I'll do better, I promise

Two posts in and I'm already apologizing.

After posting the above column, the one that didn't appear in YES! Weekly, I must admit that I took advantage of not having to crank one out on a weekly basis and did as next to nothing as I could get away with for awhile. But, as the old joke goes, "Break's over, back on your heads," so it's time to jump back in the fray. I'll do better, I promise.

First off, a sincere thanks to all the folks who have called and emailed expressing regret, outrage, sympathy and sadness over the demise of my column in YES! I even picked up my eighteenth reader, Eric Huey, a man well known to the blogging community. Eric has forced me to retire the Sizzling Seventeen and supplant it with the Elite Eighteen. At this rate I may break that elusive twenty barrier by the end of President Obama's first term.

As the name implies, this space is apt to be about whatever it is that happens to trip my trigger at the precise moment I sit down to put finger to keyboard. If someone dangles a shiny object in front of me, it may be about shiny objects. Or, if I get too distracted it may not appear at all, again, the luxury of not being forced to beat a deadline.

For the past several months I'd been amazed at the number of folks who, jokingly or otherwise, asked me what I was going to write about once Duh left office. And last night I ran into a friend who said he assumed that I'd retired the column now that I didn't have Bush to bash on an almost weekly basis.
So, let's set the record straight, brothers and sisters. I'd been cranking out this drivel for a full sixteen years before Duh's tragic and illegal ascension to power on the federal level. So I suspect I'll be able to come up with fodder with or without his sorry ass.

Second, although my intention is to become a kinder, gentler columnist/blogger, exploring a wider range of local and non-political topics, don't think for a moment that we still don't have George W. Bush to kick around anymore. Until a War Crimes Tribunal is convened at The Hague to try him, Cheney, Rove, Rummy and a few other assorted neo-cons for treason and crimes against humanity, trust me, I'll not go gently into that good night.

Ah, I feel all better now.

Several loyal readers -- OK, five ... well, maybe four -- have asked exactly what happened at YES! The unvarnished truth is this: The publisher, Charles Womack, killed the column you see above that was to have come out the day after the inauguration. He'd read one too many Bush bashes, I suppose, and that one hit him the wrong way, so he exercized a publisher's prerogative. So, in a fit of petulance, I killed all subsequent columns. Like that S. Elm St. developer who stormed out of the City CounciI meeting because they wouldn't play footsie with him, I took my marbles and went home. I told Charles that he was a friend long before he became my boss and he'll be a friend long after he's my boss. I will still do some features for YES! as well as some special editions, still remain as editor of the Jamestown News, a Womack publication, and still remain a staunch supporter of the voice that YES! represents in this community. Charles and I learned long ago that it's always best not to burn bridges, and this one remains strong and intact. He's a stand-up guy, a friend and a top-shelf newspaperman.
Having said all that, I assure you I'll not go two weeks between posts from now on.

Let the fish fry proceed.