The WeatherBlog continues to receive entries for our hurricane names contest. We have (cheapo) prizes in hand, and plan to close the contest Oct. 31 and publish the winning entries on Tuesday, Nov. 1.

Here again is the premise for the contest, and the rules, such as they are:

The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season has been the busiest on record, with 23 names storms so far. That has exhausted the 21 names provided for the regular season by the National Hurricane Center. Their fallback is the Greek alphabet. And so far they have used up Alpha and Beta on the 22nd and 23rd tropical storms of the season.

We didn't think that was very imaginative. After all, if Hurricane Gamma is a killer, they'll have to retire the name. Then what would they do next year if we have another season with more than 21 storms that reach tropical storm force?

So, we called on readers to submit alternate name lists. In the spirit of the last storm name on the 2005 list - Wilma - we called for cartoon character names. (Wilma, for those who didn't waste their childhoods watching TV cartoons like the rest of us, was Fred Flintstone's wife on The Flintstones.) We also asked that the names follow NHC rules and alternate male and female, and skip Q, U, X, Y and Z - although, if you can come up with names for those letters, that's OK. We're easy.

Well, some of our readers submitted some great lists of cartoon names. Others either didn't read the rules or chose to ignore them, and we have seen some very creative entries. So, we will award a prize for the most creative name list as well as the best one that adheres to the rules. We'll also probably have to give prizes to some really funny runnerups.

But we're still taking entries, so put on your thinking caps and send your name lists to frank.roylance@baltsun.com by Halloween. We'll announce the winners and publish the best lists here on Nov. 1.