In case my lovely Citizens haven’t noticed, I am now updating my account on Twitter. In the upper right hand corner of the blog you’ll find my last two updates, but follow me during the week as I eat out someplace, go to an event, or have the burning desire to speak to my Citizens immediately.

New toy to geek out with! Yay!

Citizens, your Czarina is back!

Really, I must apologize for the…oh…eight month absence. It really is amazing how real life (ha ha) gets in the way of things One would prefer to do.

To answer the inevitable question, your Czarina is not blogging because she is a victim of the economy (at least not yet). I did read someplace that blogging is up by about 5000% because of the high unemployment rate, but I feel compelled to return for other reasons. Namely, I blog because it fills a void in my life to talk to myself.

But seriously, as a result of all of the nasty things going on – and despite what you might think, the Czarina does NOT support irresponsible, laissez-faire capitalism – we will spend some time here discussing how to have the finer things (and when) for less money, and what those finer things might be. Hint: they’re not all material goods, those finer things.

I realize it will take a bit of time to woo you back, my wonderful Subjects, but until you believe that the Czarina has emerged from the Winter Palace for good, she will continue to try and win you over with fabulous content.

Cheers and stay warm.

Love, your Czarina.

Comments are welcome, but my dear Citizens will need to get through a captcha. I know this makes the blog less accessible for some, but otherwise spammers win the war. The Czarina hopes you will contribute.

Unfortunately, I have to disable comments to the blog due to a high volume of spam attacks. Hopefully this is only temporary, and a software upgrade will make it more difficult for spam to get through. Until then, Stylefool will be comment-free. Sorry for the inconvenience.

“If you come to my office and ask me a loaded question like, ‘Dr. Hansen, why did you give me an F on the paper?’ I’ll have to answer “because I couldn’t grade you any lower.”

–Dr. Earl Hansen, Northern Illinois University

Because the Czarina has tenure on her own blog, and because she thinks grades based on politics or personal relationships are the absolute scourge of the universe, she can promise Citizens that her grades will not be subject to any kind of grade inflation. She wants her grades to mean something, and for Citizens to trust that an ‘A’ rating is indeed an A rating – and As should be safe, legal, and rare. So the Czarina is hereby posting her grading scale for public scrutiny:

STYLEFOOL GRADING SCALE:

A: Absolutely exceptional; an amazing combination of value and quality. Better than a thirty minute aromatherapy backrub from a non-bored significant other you actually like a good deal.

B: Very good. Noticeably lower in either value or quality than an ‘A’ product or service, but still worth considering. No more than one or two ‘Bzuh?’s during the course of a meal or during contact with service providers.

C: Average. Something a Citizen might consider if bored and if he or she has already thrown away too much money on things like this.

D: Poor. The Fail Train is rapidly approaching from the north.

F: Fail. A spectacular bucket of FUBAR fail.

It is the Czar and Czarina’s sincerest hope that reviews will be meaningful and helpful to their Citizens. Along those lines, if they would ever be in the position to post a paid review, this will be disclosed in the post. Otherwise, grades are based on the Czar and Czarina’s (and now Duchess J’s) personal experiences. As always, feedback is welcome.