Doug's Horsey Neologism Carried the Day

Once a Mustang, always a Mustang. And once a Mustang, once a winner of Levey's monthly neologism contest.

"The nickname for the teams at my high school [in Casper, Wyo.] was Mustangs," said Doug Snyder, of Bowie. "So a horse-type name comes easily."

Easily enough to crown Doug the winner of our July wordsmithing contest. As usual, we received about 3,000 entries from word maker-uppers great and small. They faced this challenge:

Every radio station does it during ratings periods. They offer dollars to listeners. If the listener is home when an on-air personality calls, the listener wins. But the best part is the recording of that conversation (which the station later plays at least 50,000 times). The deejay always says, "... and you've won $5,000!" And the listener always reacts with a noise that is part joy, part astonishment and part barnyard squeal. This noise is called...

Doug's winning entry:

A Winny.

The same entry was submitted by John Held and Gregory Cunningham of Arlington, Ben Llewellyn of Falls Church, Raheel Masood and Michael Gips of Bethesda, Gina Haldeman, Carolyn O'Brien and Priscilla K. Kirby of Vienna, Dann Sklarew and Jamey Lee West of Gaithersburg and John O'Byrne of Dublin. But Doug, an early riser, was first off the mark, via e-mail, at 6:43:18 the morning the challenge appeared. He and his horsey entry thus carried the day.

Our winner retired two years ago from a 27-year career as a sociology professor at Bowie State University. He now teaches part time at Prince George's Community College.

Doug was kind enough to shake loose on Monday for his victory lunch (seafood stew at Kinkead's), even though his daughter, Karen, was preparing to marry Tom Phelps on Thursday. For the Snyder family, it was a good week all around. Congratulations on all fronts.

Almosts and Nearlies for July were:

Moolah Whoop: Roger Gilkeson, of Northwest Washington, and Ruth Ketler, of Silver Spring.

Hooraydio: Carole S. Lyons, of Arlington, and Stephen Dudzik, of Silver Spring.

Air Raves: Molly Michael, of Montgomery, Ala., first, then 11 more just like hers.

Disc-belief: Alan D. Lichtman, of North Bethesda.

Sgreedch: Former champ Tom Witte, of Gaithersburg.

Squeal of Fortune: A multitude. David Kaiser, of Ashburn, was first.

Howlelujah: Recent champ Julie Cunningham, of Winston-Salem, N.C.

Hullabaloot: Former champ Jayne Townend.

Tiradio: Michelle Salts, of Coppell, Tex.

DeliriAM: Tom Witte again.

Bonanza Peal: Phil Frankenfeld, of Northwest Washington.

Greeding: Mary Lee K. Garrison.

Sweepstrionics: Jack Williams, of Arlington.

Call of the Dialed: Roger and Jill Harte.

Cashtonishment: Ashesh Patel, of Rockville.

Wondermint: P.J. Siegel, of Greenbelt.

Squeelation: Jeffrey L. Silberberg, of Olney, Marcia Limberg, of Rockville, and Wendy Pang.

Celebraytion: Former champ Cathy Smith Caviness, of Clifton.

Bucksclamation: Elbert L. Dage.

Exulstation: Former champ Marlene B. Cohen, of Columbia, Hank Wallace, of Northwest Washington, and Ken Wable, of Uniontown, Pa.

Mega-blurtz: Neil Gordon.

Orcashm: Jerry E. Sullivan, of Fort Belvoir.

Luckus: Bill Roberts.

Braydio: Anne Lavergne.

Omygush: Pat Chapin, of Rockville.

Wheeaction: Rick Neumann, of Bethesda.

And Broadghast: Albert P. Toner, of Arlington.

You're in mid-season form, troops. Let's see how you fare with the August challenge, which is:

That sharp ping that a tennis racket makes when it strikes a tennis ball hard is called... (Click to see winning entries)

First prize has a ping all its own: a free lunch, at a restaurant of the winner's choice, in Washington or sensibly close.

Contest rules: You may enter as often as you like, on one piece of paper or several. Joint entries are welcome. So are entries submitted by fax (202-334-5150) or e-mail (leveyb@washpost.com). Entries must bear day and evening phone numbers, including area code(s). All entries become my property. Entries will not be accepted by phone or returned. In case of duplicate winning entries, I'll choose the one I receive first.

Please mail entries to Bob Levey, The Washington Post, 1150 15th St., Washington, D.C. 20071. Entries for the August contest must be received by Aug. 31.

As you crank your brains, I crank my car engine. I'm off for the next three weeks. Stay as sweet as you are and as skinny as you can manage. I'll be back here on Comics Page No. One on Aug. 30.

© 1999 Bob Levey (leveyb@washpost.com).
This article is reproduced with the kind permission of the author.

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