steven King 0033: Text PrintPDF
0029 09/19/1993 AD NAUSEAM Come up with an unfortunate slogan for any real product, service, or organization. SLO Text PrintPDF Tom Gearty 0032: Text PrintPDF
0028 09/12/1993 MOTHERS-IN-LAW OF INVENTION Propose some drastic change in government to help the economy or otherwise improve the quality of life in America. POL Text PrintPDF E. Gaston 0031: Text PrintPDF
0027 09/05/1993 IT'S THE EPONYMY, STUPID Coin an eponym, a word or figure of speech based on the name of a famous person. You must define the word, and, if you wish, use it in a sentence. CUL WOR NEO Text PrintPDF Sharon Kuykendall 0030: Text PrintPDF
0026 08/29/1993 CASTING ABOUT FOR AN IDEA Name a political person (past or present) and the TV or movie role in which he or she could have been cast. MOV POL TEL Text PrintPDF John Mazza 0029: Text PrintPDF
0025 08/22/1993 CAPTION CRUNCH Write a caption for any of these photos. CAP Text PrintPDF Fritz Stolzenback 0028: Text PrintPDF
0024 08/15/1993 ASK BACKWARDS You are on "Jeopardy!" Those are the answers. What are the questions? JEO Text PrintPDF Jacob Weinstein 0027: Text PrintPDF
0023 08/08/1993 HAPPY ENDINGS Modernize an old quote or expression by altering its ending. CUL Text PrintPDF Pamela Zilly 0026: Text PrintPDF
0022 08/01/1993 STUMP US Come up with slogans for the 1996 presidential campaign. POL SLO Text PrintPDF R. Sharp 0025: Text PrintPDF
0021 07/25/1993 A SO-SO CONTEST Describe somebody--or something--through exaggerated comparison. ANL Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0024: Text PrintPDF
0020 07/18/1993 COMIC RELIEF Rewrite 60-year-old cartoons, filling in your own balloons, to make them funnier and more timely. CAR COM Text PrintPDF Tom Gearty 0023: Text PrintPDF
0019 07/11/1993 A RECYCLED IDEA THAT WAS NONE TOO GOOD TO BEGIN WITH Alter a well-known phrase or name by deleting, adding or changing only one letter, and then supply a definition for what results. LET WOR CAL NEO Text PrintPDF Joseph H. Engel,
David J. Zvijac
0022: Text PrintPDF
0018 07/04/1993 PUNCH US IN THE EAR Give us a motto for The Washington Post. WAS Text PrintPDF Susan Wenger 0021: Text PrintPDF
0017 06/27/1993 REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM Come up with an easy way to reduce the federal deficit, in 20 words or fewer. POL Text PrintPDF Steven King 0020: Text PrintPDF
0016 06/20/1993 I AM ADDICTED TO AN ASININE CONTEST. . . Come up with sleazy new topics for the daytime talks. CUL Text PrintPDF Kitty Thuermer,
Mike Tidwell
0019: Text PrintPDF
0015 06/13/1993 PUNCH US Complete any of the provided jokes in 75 words or fewer. JOK Text PrintPDF Dan Thomas 0018: Text PrintPDF
0014 06/06/1993 COLLECTIVE INSANITY Modernize collective nouns (as in a "pride" of lions or an "exaltation" of larks), inventing snide new names for groups of things. WOR Text PrintPDF Stuart Segal 0017: Text PrintPDF
0013 05/30/1993 ANAGRAMS = A MAN'S RAG Come up with a funny anagram for the name of a famous person or institution. All letters in the name must be used, and no letters may be left over. ANA POL Text PrintPDF John Hughes-Hasle,
Donna Hughes-Hasle
0016: Text PrintPDF
0012 05/23/1993 HERE, DOGGEREL . . . Write a limerick. It must contain one of the following names: "Hillary Rodham Clinton," "Jack Kevorkian," "George Stephanopoulos" or "Bosnia-Herzegovina. LIM POE Text PrintPDF Jimmy Nguyen 0015: Text PrintPDF
0011 05/16/1993 YOU GIVE US THE BACKS OFF OUR SHIRTS The back of the shirt needs a slogan, something that captures the spirit of The Style Invitational. What is that spirit? You tell us. TSH STY SLO Text PrintPDF Mary Pat Jones,
Mary Pat Jones
0014: Text PrintPDF
0010 05/09/1993 A WEEK THAT WILL LIVE IN EUPHEMY Write us a funny euphemism. WOR Text PrintPDF Erik Johnson 0013: Text PrintPDF
0009 05/02/1993 VANITY UNFAIR Create vanity license plates for famous people. CUL POL Text PrintPDF Don Beale 0012: Text PrintPDF
0008 04/25/1993 I AM SPURIOUS (YELLOW) Write a headline for the Weekly World News (Maximum length, 10 words) HEA Text PrintPDF Byron Baker 0011: Text PrintPDF
0007 04/18/1993 BEAT THE BANDS Come up with a name for rock bands. CUL MUS Text PrintPDF Beverley Brown 0010: Text PrintPDF
0006 04/11/1993 PUTTING WORDS IN THEIR MOUTHS In 40 words or less, write a caption for either of these two generic cartoons drawn by famed Style Invitational artist Marc Rosenthal. CAP CAR Text PrintPDF Chuck Smith 0009: Text PrintPDF
0005 04/04/1993 THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW Invent a creative piece of legislation based on skillfully juxtaposed names of actual U.S. senators and representatives. LEG POL Text PrintPDF Carol Vance,
Jacki Drucker
0007: Text PrintPDF
0008: Text PrintPDF
0004 03/28/1993 [untitled] This week, a gripe-fest about modernity and other irritations. Complete this sentence: "If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we ... CUL Text PrintPDF Geri Klitsch,
Tom Klitsch,
Heidi Klitsch
0006: Text PrintPDF
0003 03/21/1993 A STATUE OF LIMITATIONS Come up with a concept for a statue of someone -- anyone, dead or alive -- who doesn't currently have one. POL CUL Text PrintPDF Bob Zane 0005: Text PrintPDF
0002 03/14/1993 WRITE A MOTTO. WIN A MONSTROSITY. Maryland needs a new motto, a multi-purpose slogan suitable for placement on a state seal or a license plate. Something grand, something that embodies the full bodacious majesty of the state. SLO LOC Text PrintPDF Oslo 0004: Text PrintPDF
0001 03/07/1993 SHEDDING THE SKINS? Come up with a new name for the Redskins. WAS ATH Text PrintPDF Douglas R. Miller 0003: Text PrintPDF