Style Invitational Week 1515: Munich-ipals
A while back we paired U.S. cities in 'joint ventures.' Now we take on Europe.
The Morón (Spain)-Lost (Germany) Election Denial Center
Cartoon 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 …
The Chester-Brest Any-Gender Bra (England, France)
The Essen-Emmen “Adult Activity” Center (Germany, Netherlands)
The Brighton-Erle Alarm Clock Works Ltd. (England, Germany)
Ten weeks ago the Empress sent the Loser Community on a search through U.S. maps in a contest to supply two or more town names and a wordplay “joint venture” (e.g., Jon Gearhart’s “Iowa-Latta-Green Student Loan Forgiveness Program, from towns in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Ohio). (Results here.)
Now we’re crossing the pond: In Style Invitational Week 1515, Choose any two or more towns from the 51 countries in Europe/Eurasia and come up with a joint endeavor the “sister cities” would undertake, as in the examples above. Deadline Monday night, Nov. 28.
And we have dozens of super-clever winning “air quotes,” with their revealing words-in-words. Like:
Fist“ICU”ffs: Why it’s not the best idea to confront the guy who took your parking space.
“Ma”rtyrdom: “You never call.” “Where have I failed?” “What did I do to deserve this?”
Fir“ST D”ate: I’ll remember this night forever.
In my supplementary column The Style Conversational, I give some tips on how this week’s contest will differ from the first one. I also tell about the genesis of this week’s winning air quote, “RSV”P (warning, adorable baby photo ahead!), and I tell about what kinds of air quotes didn’t get ink this week — including a few that would never have passed the Taste Police.
LINKS TO …
This week’s Invitational column, Week 1515, with the results of Week 1511
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 1515 (we launch a new form! oboyoboy)
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Nov. 21:
Week 1514, our annual “Ask Backwards” contest in which we give you the answers — including Cat Toothpaste and A Blue Check — and you tell us the questions. (Paywall-free entry form for Week 1514)
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.