Style Invitational Week 1502: It's hi- time for Limerixicon XIX
Our annual contest for limericks featuring words from one sliver of the dictionary
(Limerick and cartoon by Bob Staake for The Washington Post)
My doorman will never say HI.
He won’t even look in my eye.
Why’s he wishing me dead?
Was it something I said?
(Hm, my anti-tip stance could be why ...)
—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 …
As we have every August since 2004, we check in on OEDILF.com, home of the quest to create a full English dictionary with every entry in limerick form, one letter at a time. In our 19th sliver of the dictionary, we’ve reached the middle of the H’s. For Week 1502: Supply a humorous, previously unpublished limerick significantly featuring any word, name or term beginning with “hi-.” By “significantly,” we mean that “him” or “his” won’t count as the word unless your limerick focused on that word — if it were about gender, or using pronouns, for example. Deadline is Monday night, Aug. 29.
And check out my guide “Get Your ’Rick Rolling” for the Invite’s fairly strict rules on limerick rhyme and meter.
We have po’ etry coming and going this week: The contest whose results run today was for poems that use a word in a meaning it doesn’t really have — like this one by Mark Raffman:
The former prez, with snarling face,
Said, “Who would bother trying?
The press can’t shake my foil-hat base,
Which laps up my relying.”
Finally, in my supplementary column The Style Conversational I share some classic limericks and talk about this week’s results. And I also share — in multiple views — one of our most classic prizes, The World’s Ugliest Painting.
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LINKS TO …
This week’s Invitational column, Week 1502, with the results of Week 1498
The same column for non-subscribers (but do sign up — there are always great promotions going on!)
The guide to writing limericks (for non-subscribers; the regular link is above)
This week’s Style Conversational column
Paywall-free entry form for Week 1502
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Aug. 22: Week 1501 is our contest for totally unhelpful “acts of kindness.” Paywall-free entry form for Week 1501
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.