Greetings, and thanks for joining me for another, uh, run. Over the last stretch, my column appeared for a virtually uninterrupted nine years (before that, off and on [more on] since 1977). This time, who knows?
I was as surprised as you were when my column disappeared in September 2003. At that time, editor and friend Brian McCarthy came in to work one day only to find he no longer had a job; ditto office manager Lee Fortier (and others?). As a result, the same thing happened to me and my column, but it took three months for me to find out for sure (uh, what we have here is a failure to communicate). Once the door slammed and was finally locked to me, I feel I have become a persona non grata! I couldn’t even get a Letter to the Editor published because I promoted my website (read that as free advertising) and wrote that the publisher of the paper thought my column wasn’t “local” enough. Apparently, he didn’t like that appearing in print, so, I decided it was time for another approach – as a result, here I am.
Almost every day, right up to this writing, someone else still stops me and asks where my column is. I don’t want to sound like I am going to, but based on what people have repeatedly told me, I almost expected the circulation of the paper to plummet and have advertisers pulling out left and right until my column was restored. Unfortunately, that never happened, but I do know many calls were made to the paper; again, unfortunately, not enough to make a difference.
On the plus side, once I am up and running online, I can offend more people and push the envelope a bit more without worrying if the Bit will be cut (really, though, what does pushing an envelope have to do with anything? Where did that expression even come from [do I smell a future Bit?]). Of course, I will still display some small sense of decorum, but people should know by now to read at your own risk….
At the very least, I am hoping again for a weekly column with past columns archived and available online. I am hoping to get a few sponsors and maybe even some donations to relieve the burden of maintaining a website. I am also hoping to eventually offer some basic merchandise for sale and prizes for contests. As this whole world is new to me, I am not sure how things will unfold. I have enlisted the able assistance of Badger Web Design to help me. If you like how things look, he can probably help you and your web needs as well. He can be reached at elbadger@thebadgerden.org.
Well, that’s it for now. Time will tell just how well-received the new format is. Again, thanks for joining me!
