46 Comments

Every single one of these inkers was great! But I do have one formatting suggestion: that some of the original horses' names be listed in the reverse order from what they currently are, so that the order better "matches" the joke in the foal's name.

Two examples, listed back-to-back:

- Angel of Empire x Protege = Deputy Seraph

- Angel of Empire x Banishing = Sans Seraph

In both cases, I think 'Angel of Empire' should be listed second of the two horses, rather than first, because "seraph" is the second of the two words in the foal names.

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I try to do this with my entries. I think I submitted the first-runner-up as Theismann x Ready Shakespeare = Tibia Not To Be, because Theismann is the tibia part of the joke. I’m assuming that the other person who submitted it had it in the reverse order, which is the way it ran. And that’s fine; it works either way. But I do agree with Jesse’s suggestion.

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I think it works better as Ready Shakespeare x Theismann: While "tibia," the reference to Theismann, is the first word, the phrase being punned on is Shakespeare -- which is then modified by the second element, Theismann.

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I didn't think those two mattered one way or the other, but I usually do prefer them in the order that matches the order that they're incorporated into the foal name. For example, one good name on the shortlist was Hard to Figure x King Russell = Terrier Incognito. I would have reversed the order there.

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Fearless eating? OK. I have had many meals, even with the Mountain People of Vietnam, but many things I just said: "no way." You should have worked for the Foreign Service. Their brag (I was with them in Vietnam for six years) is "I gave my stomach for my Country. " I just said; "You were stupid." Most of the Vietnamese just laughed when we ate stuff they knew we did not like. it was a test, but not what we thought it tested.

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And applause to all the inkers, truly LOL for Tom Witte and Jesse F.

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Thank you, Jon Carza. Your Peter lives in infamy, and I'm dying here.

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Me too!

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two of the winners in the foal-naming contest were not understood by me, they were the ones that were highlighted in color. Could you explain the humor to me?

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Thhose were not highlights. They were links. If you click on them, you'll get the jokes.

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thank you! kind of wish I had remained in the dark about the 127 hours though.

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Click on the links.

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after reading Jon Carter's embarrassing moment I must confess that my response was the same as that of the cute young cashier. I didn't make a sound, but was shaking with unspoken mirth for at least a minute.

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“Take the ball and knock down the cans” reminds me of a high school English teacher of mine who declared that "Go and close the door" meant you could leave, closing the door behind you.

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I do want to compliment Pat and Gene on their barefaced money grab here. None of this business about crowdfunding facial hair or tiara refurbishment --- just a straight out, "We know where you walk Fluffy. Give us your money !" How direct and how refreshing in this day of (formerly) sub rosa bribes of SCOTUS justices. Although even Orange 1 has gotten a bit more sophisticated in his grift. Now you get to pick the defense fund of your choice ("Please add 25% if you select a case from the 'Criminal' column").

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Zygotes

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In the interest of transparency and truth in advertising, I suggest changing the title here to "The Gene Pool & Poop"--- or what would be known colloquially as "Weingarten's Dip & Dump." Which conveniently raises the question of whether there is some kind of genetically imposed fixation on bowel movements among those of the Jewish persuasion ? An otherwise sane and learned people who, should constipation even be hinted at, hear the hoofbeats of approaching Cossacks. This starts with great rejoicing over diaper contents and moves quickly to grave warnings about the consequences of not eating your vegetables. Apparently there is even an "after" prayer, thanking the creator of the gastrointestinal tract for the body's orifices and expressing gratitude that they open and close when they should. So, who better than the Oracle of Excreta to enlighten us.

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If Auguste Rodin x Disarm = mon Venus can’t earn inkage, I will have to respectfully take my lame humor, such as it is, to a homeroom in the Industrial Arts wing of the middle school

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I don't get the Mon or Mons part, in context. Splain.

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French possessive of my?

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It's the MASCULINE possessive; the possessive in French matches the object, not the subject. Michelle, ma belle.

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We should discuss this ad nauseam. So the only connection to Rodin in particular is that he is French?

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Don’t even get me started on “ Et tu, LT?”

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I agree; I didn't understand what "Mon" or "Mons" had to do with Rodin. We had LOTS of Rodin jokes -- we could have filled half the list with them.

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Ah well, a teeny tiny blemish on your otherwise exemplary and, if I may add, Google-like, history of understanding everything everywhere all at once. You seem not to have heard of the little known Cartesian comment, "I think, therefore I ink." Although to be fair, this supposedly was uttered on being published for the first time.

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I can be pretty sure that more than spaghetti has been dumped in the woods in New Jersey.

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I have, in fact, dumped some.

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Spaghetti? Or . . .

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Not spaghetti.

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OK, the working link made me LOL right out loud.

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Okay, this is Gene. Here is another important news story.

....only it's a broken link.

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It is? Will check.

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Fixed, I hope. At the current bottom of the GP.

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I saw this story and asked my friend in Calif., friend who has three boys aged 7-14 and who see penis/balls in every piece of art or of nature, if she knew where they'd been recently. I am sure this was the cause.

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Thanks to everyone who entered the Week 16 contest -- I think it was the first time that everyone followed the Xtra Simple formatting directions! We had a very high level of wordplay; it was hard for me to make the first cut down to 200-some entries, not to mention Gene's task of then cutting 3/4 of those semifinalists.

While we don't have any First Offenders this week, we have a LOT of people who've just earned their first Gene Pool ink. Any suggestions for what we should call them?

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Pinkers (Pool-inkers)

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Squids? Ink in the pool.

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Not that my opinion makes a whit of difference, but these may well have been the best name-the-foal results ever (and that's excluding the ones that would have been unpublishable in the Post).

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Hey, Hvv, It makes a whit of difference in MY day! I'm glad you enjoyed them; Gene and I were both very pleased with them as well. Then again, I ALWAYS love the horse winners, and even though the contest takes a relatively long time to judge -- far more entries than in a typical week, and many of the entries have to be puzzled out a bit -- I always look forward to judging it because I know the results will be soooo good.

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I was thinking that, too. I will confess I am one of the apparently very few who are not fans of this contest. I have entered a couple of times in the past and didn’t really enjoy it and it is not one of my favorites to read. But these struck me as much funnier than in years past.

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I agree. It's never been one of my faves either.

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Same here, several times in the past I've just read the first few and then skipped the rest. Well done, to all involved.

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First Floaters

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Kinda like "Inklings." Probably because I submitted it.

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Inky-dinks?

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Baby Gene-iuses

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