Style Invitational Week 1516: Questionable Journalism
Choose any sentence in something published Nov. 23-Dec. 5 and write a funny question it could answer. Plus 26 words starting with 26 different letters.
A. “I hadn’t seen that kind of positivity in a while. It was really cool.” (Quote in a Washington Post article)
Q. Why were you rubbing balloons all over the cat? (Frank Osen)
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 …
A. “We’re working our way happily and steadily through the process of production.” (Post article)
Q. What did the mechanical engineer reply when his mother-in-law said, “We hope you’ll soon make us proud grandparents”? (Cathy Lamaze)
We’re here a day early, as we are every Thanksgiving weekend, and this time we’re back with a contest we’ve had lots of fun with over the years: Choose any sentence (or the major part of a sentence) from any publication dated Nov. 23-Dec. 5 and invent a question it could answer, as in the examples above from previous Questionable Journalism contests. Deadline for Style Invitational Week 1516 is Monday night, Dec. 5.
And we have amazingly clever (well, not amazing for our people) 26-word passages in which every word starts with a different letter. Like this runner-up from orchestral musician Jonathan Jensen:
Conductor in rehearsal: “Violins, you’re scratchy and flat! Trombones — don’t bray like mating zebras! Kettledrums, what extraordinarily horrendous noise! Xylophone: unbelievably grotesque — just quit! Otherwise — perfect.”
In my supplementary column The Style Conversational, I give some tips on our Questionable Journalism contest along with classic entries from the past. And I share a bunch of awfully clever 26-worders about the Invite and its imperious little showrunner, the Empress. (And — only if you like that kind of thing — at the bottom of the column I share a few entries that wouldn’t pass even the Invitational’s taste test. If you don’t like that kind of thing, stop where I wish you a happy Thanksgiving.)
LINKS TO …
This week’s Invitational column, Week 1516, with the results of Week 1512
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 1516
Still running -- deadline Monday night, Nov. 28:
Week 1515, our wordplay contest to pair the names of two cities in Europe and offer a funny ‘joint venture” they might undertake, like the Chester-Brest Any-Gender Bra. (Paywall-free entry form for Week 1515)
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.