Style Invitational Week 1499: Picture This -- a Bob Staake cartoon caption contest
Plus bonus ink from five previous (and very different) contests
(Cartoons by Bob Staake for The Washington Post)
—If you’re not yet getting this free newsletter by email (or if you got dropped because you didn’t expressly opt in since we moved over to Substack): By all means …
(We’re coming to you this week earlier in the day than usual — that much more time to ponder those cartoons, and to wonder if Bob Staake ever took French in middle school)
As he has so many times for The Style Invitational over the past 28 years, cartoonist Bob Staake offers up four cryptic cartoons for your captioning pleasure. For Week 1499, choose any of them or each of them — you may send as many as 25 entries in all. Deadline is Monday night, Aug. 8.
And because there wasn’t a new contest four weeks ago, this week the Empress samples bonus ink from five recent, varied contests:
— Rearrange the words in a movie title and describe the new film (e.g., French the Connection: The tragic tale of the brief apprenticeship of a young electrician)
— Write song parodies about current events (two about Putin)
— Add one letter to a word or phrase (once or in several places) and define the result (Abysmale: Your doofus brother-in-law)
— Offer some right-leaning humor, to counter the pronounced leftward tilt of many Invite entries (What’s the difference between a conservative and a liberal? A: a conservative believes in the school of life; a liberal believes in spending one’s life in school)
— Write a feghoot — a wacky mini-story ending in a groaner pun (like the one about the Israelite got sick to his stomach after eating too much manna)
The Empress is off on a few days’ vacation with 10 Style Invitational types — it’s called Loserfest and this time it’s in Niagara Falls — and so there’s no Style Conversational column this week. Come back next Thursday, pleez.
——
LINKS TO …
This week’s Invitational column, Week 1499, with bonus results from Weeks 1989-93
The same column for non-subscribers (but do sign up — there are always great promotions going on!)
No Style Conversational column this week!
Paywall-free entry form for Week 1499
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Aug. 1: In Week 1498, write a short (8 lines or fewer), witty poem in which you pretend that a word has a different meaning from its real one(s) — as in the example, which uses “debunk” to mean “take away the bunk beds.” Paywall-free entry form for Week 1498.
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 have two seasons’ worth 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.