like, du-uuh.") Ervin Stembol, of Alexandria, Va., has been an occasional winner in this and other humor contests. His unmasking as a nom de plume prompted the current contest rule barring pseudonymous entries. Bob Staake (pronounced "Stack") illustrates the contest and occasionally suggests contest ideas. Tom Witte, of Montgomery Village, Md., is a frequent winner and contest-namer. In 2009 he became the third person to amass 1,000 appearances. Czar/Empress "The Czar of the Style Invitational" was, until December 2003, the pseudonymous man behind the contest. He chose all the winners - calling the contest the "last pure meritocracy on Earth" - and controlled all aspects of the contest. Very little was known about the Czar for some time, except that he worked for the Washington Post coming up with the contest ideas and choosing the winners for every week's contest. Post writer and humorist Gene Weingarten was believed to be the Czar despite public denials. However, in 1999, and again in 2001, he admitted in his column that he edited the feature. The Czar retired in late 2003, giving all the power to "The Empress of the Style Invitational", who has suggested she has a lower tolerance for immature or bathroom humor than the Czar. In early 2011, with the Invitational's move to Sunday's Style section, the Empress was outed by the Post as former copy editor Pat Myers, whose real name appears in the byline. On washingtonpost.com and in the contest's discussion group, the Style Conversational, she still goes by "The Empress." Format Each week's contest begins with a few examples of answers to the contest, which is confusing since they appear before the contest theme for the week is presented. There is often a picture or pictorial example. Sometimes the contest relates to a picture, such as one where entrants suggest what a given cartoon picture or group of pictures might represent. Beneath this is a paragraph beginning with the phrase "This week's contest," followed by a description of the contest. There is then fine print describing the prizes, how to enter, and how to determine if you are eligible for the prizes. Following is the "Report from Week X," where X = [this week's contest number] - 4, the result of the four weeks between when a contest is first shown and the winners are announced. These results begin with commentary by The Empress on the results,