Week 680: Rendered Speechless
Sunday, September 17, 2006; Page D02
Bob Staake is a big-shot picture person. (You may have seen his work on the Sept. 4 New Yorker cover, a feather in the cap of graphic artists second only to publishing cartoons in The Style Invitational.) But words? Eh. You can do it better. This week: Provide dialogue to fill the balloons in any of these cartoons. Please send text only; don't physically send us little pictures.
Winner gets the Inker, the official Style Invitational trophy. First runner-up gets a special prize, suggested by Peter Metrinko: Lunch with the Empress at the so-apropos-to-the-results-below Waffle Shop in Alexandria, whose awning famously displays the sign pictured below. If you can't make it -- if you live in Wanneroo, Australia, for example -- you may have a Loser T-Shirt.
 (Bob Staake for The Washington Post) Save & Share |
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Other runners-up win a coveted Style Invitational Loser T-shirt. Honorable Mentions (or whatever they're called this week) get one of the lusted-after Style Invitational Magnets. One prize per entrant per week. Send your entries by e-mail to losers@washpost.comor by fax to 202-334-4312. Deadline is Monday, Sept. 25. Put "Week 680" in the subject line of your e-mail, or it risks being ignored as spam. Include your name, postal address and phone number with your entry. Contests are judged on the basis of humor and originality. All entries become the property of The Washington Post. Entries may be edited for taste or content. Results will be published Sept. 24. No purchase required for entry. Employees of The Washington Post, and their immediate relatives, are not eligible for prizes. Pseudonymous entries will be disqualified. The Honorable Mentions name is by Brad Alexander of Wanneroo, Australia. Next week's Revised Title is by Brendan Beary of Great Mills.
Report From Week 676
in which we asked you to create and define new words containing the letters A, L, E and F, contiguously but in any order: Among the more than 3,000 suggestions, the most common were "Faleure: Being eliminated in the first round of the spelling bee" and "E-flatus: Spam." Also lots on the subject of Mel Gibson: "melfeat," "melafela," "melfauxpas."
4 Afletic: Being able to make "Gigli" and still walk with your head held high. (Phyllis Reinhard, East Fallowfield, Pa.)
3 Halfaleak-halfaleak: How Tennyson charged johnward in his old age.
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| The Waffle Shop in Alexandria.(Dayna Smith - The Washington Post) |
2 The winner of the genuine alligator meat and the chocolate "Moose Droppings":
Self-leapfrog: A popular Zen Buddhist game. (Peter Metrinko, Chantilly)
And the Winner of the Inker:
AFL-eio: The United Farm Workers. (Fran Pryluck, Amissville, Va.)
A Dictionary of Alfe-Baked Ideas
Afleccch: Enough with the duck already! (Joe Newman, Bethesda)
Alfa-elf: Santa's go-to guy. (Russell Beland, from vacation on Assawoman Bay, Md.)