Off topic: "Washington Post's Mensa Invitational" - removed; with apologies Thread poster: Ildiko Santana
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Ildiko Santana 
United States
Local time: 07:56
Member (2002)
Hungarian to English
+ ...
MODERATOR
From The Empress of The Style Invitational, 8 Mar:
"Actually, there isn't any "Mensa Invitational," but The Washington Post does have a wonderfully clever humor contest called The Style Invitational. (....) So by spreading this 12-year-old list around, you're spreading something that's not quite true."
Dear Empress,
Thank you for the correction and the warning. I sincerely apologize to you, the Style Invitational, and anyone else affected, for not fact-checking the material before sharing. I trust that you can forgive me for my error, and you can have my word that I had no intention of spreading anything untrue on this forum. My only intention was simply to share a good laugh with my fellow translators. I will do my best not to repeat this mistake again. Again, my sincere apologies, and thank you for your understanding.
Regards,
Ildiko'
[Edited at 2010-03-09 16:16 GMT]
[Edited at 2010-03-09 16:18 GMT]
| | | | patyjs
Mexico
Local time: 08:56
Spanish to English
+ ...
thank you for this...you brightened my day.
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Thanks, I laughed out loud, particularly for new meanings to old words. My favourite has to be "coffee". If you don't mind, I am going to copy this and post on my forum, we love jokes there.
| | | | Ildiko Santana
United States
Local time: 07:56
Member (2002)
Hungarian to English
+ ...
MODERATOR TOPIC STARTER
amanda55 wrote:
Thanks, I laughed out loud, particularly for new meanings to old words. My favourite has to be "coffee". If you don't mind, I am going to copy this and post on my forum, we love jokes there.
You're most welcome! I laughed out loud, too, and 'coffee' is also my favorite; I found it all the more hilarious since I was in the middle of a verbose legalese job when I read this (so I further played with it in my mind, ... hereinafter referred to as "Coffee" and "Coffer," respectively...)
I don't see why we couldn't circulate the list that is publicly available on numerous sites (it was posted to one of the lists I'm subscribed to, and I decided to share with my fellow ProZians). The more the merrier! : )
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| From The Empress of The Style Invitational | Mar 8, 2010 |
Actually, there isn't any "Mensa Invitational," but The Washington Post does have a wonderfully clever humor contest called The Style Invitational. And two Invitational contests from 1998 are the sources of many -- but not all -- of the neologisms in the list above. (For example, "decafalon" isn't a one-letter change from "decathlon," is it? Or "caterpallor"?)
So by spreading this 12-year-old list around, you're spreading something that's not quite true.
Much better t... See more Actually, there isn't any "Mensa Invitational," but The Washington Post does have a wonderfully clever humor contest called The Style Invitational. And two Invitational contests from 1998 are the sources of many -- but not all -- of the neologisms in the list above. (For example, "decafalon" isn't a one-letter change from "decathlon," is it? Or "caterpallor"?)
So by spreading this 12-year-old list around, you're spreading something that's not quite true.
Much better to see the the current Invitational -- every week at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational. We've had more than 600 contests since the ones above! The Style Invitational is published every Saturday in The Post's Style (features) section, and every Friday afternoon at about 3:30 U.S. Eastern time. There are neologism contests regularly, but also lots of other sources of humor as well.
For example, here are the top winners of a recent contest, which was to make up a word that has three consecutive letters in alphabetical order (results printed Feb. 20):
Coughin: A small enclosure designed especially for smokers. (John Glenn, Tyler, Tex.)
Mno: The kind of response that makes you want to ask her again. (Edmund Conti, Raleigh)
Noplow: Washington, D.C.'s, snow emergency plan. (Jack Clark, Westfield, N.J.)
. Geode-face: Someone whose beauty is "sparkling inside." (Craig Dykstra, Centreville)
In other forms of humor, here's a contest (Feb. 27, 2010) are to add novel similes to the "men are like ....," "women are like..." genre.
The top winners:
Women are like flashlights: Ones with two D's aren't always the brightest, but they'll do when the lights go out. (Russ Taylor, Vienna)
Men are like Swiss army knives: No matter how useful they appear, they mostly just pick teeth and open beer bottles. (Russell Beland, Fairfax)
Teenagers are like a freshly bottled wine: They might be palatable seven years from now. (David Kleinbard, Jersey City)
Men are like the TV yule log: They're easy to turn on, but you're not going to get much warmth out of them. (Kevin Dopart, Washington)
This week, the results feature funny poems written about current news stories. And the new contest is to write a joke in one of four forms form such as "It's not the _____, it's the ____."
See the rest of the winners and learn how to enter the new contest (click on Week 859) at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational. Or you can become a fan of "Washington Post Style" on Facebook (go to facebook.com/wapostyle ) and you'll get a link to the Invitational when it's posted. I hope you become a regular reader and maybe even a regular entrant.
Best,
The Empress of The Style Invitational
The Washington Post ▲ Collapse
| | | | Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 10:56
Member (2008)
English to French
| Thank you :-) | Mar 9, 2010 |
Thank you for posting this
I have tears in my eyes from laughing!
| | | | | From The Empress of The Style Invitational | Mar 10, 2010 |
No problem, Nutzer -- I just wanted to let your readers know where they can find the real thing every week. That'd be: washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational . Thanks!
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