The deadline for our current challenge has passed and You Write the Caption is now taking a short break. We'll return with our new winner and runners-up on Feb. 24.
Your new challenge: Feb. 6, 2012
Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one. To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.
Submissions must reach us by NOON, Wednesday, Feb 8.
Enter as many times as you wish. To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us. (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)
Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number.
To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308.
Feb. 3: The new winner
The winner:
"I'm not technically ON city property."
-- Bill McGloughlin of Charlotte
The runners-up:
The police kicked us out of our Occupy camp.”
-- Brandon Swann, Baltimore
“Four more years?”
-- Bolyn McClung, Pineville
“What winter?”
-- Ross Levin, Charlotte
“Forget winter. How many more weeks of Newt?”
-- Rob Christensen, Charlotte
“So the bank turned down your home loan too?”
-- Jesse Steele, Boone
“When you gotta Occupy, you gotta Occupy!”
-- Kevin Siers (sorry, couldn’t resist)
Thanks for the many great entries. Here’s just a select few of the many we received:
“Nine more months of campaigning!”
“Six more weeks of debates?”
"Either way we have 9 more months of a bad political climate!"
"I'm rooted in dirty politics."
“Oh great! Another six weeks of foreboding forecasts, and still no viable candidate in sight.”
“Let me know when the DNC is over.”
“I’m looking for lodging for the DNC.”
"Forget Winter! The shadowy figure you just saw wants to be president!"
“My home used to be underwater.”
“Careful, six more weeks of no winter makes you obsolete.”
Bev Perdue saw her shadow last week and liked it!
"Believe me, we're better off down there!"
“My constituents don’t believe me either.”
Your new challenge: Jan. 30, 2012
Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one. To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.
Submissions must reach us by NOON, Wednesday, Feb 1.
Enter as many times as you wish. To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us. (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)
Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number.
To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308.
Jan. 27: the new winner
The winner:
“My accountant will now explain how I’m just an average American.”
-- John Bradey of Matthews
The runners-up:
“I have a ‘Get Out Of Paying High Taxes’ card.”
-- Ross Levin, Charlotte
“I already own Wall Street.”
-- Carolyn Hudson, Columbia, S.C.
“Only little people pay high taxes.”
-- submitted separately by Lou Desser, Charlotte and Marcus Henry, Winston Salem
“Milton Friedman makes the best game in the world.”
-- Doug Cox, Albemarle
Thanks for all your entries. Here’s a selection of some of the other better lines we received this week:
“I get my income from properties, but it’s not very much.”
“No Bain, no gain!”
"Yes, I bought the Pennsylvania and Short Line railroads, fired all employees, and sold the trains for scrap metal."
“Who says I’m monopolizing the race?”
“There’s no way he’ll land on Pennsylvania Avenue.”
“I'm told 2nd prize in the SC beauty contest is not so bad.”
“Let’s just call the Cayman Island thing a bank error in my favor.”
“At least I’m mono-game-ous.”
Your new challenge: Jan. 23, 2012
Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one. To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.
Submissions must reach us by NOON, Wednesday, Jan. 25.
Enter as many times as you wish. To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us. (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)
Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number.
To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308.
Jan. 20: The new winner
The winner:
“The web is taking over!”
-- Suzanne Estro of Charlotte
The runners-up:
“What web?”
-- Boyln McClung, Charlotte
“Just a minute, ma’am. I’m paying my bills online.”
-- Steven Dockery, Charlotte
“Would you like our someday delivery rate?”
-- Scott Treadwell, Advance, N.C.
“The stamps do say ‘Forever.’”
-- Bill McGloughlin, Charlotte
Thanks for all your entries and congrats to Suzanne for becoming our first (if memory serves me correctly) twice-in-a-row winner.
Here’s a selection of some of the other better lines we received:
“This thing must have a bug in it!”
"They told us to use the web to speed things up, but it's not working."
"In keeping up with the times we are becoming a web-based service."
“I’ve got mail!”
"The Forever stamps were so popular, we decided to extend the theme to all of our services."
"You use Forever stamps. What do you expect?"
“No Ma’am, 20.13 is not the price. It’s the delivery year.”
"We stand by our decades-old policy: Raise the stamp fee until everyone comes back."
"Email is evil! Technology is killing us! We're fighting . . . oh, hang on, text message."
"Cul de Sac" goes on hiatus
From Michael Cavna's blog "Comic Riffs" in the Washington Post:
"Cul de Sac" creator Richard Thompson has just announced that his syndicated comic strip is going on hiatus for “three or four weeks” as he receives new treatment for his Parkinson’s disease.
Thompson, who announced in 2009 that he has the disease, wrote on his blog Sunday that he is “taking some time off. Some MORE time off. ... I’m about to start a program of physical therapy sessions designed for people with Parkinson’s.”
