29 Comments

A heads-up about next Thursday: The Gene Pool (with The Invitational) will publish as usual between 11 and noon ET, but because I'll be Rosh Hashanizing that morning, I won't be able to alert the inking Losers immediately with tags in the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook. I'll probably be back around 2 p.m.

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More interested in the sins you'll be atoning for soon after.

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I can always appreciate a good Ayn Rand dig.

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So many good ones! But I have to point out an especially worthy “And last..”

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Agreed. Beverley FTW!

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My fave was Michael's Spooner joke but I wonder if would be even better with Steven Wright making the wry observation "William Spooner and I have the same initials."

His winner is fantastic too. Bravo!

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I liked your runner-up, as well as Crystal/Cosby, Austen/Arpaio, and (my favorite among yours) the BK comparison.

This week highlighted the difference between funny and clever. I thought your BK was _funniest_ among your entries, but your runner-up and Austen/Arpaio were more _clever_. Both of my entries that you liked were on the "clever" side of the divide, both coloring outside the lines. But they did not necessarily provoke the biggest laughs.

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The only one that got my guffaw was the one about Jodie Foster and Jesse F?.

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So many good also-rans. Tom Cruise/Ted Cruz and Linda Lovelace/Laura Loomer both made me LMAO.

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Huey Lewis and Hannibal Lecter 👏👏👏

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kudos to Richard Pawlak on his first winning entry, comparing Dylan Thomas and Donald Trump! Also liked Tom Witte's comparison of Auguste Rodin and Al Roker!

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One of my noinks was also Thomas/Trump: Dylan Thomas, 1951: "Do not go gentle into that good night." Donald Trump, 2020: Great advice!

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My Lois Lane entry was my wife’s idea - second time she’s gotten ink for me. Gotta get her to subscribe!

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And she didn’t th8nk of me with Lois? I need to up my profile.

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You don't need two subscriptions.

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Oh captain, my captain our fearful trip is done. The ChiSox have now set the record for seasonal futility.

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Hypocrisy in the Invitational!?! The three initial entries don't get "official ink", but the one initial entry does?

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Shocking!

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It's because they were 3:2 rather than 3:3. There were three 3:3 entries that got ink along with the 1:1.

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Gotcha - thanks! My faith is restored in the integrity of the Invitational!

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Seems Detroit just did what LA couldn’t: save Gene’s bacon.

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"Grunt" was our family word as well, and of course I also assumed it was universal. Until my little brother and I were parked with cousins for a couple of weeks while our parents and baby brother took a long road trip to visit other relatives. I was 5 or 6, and I was mortified that I was required to report to my aunt every day whether I had "beamed."

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It makes me laugh to see these 70s porn star references. I guess they're among the few that are uh. Household names.

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And Jon Gearhart wasn't born when "Deep Throat" came out.

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Objection: "Hey Jude" was written by Paul McCartney, not John Lennon.

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Noink:

Paul McCartney: "Maybe I'm Amazed." Pat Myers: Maybe I'm amused.

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I would have picked that one as "Last-Last"

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The song was written by Paul but credited to John and Paul. Both sang on it. It evolved from "Hey Jules", a song written to comfort John Lennon's son, Julian, during his parents' divorce. It is not remotely incorrect to link Lennon to the song, as the entry did.

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And according to Paul, John told him not to change the line “the movement you need is on your shoulder.” Which was very good advice, IMO

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