Special announcement about the newsletter! Plus: Ken Jennings tells us his fave Invite entries
The "Jeopardy!" GOAT weighs in on our Jeoppy Ask Backwards questions. Plus a contest for eponyms.
ATTENTION! SUPER-IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT HERE! This newsletter is coming to you from a new platform, Substack. Unless you just signed up in the past day, you’re on my email list because you were on my previous one.
IF YOU GOT THIS AS AN EMAIL AND DON’T WANT THESE EMAILS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW RIGHT HERE so I can take you off the list; just reply to this email and write “Unsubscribe,” “Get out of my life,” whatever — I’ll be the one reading it, not a machine.
AND IF YOU DO (and I hope you do): Please also reply to let me know you’re all opted in — and the read below about our new contest and results.
Not subscribed yet? Here you are! You should get your first newsletter next Thursday. It just asks you for your email address.
. — Thanks and all the hugs,
Pat Myers, Empress of The Style Invitational
Cartoon by Bob Staake for The Washington Post
DISPUTIN, v.: To invite a one-way ticket to the gulag.
SNYDER, adj.: More miserly. “I never met a guy who was snyder with a dollar than your uncle.”
It's a contest we haven't done since 2010 (but the old entries above are still, alas, timely). This week: Coin an epoynm -- a word or term based on the name of a well-known person, real or fictional. Deadline for Week 1461 is Monday night, Nov. 15.
And don't say we don't get down and dirty with GOATs: "Jeopardy!" legend -- and now host -- Ken Jennings names his favorite inking questions for our four Jeoppy "answers" in this year's Ask Backwards contest. Like:
A. Spinal Jeopardy.
Q. On what show does the prize money only go to $11?
In my online supplementary column, The Style Conversational, I look back at the right-from-the-headlines eponyms from our 2006 and 2010 contests: Will we even get the references now? And I invite you -- YOU PERSONALLY -- to the next Loser brunch, Nov. 14 at the Indian restaurant Aditi in Alexandria, Va.
LINKS TO …
This week's Invitational column, Week 1461, and results of Week 1457:
This week's Conversational
No-paywall entry form for Week 1461
Two more contests still running -- deadline for both is Monday night, Nov. 8:
-- Our contest to write a funny song with lyrics in the first person, set to a familiar tune or (if you make your own video) to your own melody. See Week 1459 here; see the entry form here.
-- Our contest to write a short, funny poem featuring any of three dozen words, phrases and meanings that have been newly added to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, including "amirite," "dad bod" and "fluffernutter." See Week 1460 here; see the entry form here.
More ways to enjoy The Style Invitational and be part of the Loser Community:
Join the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook and the Devs will anagram your name every which way.
Also on Facebook, the Style Invitational Ink of the Day page presents one classic entry as a colorful graphic that's easy to share. "Like" the page to get it regularly on your news feed, or to scroll through the archives. bit.ly/inkofday.
And we're now on Season 2 of the You're Invited podcast, half-hour episodes with host Mike Gips and various Invite luminaries. Catch all 17 episodes at bit.ly/invite-podcast or on most podcast platforms.
— Pat Myers, Empress of The Style Invitational, pat.myers@washpost.com (or just reply to this email)
*That's Loser with a capital L; named for the runner-up prizes emblazoned "LOSER," the community of regular Style Invitational entrants now proudly calls itself the Losers. If you enter the Invite, you're a Genuine Loser. But not (necessarily) a loser.