Style Invitational Week 1470: Your add here -- of a 'prefix' to a name or phrase
And we do not regret this week's winning and Losing 'corrections' from Week 1466
Rosebud Light, by Bob Staake for The Washington Post
If you’re not yet getting this newsletter by email (or if you got dropped because you didn’t expressly opt in since we moved over to Substack): By all means …
RoseBUD LIGHT: Xanadu microbrew.
toGAS FOOD LODGING: Last exit on the Appian Way.
This week The Style Invitational steals from pays tribute to its direct inspiration, the beloved New York Magazine Competition (1969-2000), by redoing this contest from 1995: For Week 1470, 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 a well-known phrase, name, book title, etc., and describe the result. Deadline is Monday night, Jan. 17. If you come in exactly second, you win a cute plushy toy of a vial of covid-19 vaccine.
And we don’t regret in the least that we have the results of our contest for faux corrections in a newspaper or magazine. Like this honorable mention: “A recent review of a new brewery in Bethesda reported that its beer is ‘poured in pants.’ The correct word is ‘pints.’”
In my weekly supplementary column, The Style Conversational, I talk about the results of the corrections contest, what worked and didn’t. And I share the results of the NYM contest — as well as a jaw-dropping revelation about it that I just learned. And there’s an invitation to the Jan. 22 Loser Post-Holiday Party (proof of booster required).
LINKS TO …
This week's Invitational column, Week 1470, and results of Week 1466
No-paywall entry form for Week 1470
This week’s Style Conversational column
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Jan. 10: It’s our annual obit poem contest — write a short, humorous poem about someone who died in 2021. See Week 1469 here; see the no-paywall 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 18 episodes at bit.ly/invite-podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
— 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.