But Ed, aren't the next results for the 56-word story contest? That's the one your three-in-a-row depends on, I believe. This would be four. I'm in the same boat. I haven't sent in my disaster poems, but I have two for Pompeii, one for Irene, one for Katrina, and a couple of generic drought poems. Good luck to us both. I hope I didn't ruin my chances by letting all these Erato ringers know about it.

Oops, you're right, the 56-word one. And I sent in only 3 entries. One I really like which means the Empress won't like it. As for the ringers, Sir Roger...

Quoting from today's Washington Post's Style Invitational for foreign-phrase neologisms:

"Robert Schechter, who became a fixture on the Devotees page even before his first entry was published only five weeks ago, earns Inks No. 6 and 7, and his second entry above the fold."

for: Arroz con polio: The second-worst health code violation in the restaurant industry, just behind Enchiladas con Ebola.

Congratulations, Bob.

Way to go, Bob! And you have groupies to boot, cool!

Thanks. I won a mug!

(I was not a fixture on the Devotees page, though. I first posted there about two weeks before I got my first "ink")

PS-- My arroz con polio gag just got an "honorable mention," by the way. My "above the fold" winner was a different joke, but not as good as arroz con polio so I won't bother posting it here. I also had another mentioned in the "Conversational" (the online-only blog) because it was considered too classless for the dead tree edition. The phrase was "en pissant" and you can fill in the rest.

Once again, I urge you guys to play along. It's really lots of fun. And they do have verse every few weeks or so. Two weeks ago I got an HM printed in the paper for a poem about a natural disaster (mine was eight lines on Katrina). In two weeks they'll announce the results of a contest whose deadline has passed, but which was lots of fun. You had to take the first two lines from any of Edward Lear's first 115 limericks and write your own conclusions. It was a fun exercise, and though they have lots of very good limericians at the WPSI, I like the batch I sent in enough to be cautiously optimistic. (They will probably print about 30, so there's more room than in the Spectator).

She made some reference to there being complaints about too many poetry competitions recently, so I'll keep watching. Way to go.

When she sent me the prize refrigerator magnet, she wrote a note saying not to worry, there will be plenty of poetry contests.

I'm pleased to report that Frank was among the top winners of the rewrite Lear limerick contest, with a #4 finish that gets him his choice of mug or t-shirt. Frank, I haven't seen the shirt, but I got a mug a while back and that's what I'm choosing this time, since it's a pretty good mug and I can always use more mugs. (Frank also has a dirty limerick in the WP blog that doesn't get into the paper edition and wins no prize but fame and honor).

I'm sure Frank entered other worthy limericks, and I also had hoped for more than the two of mine that inked, but the Post received 1,569 limericks from over 300 contestants, so the competition was pretty intense.

For some reason I am not surprised that Roger and Frank were up there in the winning circle.

But I read Roger's post first as "when she sent me the prize refrigerator" and I was happier for him than on the second reading when "magnet" intruded into my sphere of comprehension.

Hope you guys have something good to put in those mugs.