Prints the Chaff is retired.

Some of you probably saw this coming: Increasingly infrequent posts, taking three weeks off for three days' work, etc.

Well, as Freddie Mercury once said, it's time to leave you all behind and face the truth. Which is, I don't want to do this anymore. It's taking too much time away from people and other stuff I care more about. And besides, the place I'm moving to has only dialup access, and daily blogging at 33k is madness.

I'd rather do this right or not at all -- that is, post every day and give the topic the time it deserves, rather than let it whither or fade into irrelevance. Burnout vs. rust, as Neil Young would put it.

I'll still post now and then to my personal page at tommangan.net -- look for photos of our new place in a couple weeks. The Banned for Life list -- my one lasting contribution to the world -- will survive.

Blogging was fun till it started getting to be too much like work: scanning dozens of blogs and news sites every day for blogworthy posts, then thinking up something to say, then saying it, then correcting all my typos. Time spent blogging was not spent with books, music, movies, family, physical fitness (I gained 15 pounds because I had to give up my workouts to free up time to blog). Lately I had come to dread it. Dread's always a good sign it's time to move on.

I can't let the moment pass, though, without crediting some of my favorite Web people.

Nicole at A Capital Idea -- she can have all my traffic, and she deserves it.

Jeff at Side Salad -- I like his idea of blogging: purely for amusement.

Sid at Winkie.org -- The guy's adventurous as hell; I admire that.

Bill at theslot.com -- Paid-up member of the Joint Chiefs.

Phillip at Testy Copy Editors -- A giant among grouchy desk people.

For posterity, here's my list of editors' blogs:

Here's my list of editors' resources:

Here's my list of link paybacks:

Again, many thanks for putting up with me these past 10 months.

Tom Mangan, May 29,2004

P.S.: I've deleted all my Prints the Chaff-related stuff to free up server space for down the road.

Update: Thanks to David Akin for his kind regards.

Update #2: An interview I did with Steve Rubel, a classy PR practitioner.

Update #3: My interview with Steve brought a stinging denunciation from a Microsoft insider. So what's it mean when one of Satan's worker bees says you've been a bad boy?

Update #4: I've reimported most of my Prints the Chaff entries into my blog at tommangan.net. Here are the categories: