The Feb. 11 Cartoon Caption Winner!

Click image to enlarge.

The winner:

"It must have been made in China since it went over like a lead balloon!"

-- Laura Thompson of Charlotte

The runners-up:

"All around the dais they drew, Erdman at his easel. How would it end? Everyone knew. Out goes the weasel!"

-- Ms. Thompson, again

"I know we've got a warehouse full of them, but Valerie Woodard is the only person that bought one."

-- Robert Williams, Charlotte

“I had a Hillary in a box, but she got so wound up in herself, she wouldn’t bounce back.”

-- Daniel Burleson, Hickory

"I'd like to trade this in for a David Erdman Bobblehead Doll."

-- William Owens, Marvin

Thank you for all your entries.  To see the rest of the captions submitted this week, just scroll down to  the previous post.  To comment on the winners, or leave new captions, click the "Comments"  link on this post.

Be sure and let us know what you think of this new experimental way of doing the caption contest, having the captions left on the blog, instead of them being submitted secret-ballot-style via e-mail.  To tell the truth, I haven't made up my own mind about it yet, so would welcome the input. 

One immediate impact I noticed, was that the number of entries dropped quite a bit.   Perhaps some folks were too shy to  leave a caption where everyone could see it.   Luckily, not everyone was shy, and some worked hard to fill the gap!  Also, for some reason, while the quantity was down, the quality was up, and this week's contest was much harder to judge than usual. 

Thanks again for all your participation, and please join us again Monday, Feb. 18, for a new cartoon caption challenge.

Comments

[suzanne & co.]

WOW! And to think I thought that the winning caption was LT's in the first place! WOW AGAIN, I have to congratulate her twice but my true favorite was the runner-up but seriously you won for both....I'm thinking I'm not political enough for these captions...I really enjoyed seeing the captions before the winner was announced, because I could pick who I thought was the winner and I'm patting myself on the back for that even though I didn't win!!!!!

[D. Cox]

I like the transparency of knowing what was out there and getting to read a lot more than 15 or 20 captions. Many were funny, many made great points and would not have been seen otherwise. LT's top 2 were strong on first reading, but I was expecting the second one to win. Kudos, LT.
This makes us appreciate the difficulty of choosing. It also makes me feel a bit sad for Mackey- lots of promise and potential squandered by trying to manipulate the system in a questionable way. I hope he has learned a lesson and can put his talents and drive to work in a positive manner that may benefit all. Like the transparency of the captions, I think Nick may improve since he now knows that all may eventually be revealed. Time will tell.

[Carolyn Hudson]

Congratulations to Laura! I love both captions. The runners-up were great too. D. Cox, even though you didn't win I want to congratulate you for coming up with so many witty captions.

[Brent Sheppard]

I'm on the fence concerning contest entry via blog. I like seeing the entries but there is a drawback. I may have a similar idea to an entry already posted. If I post that entry it may appear that my idea was not original. This is obviously not a problem with entry via e-mail. Either way, it is a heck of a lot of fun.

[CHARLES RANDALL]

CONGRATULATIONS TO LT! GREAT ENTRIES!!

[Ken Irving]

Way to shoot us all down with your superior wit LT,your second place rhyme was right on target. Of course your winner was great as well.
Whether Kevin keeps this contest transparent or returns to the original format, the cream will always rise to the top and you were definately the cream this week.

[John]

One problem with the blog process... if you are contributing from work (during lunch of course), many firms block access to blogs.

[John]

One problem with the blog process... if you are contributing from work (during lunch of course), many firms block access to blogs.

[Ken]

I like the new format..it's probably the only way any of my entries will ever be seen. Though I can't claim I've ever had a winner, I feel I've had some definite honorable mentions. I've often wondered if my emailed entries were making their way to their destination. This way I'll know. I just quickly read through the 100 submissions; while there are some good ones, there is also a lot of noise in there. I'd take 100 better-quality submissions over 300 not-so-good anyday.

[Steve]

I agree that this format favors those that post entries early in the week. Subsequent entrants may be reluctant to duplicate a similar idea - or the unscrupulous will perjure themselves.

[LT]

Thanks, Kevin, for selecting my captions, and thanks everybuddy for your nice comments. I'm really stunned, and still exhausted. Wish I could think of something really witty to say right now!!!
After the initial jolt of the format change, it proved to be very enjoyable, and admittedly a little distracting, as yesterday I referred to subtitles of a movie as captions!!!
I would like to echo what Brent said, with emphasis on the "heck of a lot of fun" part. Don't know what you might have in mind for us on Monday, Kevin, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Ross Levin]

Way to go LT. Great Job. I love the new format. Can't wait for more!

[mark]

My suggestion. Go back to the old way where the submissions are not disclosed. Then, after selecting a winner, go ahead and publish all of the entries.

This eliminates any possibility of co-opting a previously posted idea and tweaking it. I agree with other posters that subsequent entrants may be reluctant to duplicate similar ideas under the current format. Either way, Laura certainly is clever.