How to Win the Caption Contest

Film critic had entered it more than 100 times

(NEWSER) - Roger Ebert has entered 107 of the New Yorker 's 281 cartoon caption contests, and this week, he finally won. The film critic opined two years ago on his blog that he had "done more writing for free for the New Yorker in the last five years than for anybody in the previous 40 years," and wondered why he had never even been a finalist. To celebrate Ebert's long-awaited triumph, New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff runs the winning caption as well as some of his favorites of Ebert's past submissions. More»

'You chose this as contest finalist?'

(NEWSER) - Gawker is slamming a New Yorker cartoon that's part of the magazine's weekly caption contest as "pretty racist." The cartoon shows an apparent executive in a cowboy-like hat talking on the phone and crouched behind his desk as he's being fired at with arrows. The winning caption? "Quick, give them a casino." We're all "post-racial liberal elites here who love us some New Yorker cartoons," notes writer Adrian Chen . But "seriously, New Yorker cartoon editors? You chose this as a finalist? And, seriously, New Yorker readers, you voted for it?" More»

If you watch White Christmas , be considerate: also watch Munich

(NEWSER) - "Just because anyone with half a brain celebrates Christmas," Paul Rudnick writes in that bastion of traditional Christianity, the New Yorker , that's no reason to alienate your yarmulke-wearing friends. Some tips:

• Calling Jesus "Our Savior" might seem gauche. Just call him "the Jew that got away."
• Gifting for a mixed couple made easy: The Christian wife gets a candle, the Jewish husband "a lovely framed portrait of his parents, rending their clothes and sobbing."