My Entry in The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #753

All ashore for The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #753 from the double issue of April 26 and May 3, 2021. Captain Ahab and Moby-Dick are both grocery shopping in a supermarket. My water-logged entry may be seen below. The drawing is by Benjamin Schwartz.

"I don't share your taste for Cap'n Crunch."

May 10, 2021 Update:  The Finalists

May 23, 2021 Update:  I voted for the caption from Washington.

May 25, 2021 Update:  The Winner

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #566

Avast, ye landlubbers! Here be me entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #566 for April 24, 2017. The drawing be rendered by Mick Stevens.

"I never expected a happy ending."

May 1, 2017 Update:  The Finalists

May 8, 2017 Update:  I voted for the first caption, of course.


May 15, 2017 Update:  Winning Caption

Not that you asked, but the caption I chose came in third.


Note:  Last week, cartoonist P. C. Vey was absolutely on fire, but my caption apparently wasn't. Light up and enjoy Contest #565.

How many other blogs do you suppose can offer posts about both Mick Stevens and Herman Melville? Not too many, I'll wager.

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My Entry in the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #532—Almost

I was quite busy this past week and couldn't manage a single blog post about last month's trip to Ireland. Furthermore, despite having one week more than usual to devise a caption for the New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest #532, I didn't submit anything at all. If I had, the caption for the August 8 contest might have been something like this one. Or maybe not. The drawing is by Danny Shanahan.

"For a beached whale, I'm totally crushing it!"

August 22, 2016 Update:  The Finalists

August 26, 2016 Update:  The Rankings

In the ongoing pursuit of caption contest transparency, the New Yorker's cartoon editor Bob Mankoff has released the rankings to all the captions submitted in Contest #532 based on the online voting here. No one submitted my exact caption—including me—so it is impossible to tell where it might have ranked. Here are some similar to mine with rankings all over the place:

So much for that. More interestingly, the first of the three finalists ranked 79th in the voting. This shows that the voting is being used by the editors to stratify the submissions, but they are still actively making the final selections. Here are all the captions beginning with "I got your...":

The second caption finalist ranked somewhat higher at 7. Here are the captions beginning with "We should...":

The third caption actually ranked third. Here are the captions beginning with "Yeah, well...":

So what were the top captions based exclusively on the online voting? I'm glad you asked. Here are the top three. For some reason, the algorithm produced a caption ranked 0, and it certainly seems good enough to merit the top ranking.

Here are a few other random very highly-ranked captions: 

And a few from near the bottom of the rankings:

And, if you really must know, here is the caption with the absolute lowest ranking of all:

I couldn't have said it better. Or could I?

August 29, 2016 Update:  I like that first caption, but consistent with my previous behavior in this contest in failing to enter, I failed to vote.

September 5, 2016 Update:  Winning Caption

Note:  I may not have added anything to the blog this week, but I still garnished a mention Friday on Ink Spill. Read the post here.

Last time around in the Caption Contest, cartoonist Will McPhail really stuck his neck out. My caption just didn't measure up. See the long and the short of Contest #531.

Review this blog's archives to see why Danny Shanahan is the Herman Melville of cartoonists.

Check out the Attempted Bloggery's index to see why I am the Bartleby of bloggers.

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The Illustrated Moby-Dick

On February 23, Swann Galleries sold a copy of this 1979 limited edition (250 unnumbered copies) of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick with woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser. I've never seen a copy, but it certainly appears to be a beautifully designed and illustrated book.

Sale 2269 Lot 25

- Feb 23 2012 13:30

(ARION PRESS.) Melville, Herman. Moby-Dick, or, The Whale. Printed in blue and black on handmade paper bearing a whale watermark. 100 woodcut illustrations by Barry Moser. Folio, full blue Moroccan goatskin, spine slightly but evenly darkened, joints and ends lightly rubbed; internally clean; blue cloth slipcase, unevenly faded and with some surface marks. San Francisco, 1979 

Estimate $5,000-7,500  

Sold for $8,500

one of 250 unnumbered copies of the first trade edition of the Arion Press edition, designed by Andrew Hoyem. One of the greatest achievements in modern bookmaking.

catalogue.swanngalleries.com/asp/fullCatalogue.asp?salelot=2269++++++25+&refno=++656189&saletype=

- Feb 23 2012 13:30 

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