by Peggy Robin
Do you miss the Style Invitational? Did you think it was the best thing about The Washington Post? Are you mad as hell that Jeff "Full Disclosure, I Own the Washington Post" Bezos killed it? Well, you don't have to take it anymore! I'm happy to tell you that the Style Invitational is not dead; it lives on in cyberspace as two-headed creature: one is the Facebook group, Style Invitational Devotees, a gathering place for the Style Invitational's funniest fans, and the other is the Substack forum, where new contests are posted and the entries are judged by the former and still reigning Empress, Pat Myers, along with former Czar and Pulitizer Prize winning humorist Gene Weingarten.
First, here's the link to the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5158028689/- click on "Join group." You need to have a Facebook account to join. Once you are admitted to the group, the first thing that happens is you will be welcomed by your fellow Style Invitational devotees making anagrams of your name.
Here are just three of the welcome messages for new member MIKE RUNDLE:
- Some describe him as, ah, UM, NERDLIKE.
- Mike Rundle doesn't want to be kicked when he meets a farm animal - he would prefer a KINDER MULE.
- He was in charge of the dairy at a naturist farm, yup, he was a NUDE MILKER
- He has FUN KID GOALS.
- He doesn't like soccer players who use LOUD FAKINGS
- He worships the drink he carries: IN FLASK, U GOD
- Frisbee: O, A DISK IS FLUNG
And these were among the welcoming words for me:
- Peggy Robin used to go in for a handshake but not since the pandemic: BYGONE GRIP
- She's not happy with her doctor - she has an OB-GYN GRIPE
- She wants a BIGGER PONY
The Facebook group provides ten to twenty new gags a day, many from well-known earners of Style Invitational "ink" (the term used entries that made it into the print version of the paper). If all you want is a continuation of the weekly contests, then skip the Facebook group and subscribe to Gene Weingarten's Substack: https://geneweingarten.substack.com/ or go to: https://theinvitational.substack.com/. It's free to view the content but if you want to enter, you'll need a paid subscription.
I just wish I could deduct the cost of The Style Invitational subscription from the price I pay for the (increasingly humorless) Washington Post!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
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