CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST CONTINUES! Like the New York Yankees, The New Yorker's Cartoon Caption Contest continues to operate through the month of October.

The winner for Contest #18 (businessman talking to a phone that, like everything else in his office, is up in the air), is the topical, "FEMA here. No, we haven't had any substantiated reports of earthquakes." It wasn’t my favorite, but I concede that it gets better with age. Congratulations to Neal Eckel of Tucson, Arizona! (Hm. Maybe I should have submitted, "I'd like to give you an answer, George, but everything's still up in the air.")

I'm sorry to note that I haven’t been bowled over by any of the nominees for Contest #20 (woman talking over a very tiny man’s head at party). Maybe my judgment is impaired because none of my captions have ever made it to the Final Three. I guess I’d go for “Whatever you do, don’t agree to play hide-and-seek with him.” It’s by Jeffrey Hutchins of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

My submission was "I raised him in a fishbowl, and I haven't tired of him yet!" (To “get” this one, look back at the winner of Contest #8, by Jan Richardson of Ridgeland, Mississippi.) I realize it was a longshot, but I wrote it thinking that you, dear readers, might appreciate that type of joke. As always, I'd like to know what captions you conceived too.