28 Comments
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Jon Ketzner's avatar

I always, faithfully enter the parodies challenges and I always, faithfully later feel like I entered a soda and vinegar, papier-mache volcano into the MIT science fair.

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Gene Weingarten's avatar

Okay, this is very funny.

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Jon Ketzner's avatar

Thanks Gene…btw, I think Tami Oldham used a cheapass Casio to help navigate her seriously wounded sailboat 1500 miles over 41 days to Hawaii. Alone.

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Pat Myers's avatar

To those FIFTY-FIVE people who got foal-name ink last Thursday: You'll get your prize letter . . . eventually. It's been a crazy week.

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Judy Freed's avatar

Hoping the craziness has settled a bit!

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Cash Devilry's avatar

The winner in my book is The Ballad of Donald and JD,” a parody of Billy Joel’s “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant.” Written, performed, and produced by Dave Scheiber, St. Petersburg, Fla. Not only are the lyrics flawless, the work that went into the graphics and editing is a wonder.

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Charles Cerf's avatar

My faves: Marty Gold, My Girl; Frank Osen, You're the Top.

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Noodles & Cabbage's avatar

Thank you for o publishing the lyrics along with Frank and Valerie's video. It would be great if you always published the lyrics, whether there's a video or not.

(Sorry. I know. I've been begging for this for years.)

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Pat Myers's avatar

It was short and there weren't subtitles.

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Gary E Masters's avatar

I am like brown shoes at a tux party.

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Hvvfagn's avatar

The word "initialism" appeared in week 12 here: https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/the-invitational-week-12-mess-with. So how could you have not known it until two weeks ago?

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Pat Myers's avatar

It was in someone's question; it's not as if he used it himself. But speaking for myself more generally, there is a LOT of stuff I can read once and not remember it two years later. Glad it's different for you!

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Hvvfagn's avatar

Gene has used it several times in the past year, though (actually, upon closer examination, they were all within the last month). Plus, see https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/the-invitational-week-71-wait-wait

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Ah well Mr. Truth, Justice and the American Way, you are clearly cheating. Different and obviously lighter socks. WDYTYDWH?

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Suzanne S Barnhill's avatar

Okay, you're going to have to expand that initialism because Google doesn't know it.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Who Do You Think You're Dealing With Here? It's a "Googlenope" for now.

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Hortense of Gotham City's avatar

All the parodies are great, and I also want to say that your five rebooted initialisms are hilarious.

Shouldn't that be IMHO, though? (Don't forget the obligatory humility.) Anyway: thank you! that banal initialism will never be the same.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Can't wait. For that promised column on pooping. Why, it must be going on two weeks now since poop was mentioned in these here parts. Poop on, I say. Poop on.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Along with new initialisms and acronyms, strikes me that there are simply not enough Wordle variations at something nearing 400 at last count for Wordies (like Foodies, but with fewer calories) so I suggest:

Turtle: You have two years to solve the puzzle. A longer version of Curdle and without the dairy product.

Hurdle: Requires a leap of imagination to figure out what the puzzle is all about. Usually written in cuneiform or hieroglyphs.

Startle: All that internet tracking (or doxing by your ex) shows up shockingly in a puzzle about --- you.

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Helena Handbasket's avatar

Hurdle already exists - it's one of the Washington Posts' games. Kind of an extended-play Wordle. https://games.washingtonpost.com/games/todays-hurdle

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

Well then, we'll have to go with "Hurtle." Unless you can solve the puzzle in one try you are subjected to immediate and prolonged derision.

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Helena Handbasket's avatar

Wouldn't that be "Chortle?" In "Hurtle," if you can't solve the puzzle, you get thrown off a cliff.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

"Chortle" is almost as good as "Snortle." Although a bit extreme for even the aggressively intellectual, I think "Spirtle" would be more in keeping with your shamefully bloodthirsty suggestion for "Hurtle."

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Helena Handbasket's avatar

Then how about "Turtle," where you have several days to solve the puzzle.

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Dale of Green Gables's avatar

I already suggested "Turtle" or a longer version of "Curdle," but without the diary product.

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