Recessional for the Invitational?

Journalism and advertising aren't the only things that draw readers to The Post. Readers get addicted to the newspaper's puzzles, comics and contests. I can't get my heart started in the morning without "Doonesbury" and am suffering through creator Garry Trudeau's 12-week vacation.

But fans of the Style Invitational are a special breed. Fans of the Saturday humor-wordplay contest in Style became anxious last week after Gene Weingarten -- Post Magazine columnist, blogger, feature writer, humorist, lover of sophomoric jokes -- noted in his May 20 online chat that Style copy editor Pat Myers has taken the Post newsroom buyout.

The name of the Empress of the Invitational has never been officially revealed, but some sources say it could be Myers. Far be it from me to confirm her identity, but I can reveal that the Invitational founder and czar is the same Weingarten. Not to be confused with a sane Weingarten.

Listen to Invitational fans: Christopher Lamora of Arlington, a "longtime reader and fan and active entrant," wrote to voice his support. "The SI is one of the few remaining high-quality language/humor contests in the major U.S. print media. . . . Moreover, because Pat and her predecessor have occasionally devised contests that require a thorough reading of the rest of the newspaper, the SI's existence has in fact resulted in better-informed readers. . . ."

Jeff Brechlin of Eagan, Minn.: "It is always funny, often thought-provoking, on occasion controversial, and I really enjoy reading it, and writing for it. I have so little control over most variables in my life . . . please do what you can to save the Invitational."

Dave Zarrow of Reston: "Please tell the rulers of the WashPost that the Style Invitational . . . must be preserved. The fate of the nation hangs in the balance."

Deborah Heard, Style assistant managing editor, said that Myers isn't leaving until Dec. 1 and that there is plenty of time to figure out the Invitational's future.

Weingarten started the Invitational in March 1993, when he was editor of the Sunday Style section. It was a "flagrant and unapologetic rip-off" from a similar one in New York magazine, he said. "It was the same basic idea, but it morphed into a ruder, more political and less literary" contest. It's also irreverent, occasionally off-color and always funny. Weingarten managed it for 10 1/2 years until the Empress took over in 2003.

Several hundred loyal participants enter every week (this is Week 767), some with multiple entries. The contests range from one-liners ("You know you need a new car if . . .") to sophisticated literary parodies.

More than 4,000 readers have "gotten ink," or had entries published. The Invitational's cultish followers compete against one another, keeping scores and statistics. They even put on their own annual awards banquet called the Flushies -- this year the 13th -- named for the singing toilet prizes.

Winners -- called Losers -- get the thrill of seeing their entries and names printed. Runners-up get T-shirts and mugs saying "Loser." First prize is called "the inker," a statue of Rodin's "The Thinker" with a bag on his head. When an entrant gets in print the first time, he or she is credited as a "First Offender" and wins a car air freshener in the shape of a fir tree: a fir-stinker.

The top winner of all time is Russell Beland, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for manpower analysis and assessment, with about 1,250 published entries to his credit; he also started the Flushies. The Empress rewarded him by letting him judge a week's entries -- highly unusual since she has been the sole judge for 4 1/2 years. "There are clever, imaginative people who spend more time on it than I do," she said.