Today's Beaver County (PA) Times celebrates what's probably the funniest caption so far in the new series, "It's me, '9,' from yoga class," and its self-deprecating dentist author. The man lives in a town with "quip" right in the middle of it! Naturally he's got the right stuff to win. Not to mention that Cafrelli spends most of his day looking at people upside down; that's got to spark the imagination.

Aliquippa dentist Robert Cafrelli got published in the July 4 issue of the NEW YORKER magazine.

It wasn't like pulling teeth or anything. Cafrelli just thought up six words, and viola, he was the winner of the erudite magazine's cartoon caption contest.

"I just did it for fun," said Cafrelli, who for his efforts wins an autographed copy of the cartoon for which he supplied words. While a framed copy might look good in his Sheffield Road dentist's office, he said he probably will display the cartoon at home.

A New Yorker subscriber who appreciates the magazine's articles on theater, nightclubs and sports, Cafrelli had been paying attention to the weekly cartoon caption contest, but at first none of the wordless cartoons moved him.

But a cartoon showing a woman shaped like a No. 6 "kind of spoke to me," said Cafrelli, who figures his brevity helped his caption win. "It was short and right to the point," he said.

Sports? Like this week's Kevin Conley piece on young and restless poker champs? It's a pretty good story, actually, though I get bored by cards very quickly. My favorite fact is that poker ace Jennifer Harman, who (writes Conley) "may be the best female poker player anywhere in the world," has almost the same name as Beth Harmon, world chess champion in a better place than this one. Jennifer Harman, who gets insufficient coverage in the piece, is a celebrated poker beauty as well as a gifted player and dogged survivor of two kidney transplants. Much as I love Gahan Wilson, his caricature of Harman makes her look more Middle Earth than Smart Olsen Twin. Poke her, indeed. In any case, even if you can't focus on the details of Texas hold-'em, you'll like Conley's Word Freak-ish approach (without the personal learning curve, though that may be in the probable future book).

Mid-piece and especially in the following story on Guantánamo Bay, I also decided I don't love the all-by-one-guy spots. I love the spot artists, but not the running Story in the Spots. I'm finding they not only distract the eye from the text in a new way but are oddly insulting to it. I'l explain this more clearly another time, when I finally post that Times piece about the Spot Revolution. I also miss the old, odd, random spots. I don't like change in my traditions. Anyway, congratulations, Dr. Cafrelli! Can I have the bubble-gum fluoride this time?

Local guy deep 6's New Yorker contest [Beaver County Times; includes Koren's drawing plus Cafrelli's caption]

Categories: NYer, Issue, Cartoons, Contest, Spots