Caption Contest

This is the way it works: someone signs you up to receive The New Yorker. I know people who have received New Yorker subscriptions as a gift, but I've never met anyone who signed up for themselves. I am in the midst of a yearlong free ride myself, enjoying each weekly issue for its fiction, nonfiction, cartoons, and current events. The list of shows and clubs and other goings-on in New York at the beginning of each issue are of less importance. I live rather far away.

The back page of each issue is the Caption Contest.



Readers submit a caption, three are chosen to be voted upon, and then readers vote. The winner gets a framed print with their caption. Pretty decent. I decided at the start of the year that I would participate each and every week, in the hope that I would eventually win and have something to hang on my wall that I really didn't need. For the above cartoon, I thought my contribution was pretty good.

"Perhaps we should downsize the furniture as well."

But no, I didn't make the final cut. These are the three we got to vote on:

"Is that your foot?"
"Should I call and downsize our pizza order?"
"They're outside protesting, sir."

I forget which one I voted for. I only know I couldn't vote for my own because (yet again) mine wasn't chosen. Still I persist. The actual winner was "Is that your foot?" How disappointing.

By my recollection looking over the entire list of submissions, there were somewhere near 5000 entries. So, odds being what they are . . . well, you know. The odds are long.

This week's cartoon:



What would be your caption? (No, I don't want to steal yours, I already submitted mine! I'm just curious. Heck, go online and submit your own. Just tell me first!)