Cartoon Caption Contest Connection

At the Family History Library, I joined this group where we write and read our family stories.  At a recent gathering, Winnie told me I was famous and handed me the local Sunday newspaper.  I was a finalist in the San Diego Union-Tribune's Cartoon Caption Contest.  Drawn by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Steve Breen, this contest asks readers to submit a caption for one of his drawings each Sunday.  The winner receives the signed original in the mail.  As we were about to start reading our stories, I told Winnie to keep the paper as I was a finalist many times and had already seen the results. By the end of our gathering, I reconsidered; I needed another family story for next time, so I asked Winnie if I could have the newspaper, telling her she inspired my next family story.

I had read the Cartoon Caption Contest for many years always telling my self, like with many other things, one day I would do this.  On March 16, 2014, I finally did.  I followed the instructions about entering:  three short submissions allowed, emailed to this address by this deadline, with your contact information.  That week's final sentence was:  May the luck of the Irish be with you!  That was lost on me at the time, around St. Patrick's Day, but now I get it.  The luck of the Irish was with me.  I was a finalist the first time I entered!  That would occur fourteen more times over the next two years.  Always a finalist, never the winner...yet.  I was still having a good time captioning those cartoons each week.  My college psychology professor once said that nothing succeeds like success, so I kept entering.  I was even a finalist two weeks in a row last August! (Scroll left to right and up and down to see the whole photo.)

The first cartoon caption contest I entered, I was a finalist.  The luck of the Irish!

I was a finalist two weeks in a row in August.  This was the first week.

The second week in a row I was a finalist with this cartoon.  I captioned it "How did you find it among all the Christmas merchandise?"

My funniest entry, in my opinion, wasn't even picked.  The cartoon to caption was of a beaver in the woods talking on a cell phone.  I wrote:  "Don't ask me any more dam questions."  The contest was flooded with many dam/damn jokes so they didn't select that.  However, my other entry of, "I'll have to chew on that a bit longer" did make me a finalist.

I would have loved to caption this "Don't ask me any more dam questions."  

I originally wrote this in December and we were having a holiday party after our readings, so I will share two of my holiday captions that were also picked as finalists.  The first cartoon depicted a
gingerbread man with a sad look on his face viewing his collapsed gingerbread house.  I wrote, "What part of 'handle gingerly' did they not understand?"  The second cartoon showed a man, a woman, a cat and living room furniture floating in the air.  I wrote, "Things will settle down after the
holidays."

Even the cartoon captions get into the holiday spirit!

The second holiday related caption to be a finalist.  

Last summer, I learned that I could share the caption contest on my Facebook page.  I commented that I was a finalist again and wondered wondered if I would ever win.  The cartoon of a giant octopus dragging a man down a hole with children watching, I captioned, "They are always finding new ways to squeeze the middle class." (See octopus cartoon above.)  My third cousin, Annie, saw the post and commented on it:

Michele Steve Breen was a good customer of mine back here in NJ I worked at the Asbury Park Press when he employed there he also won Prestigious award

I replied:  Small world.  Now I know how to win this cartoon caption contest...mention your name.