CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST CONTINUES! Not to be distracted by this past weekend's New Yorker Festival (covered by Emily Gordon at Beatrice), The New Yorker persists with its cartoon caption contest!

For Contest #17 (giant crows at the window), the winner is again my own favorite, "Yes, I tried tapping on the glass." Its creator is Rob Nieto of Kinnelon, New Jersey (not New York). The land o' Bruce Springsteen is now tied with California, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina as the leaders of the state competition, with two votes each.

In Contest #19 (dog and man and woman reading in a sitting room), New York is already out of the running, with California and Massachusetts earning a chance to pull ahead. I give the edge to Massachusetts, represented by Bostonian Greg Huber's "You won't believe this, but I just remembered where I buried the remote."

Another Contest #19 candidate deserves mention. Larry Martell of New Mexico submitted, "'See Spot run.' 'See Spot run'? Who wrote this crap?" Yeah, that's right: Mr. Shawn is rolling in his grave.

My own entry was the similarly transgressive, "If you can read the newspaper, why can't I drink from the toilet?"

I've shown you mine...now you show me yours!