Style Invitational Week 953: Clue Us In, the backward crossword; plus the winning analogies

It’s another of our backward-crosswords: We give you the filled-in grid to a puzzle that’s already run in The Post — this one’s by Bob Klahn of the CrosSynergy syndicate — and you come up with creative, funny clues for the words and multi-word terms in the grid. We left the numbers out so we could make the letters bigger in the print paper; you don’t need them, anyway. (Here’s a link to this week’s printable grid.) Our usual limit of 25 entries per person remains in effect. The clues should be very brief but don’t have to be quite as short as required for a real crossword. Here’s a link to the results of the last backward crossword we did.

Winner gets the Inker, the official Style Invitational trophy. Second place receives a double prize of two sets of playing cards: from Jeff Contompasis, Tupac cards featuring photos of “one of the best-selling hip-hop artist of all time,” and — all the way from England courtesy of Ann Martin — Plop Trumps, “50 stunning photos of poo like you’ve never seen before.” (See the photo below of one of the less gross cards in the poop deck.)

The Style Invitational

The Style Invitational is The Post’s weekly humor/wordplay contest, serving up since 1993 an irreverent mix of highbrow and lowbrow -- haughty and potty -- in genres ranging from neologisms to cartoon captions to elaborate song parodies. A new contest appears at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational every Friday.

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One of the cards from Plop Trumps, part of this week’s second prize.

Other runners-up win their choice of a coveted Style Invitational Loser T-shirt or yearned-for Loser Mug. Honorable mentions get a lusted-after Loser magnet. First Offenders get a tree-shaped air “freshener” (FirStink for their first ink). E-mail entries to losers@washpost.com or fax to 202-334-4312. Deadline is Tuesday, Jan. 17; results published Feb. 5 (Feb. 3 online). No more than 25 entries per entrant per week. Include “Week 953” in your e-mail subject line or it may be ignored as spam. Include your real name, postal address and phone number with your entry. See contest rules and guidelines at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational. The revised title for next week is by Tom Witte; the subhead for this week’s honorable mentions is by Gary Crockett. Join the Style Invitational Devotees on Facebook.

Report from Week 949

in which we asked for analogies in the “A is to B as C is to D” form: Not too surprisingly, we got a lot of entries about the presidential candidates.

The winner of the Inker

Joe Biden is to Dick Cheney as Igor is to Iago. (Edmund Conti, Raleigh, N.C.)

2. Winner of the “Magic Energy Breathspray” and “Really Positive Energy Breathspray”: Washington is to Baltimore as an air kiss is to a hickey. (Peter Jenkins, Bethesda, Md.)

3. Justin Bieber is to music as Barney is to paleontology. (Nancy Schwalb, Washington)

4. Middle age is to vanity as windshield is to bug. (Scott Poyer, Annapolis, Md.)

As kissing is to sister: Honorable mentions

Jon Stewart is to Bill O’Reilly as a whoopee cushion is to a fart. (Kathy El-Assal, Middleton, Wis.)

Euro is to Europe as screw is to screwup. (Gary Crockett, Chevy Chase, Md.)

Demonstrator is to spring as dictator is to fall. (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va.)

Snow is to beautiful as your street is to plowed. (Barr Weiner, Washington, a First Offender)

“Team building” is to fun as “family holiday gathering” is to love. (Mairzy Salander, Arlington)

The justice system is to justice as doxy is to orthodoxy. (Dixon Wragg, Santa Rosa, Calif.)