Thompson playfully notes the recent number of “Cul de Sac” reruns (including Sunday’s) that have appeared, writing: “I’m guessing you ... probably noticed that recently there’ve been a whole lot of ‘Cul de Sac’ repeats and you’re too nice to say anything (though you’re likely thinking, ‘Whoa, somebody sure takes a lot of vacations’). I mean, c’mon, what’s going on here?”
Of the treatment, the Northern Virginia-based cartoonist writes: “I’ve only been in for an evaluation, but the therapy largely consists of big, exaggerated movements and sweeping silly walks that will so embarrass your body that it’ll start behaving itself, I hope. Also I’ll learn 10 ways to defeat a mugger by falling on him.”
Thompson, who is syndicated by Universal Uclick, received the National Cartoonists Society’s esteemed Reuben Award — aka the “cartoonist of the year” prize — last May. The daily “Cul de Sac,” which he launched as a weekly feature in The Washington Post Magazine, is carried by more than 140 papers.
Thompson says he appreciates the support, writing: “Garry Trudeau likened daily newspaper comics to a public utility that delivers its service so regularly that any interruption is seen as some kind of major systems failure. Though well aware of this, the kind folks at Universal [Uclick] Press have been greatly supportive and urged me to do whatever I needed to do. So I’m’a gonna.”
The Observer came to "Cul de Sac" late -- it didn't start running Thompson's strip until spring of last year. So many of us won't mind the "previously published" strips -- there's lots of Thompson's past work we havn't seen and can now enjoy. But we also wish the cartoonist all the best through this trying time and eagerly await his new work whenever he can return to it.
Last summer, the Observer's Mark Washburn did a story on Thompson and his battle with Parkinson's when the cartoonist came to Charlotte for the HeroesCon comic convention. If you missed it then, or simply would like to see it again, here it is.
To help support Thompson's fight against Parkinson's vist the Team Cul de Sac blog.
So now what's up with 'Get Fuzzy'? While it seems almost every comic strip cartoonist runs a week or two of repeats during the year, for whatever reason, the frequency of "previously published" notices atop the "Get Fuzzy" strip is getting a bit alarming. They occur with such frequency that the company that compiles the comics pages for the Observer can't seem to keep it straight anymore, often saying a strip is previously published when it's new, and sometimes forgetting to mention it when it's a repeat. But, so far, we've not been able to find out any information on why "Fuzzy" cartoonist Darby Conley feels compelled to take so much time off. Again, it doesn't bother me much -- "Get Fuzzy" is one of the few strips in the paper that consistently makes me laugh out loud. So I enjoy seeing the old strips again. But I worry.
Almost Self-Promotion: Pelican Publishing has released their new 2012 edition of "Best Editorial Cartoons of the Year." Among the many 2011 cartoons from a wide range of cartoonists nationwide (and from Canada) are five from yours truly.
Your new challenge: Jan. 16, 2012
Welcome to You Write the Caption, the Charlotte Observer cartoon caption contest, an opportunity to test your wit and win a prize. Each Monday, Observer editorial cartoonist Kevin Siers will post a political cartoon that needs a caption and invite readers to write one. To learn more about our contest and see our caption writing guidelines, please click here.
Submissions must reach us by NOON, Wednesday, Jan. 18.
Enter as many times as you wish. To submit your caption on-line, just click here to e-mail us. (Or address your e-mail to caption@charlotteobserver.com)
Please include your mailing address and daytime phone number.
To mail your caption to the Observer, address it to You Write the Caption, Editorial Department, The Charlotte Observer, P.O. Box 30308, Charlotte, NC 28230-0308.
Jan. 13, 2012: The New Winner
The winner:
“De Bain! De Bain!”
-- Suzanne Estro of Charlotte
The runners-up:
“Iowa didn't mean squat. New Hampshire didn't mean squat. Ummm, what's next?”
-- Roy Otstott, Charlotte
"You can't spell SCANDAL without SC!"
-- Wes Long, Cramerton
“This campaign has been going south!”
-- David Tepper, East Mecklenburg High School
“Like the Clemson football team, prepare to get embarrassed, Mitt!”
-- Brandon Swann, Baltimore
Thanks for all your entries. Here’s a selection of some of the other better lines we received:
“Just glad to be back among my people.”
“It’ll be a dark day before I lose South Carolina!”
“Isle win South Carolina or else!”
“I may not always be right, but I’m never left!”
“My opponents are Palmetto bugs!”
“Mitt, you are the Bain of my existence!”
“You media people keep putting me in a bad light!”
“I’m only in partial eclipse.”
“If I can’t win the Republican nomination, maybe I can win the Caption Contest!”
