The Invitational Week 191: Just Kidding
Give a creative answer to a young child’s typical questions. And winning transformations of basic symbols.
Pat Myers and gene weingarten
Aug 27, 2026

THIS WEEK'S RESULTS ARE ALL IN A FORM THAT WON'T SHOW UP IN TEXT. YOU CAN SEE
THE FULL RESULTS HERE:

https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/the-invitational-week-191-just-kidding


We asked readers to choose one or more of eight simple objects — here, a pair of glasses — and make a picture. This is a runner-up; see the rest in today’s Invitational results below.
Hello. Have you ever wondered why the moon doesn’t fall down? No, of course not, because you are not a little kid. But as a smart-ass adult, you could answer the kid who asked it: “Because it is a blimp. It could explode any minute like the Hindenburg, so it’s good it is so far away.” That’s our new contest. But, first, our old contest, which is purely symbolic:

More Than Meets the Icon: The re-signing of Week 189
In Invitational Week 189 we presented eight simple, easily recognized icons or drawings (a Band-Aid; a peace symbol; the Greek letters pi and omega; a division sign; a pair of eyeglasses; a mortar and pestle; and a diagram of the digestive system) and challenged you to use one or more as the basis of a funny picture. As you’ll see below, our favorite entries ranged from elaborate AI constructions — AI was allowed as long as it was the entrant’s own idea— to artsy hand-drawn art, and all the way to crude mouse-sketched stick figures. (The images below were made from prompts to ChatGPT unless otherwise noted.)

Third runner-up:




When you can’t afford an Omega watch on your wrist, but you can afford a third arm.
(Leif Picoult, Rockville, Md., using Adobe Firefly)

—
Second runner-up:

John was beginning to suspect that his canoe might have a few leaks.
(Duncan Stevens, Vienna, Va., using Microsoft Paint)
—

First runner-up:

(Pam Shermeyer, Lathrup Village, Mich.)

And the winner of the cuddly Star Wars Stormtrooper pillow:

(Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park, Md., pencil-tracing a photo of “The Scream,” adding freehand elements, then tweaking it in Photoshop)

Jestive Art Failure: Honorable mentions

“There, I fixed it.” (Randy Lee, Burke, Va)

(Jesse Frankovich, Laingsburg, Mich.)

Miss Piggy was long gone, and Kermit had taken to hitting the bottle. (Duncan Stevens, using Paint)

Omega and Alpha. (Pam Shermeyer)

(Jesse Frankovich)

(Trevor Stone Irvin, Atlanta, hand-drawn)

“I seem to be constantly irrational.” (Stu Segal, Southeast U.S.)

In the reboot, Marlo gave up the bangs. (Jeff Contompasis, Ashburn, Va., with Gemini)

Mary Tyler Moore, suddenly feeling shy, hid behind her ping-pong paddle. (Duncan Stevens, with Paint)

As a girl — long before meeting Snow White — the Queen-to-be was obsessed with her hand mirror. (Duncan Stevens, with Paint)

And the prisoner was banished to the bowels of the building … (Pam Shermeyer)

(Art Grinath, Takoma Park, Md., drawn with Clip Studio Paint)

Pete Hegseth has a change of heart. (William Kennard, Arlington, Va.)

(Jesse Frankovich)

The No-Bowel Pi’s Prize. (Jon Gearhart, Des Moines, with Photoshop)

The Pi Piper of Hamelin. (Chris Doyle, Warminster, Pa.)

Trojan horseshoes. (Chris Doyle)

“You idiot! I said to order more mortars and pistols!” (Pam Shermeyer)

Light switch from the Georgia O’Keeffe Housewares line. (Sam Mertens, Silver Spring, Md., using a photo of his own hand and GIMP photo editor)

(Jeff Contompasis)

The headline “More Than Meets the Icon” is by Jesse Frankovich; Jesse also wrote the honorable-mentions subhead. The Loser Community’s website with all the Invitational stats and stuff is now NRARS.net; the Style Invitational Devotees group on Facebook is here.

New contest for Week 191:

Creative answers for questions young kids ask
For Invitational Week 191: Pose a question that might be asked by a young child, and provide a creative answer, as in these below, which we supplied for the only other time we did this contest — thirty-one years ago. You may even use any of these questions, provided that your answers aren’t too close to the ones that got ink in 1995 (full results here):

Why is the sky blue?
How do airplanes fly?
Where does dust come from?
Where does the sun go when it sets?
Where do babies come from?

A few winners from that (the first the Empress ever judged, filling in for the Czar):

Where do babies come from? From grandparents. They say a special chant over and over, and when they’ve said it enough times, a baby comes. What’s the chant? Well, it’s secret, but parts of it go like this: “Why don’t you make me a grandparent? All my friends have grandchildren. That cat is not my grandchild.” (Katherine Wertheim)

Where does dust come from? Didn’t you hear the minister, dear? When he said, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,” he meant that dust comes from dead bodies, like Grandma’s. (Linda K. Malcolm)

How do airplanes fly? They use “aerodynamic power.” That’s Greek for “enormous rubber bands.” (Jonathan M. Kaye)

Deadline is Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET. Results will run here in The Gene Pool on Thursday, Sept. 10. As usual, you may submit up to 25 entries for this week’s contest, preferably all on the same form.

Formatting this week: It’s just our standard request to write each entry as one long line (i.e., don’t press Enter until you’re starting the next entry).

Click here for this week’s entry form, or go to tinyurl.com/inv-form-191.

The winner gets this sort of see-through, sort of organic T-shirt, modeled here by the Empress’s long-suffering Royal Consort.

(He does actually have arms.)
Runners-up get autographed fake money featuring the Czar or Empress, in one of eight nifty designs. Honorable mentions get bupkis, except for a personal email from the E, plus the Fir Stink for First Ink for First Offenders.

Still running — deadline Saturday, Aug. 29, at 9 p.m. ET: It’s our contest for imagined one-word Secret Service code names, or handles, for any famous living person. Click on “read full story” below for details.

InvisibleInk!
Idea: ()
Examples: ()
Judging: ()
Title: (Jesse Frankovich)
Subhead: (Jesse Frankovich)
Prize: ()
Add:H:1588: ()
VisibleInk!