Style Invitational Week 1513: Our unsentiments exactly
Write "greeting card" verse for an un-greeting-card occasion. Plus movie-title mashes!
Cartoon and “greeting card verse” by Bob Staake for The Washington Post — a longtime Hallmark freelancer
So they’re putting your house on TV
On that show that so many will see!
Though we’re not sure congrats are in order,
Since the neighbors will know you’re a hoarder.
—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 …
Here’s a contest we haven’t done since prehistoric 2003: For Style Invitational Week 1513, come up with a greeting card rhyme for an un-greeting-card occasion. The occasions getting ink 19 years ago included having plastic surgery, getting a subpoena, having a Hummer booted and being traded to the Wizards. What occasions should we “celebrate” in singsong rhyme in 2022?
And we have a director’s cut of combinations of one-word movie titles to make another movie, the results of Week 1509. The best of the 2,200 entries submitted include:
Booksmart Rocky: “Greetings and Salutations, Adrian!”
Flipper Babe: The Little Mermaid has a punky new persona in this Disney remake.
1984 Bananas: Carmen Miranda wears her most outrageous hat ever.
In my supplementary column The Style Conversational, I share the results of that 2003 contest — along with those from a similar contest from 2006, in which I offer a mea culpa for a couple of shockingly tasteless entries that I’d never run today.
LINKS TO …
This week’s Invitational column, Week 1513, with the results of Week 1509
The same column for non-subscribers (but do sign up — there are always great promotions going on!)
This week’s Style Conversational column
The Convo for non-subscribers
Paywall-free entry form for Week 1513
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Nov. 7:
Week 1512, our contest to write something with 26 words — and they all have to start with different letters. Paywall-free entry form for Week 1512)
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. Follow 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.