CARTOON CAPTION/ANTI-CAPTION CONTESTS CONTINUE! It's no surprise that this week's winning New Yorker caption comes from New York. As you might recall, all three candidates came from the Empire State, ensuring that the land of George "Pay Up" Pataki would emerge from a three-way tie with a fourth win, securing third place behind leaders California (eight) and Pennsylvania (five).

What's noteworthy is that the Contest #42 winner (man at desk seated in electric chair), is by Richard Nathanson of New York City:

"Cancel my twelve-oh-one."

With that, the Big Apple continues to carry New York State as the source of all of its New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest winners.

New York will not gain any ground in Contest #44 (troops with mime in what might be wartorn Iraq), as the candidates hail from New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Washington, DC. I'm leaning toward DC's candidate, by Mark Chalfant:

"O.K., send him in. But this goes against the Geneva conventions."

I know you're just dying to compare that with my losing submission, so here you go:

"I never thought searching for comedy could be this hard."

I think mine might be more clever than you think. Whatever.

Over at Dan Radosh's Anti-Caption Contest #45 (Gahan Wilson's couple in hallway with gravity-defying toddlers), Dan Radosh recognized a whopping nine anti-captions, singling out

"I think you'll find Professor Xavier's Vocational Academy for Moderately Intelligent Mutants to be both fascinating and yet oddly depressing."

by Tim C. as the winner.

My losers were pretty sucky but clearly not sucky enough:

"No matter what you see here, don't loose your sense of perspective." [sic]

"That's right: $100,000 down, then $10,000 per month to keep you off Page Six. And no one will know except the two of us!"

Here are Caption Contest #46 and Anti-Caption Contest #46.

Image by David Marc Fischer using Samsung cameraphone