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Out of my brain on the 5-15

It’s about time for a blogging hiatus. This humid blog has taken a couple of sabbaticals in the past—one last summer, for a two-week vacation, and then a three-week hiatus after the November election, during which I posted only once a week while I was being re-educated at Focus on the Family Ministries in Colorado Springs.  Since then, I’ve been blogging away for five and a half months; I’ve crossed the million-reader mark (something I would never have dreamed of in a million reader-years), and I managed three honorable mentions in the 2004 Koufax Awards (more things of which I would not have dreamed in a million reader-years), which surely boosted my readership into the upper reaches of the blogosphere’s troposphere.  (I think that’s the correct osphere.) Last but not least, since November 3 this blog has garnered well over four thousand comments (yes, I went back and counted ‘em all—now we know how many comments it takes to fill the Albert Hall), and the amazing thing is, all of them have been funny.  Thanks, folks.

I feel like I have end-of-semester exhaustion, even though I didn’t teach this semester (don’t tell David Horowitz!), and just over a week ago I figured out why.  All this time I’ve been blogging and blogstanding and blogtending, I also wrote three talks, three academic essays, and one newspaper opinion piece, while editing a special issue of a journal, turning in the long-overdue first draft of Liberal Arts, and finishing up work on a bunch of other things as well.  I don’t think I’ve ever done so much writing in a six-month span.  And it turns out that my long-overdue first draft needs a whole lot of work, and you know what that means—more writing.  Honestly, I’ve just gotten sick and tired of reading my own prose.  If you’ve sensed a certain lack of snap, crackle, or pop in recent posts, well, that’s why.  A friend recently remarked to me that when Janet guest-posted here two weeks ago, it was a “breath of fresh air” on the blog.  “Mm, m’fren’,” I replied.  “For you and me both.”

But I don’t want the poor blog to hibernate for weeks at a time, and I don’t want to jerk around my regular readers.  So, then, here’s the plan.  John McGowan has kindly agreed to step in from May 17 through the first week of June.  John teaches literature and literary theory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where (as you’re probably aware) they’re working overtime to establish leftist hegemony throughout the Tar Heel state from the mountains to the sea, and I think he’s one of the best in the business.  His most recent book is Democracy’s Children: Intellectuals and the Rise of Cultural Politics, which I recommend highly.  Please give him a warm welcome, and I’ll see you all next month.

Posted by on 05/15 at 09:27 PM

  1. Have a lovely hiatus. It’ll be a bit sombre without your voice, but either way blood flows.

    Posted by  on  05/15  at  11:11 PM

  2. This is a plot to slow down John’s own real-world writing, isn’t it?  How did that conversation go?  “Hey, Ben, I mean John, blogging is a really great productivity tool, you should try it, it’s a lot of fun.  It’s not every day a boy gets a chance to write a blog.  Here, d’you wanna borrow my brush?”

    Have a good break wink

    Posted by bitchphd  on  05/15  at  11:26 PM

  3. Everybody needs a vacation-even from non-profit activities. enjoy & rechage the batteries!

    Posted by  on  05/15  at  11:26 PM

  4. OK but what about the part where I notice that Liz Taylor clutching that Yorkie in Butterfield 8 is analogous to Paris Hilton holding the Chihuahua ?

    spelling optional and dammit I’m not gay....

    Posted by  on  05/15  at  11:42 PM

  5. Two weeks isn’t so long, even in blog-reader-years. But I look forward to the return. This is the only blog I’ve read every day since I discovered it in March.

    John: Big hockey-skates to fill, but welcome.

    Posted by Lee  on  05/16  at  12:17 AM

  6. Michael, I agree you’re overdue for some time off. You’re so burnt-out you didn’t even comment on my cute little poem linking Ralph Wiggum to Gawain and the Green Knight in your poetry month post - not even to say you thought it stunk. You didn’t even give me courtesy points in the, “Clearly not an English major” division.

    Well, enjoy your time off. I’m just gonna kick back and see how far my A’s can stretch their losing streak. It’d be a very good time for me to take up drinking, but I’m trying to cut back on calories for the approaching swimsuit season.

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  01:47 AM

  7. Oh, great. Another willowy literary theorist with the usual baggage. Couldn’t you find somebody doing real work?

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  07:58 AM

  8. Couldn’t you find somebody doing real work?

    Nope!  Everybody else was working.  And Oaktown Girl, I knew I was slipping, but I didn’t realize it had gotten that bad.  I’ll try to make sure your Ode to Ralph makes it into the next edition of the Norton anthology.  Meanwhile, many thanks to your A’s for helping to revive the Yankees.

    Lee, I was actually thinking three weeks.  And Dr. B., you want to take over in June?

    Posted by Michael  on  05/16  at  08:39 AM

  9. If you’ve sensed a certain lack of snap, crackle, or pop in recent posts

    Nope. But have a nice time, see you in a couple weeks.

    Posted by Jeremy Osner  on  05/16  at  08:59 AM

  10. RE: Out of My Brain on the Five Fifteen.
    With The Who overexposed everywhere these days, I almost jumped on them in the Arbitrary post previous, but I couldn’t do it. Because in some cases and I am not talking Paris Hilton, overexposure is good thing.

    Enjoy your vacation.  Let Love Reign Over You and Yours.  May your Punk Meet Your Godfather. 

    I agree Doctor B would be a great June pickup in the Berube League Draft. Throws left, bats left. Good power.  Hits to all fields

    Also RE: many thanks to your A’s for helping to revive the Yankees. Ah, so someone else besides myself has an appreciation for Jeter and his ilk.

    Posted by The Heretik  on  05/16  at  09:10 AM

  11. Okay, that’s it.

    Majikthise is gallivanting off somewhere for a short period of time.

    Fafblog—heavy downtime (this hurts).

    Now Michael?

    I am bitching wicked creeped out.

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  09:28 AM

  12. You deserve your break.  Have fun!

    Posted by Jackmormon  on  05/16  at  10:42 AM

  13. I’m just glad not to find a note taped to the blog this morning that reads, “Gone to Canada. Send Janet.”

    Enjoy the break. We’ll rustle up a crew to scrub the place clean of Phil Collins comments before you get back.

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  10:45 AM

  14. Dr. B., you want to take over in June?

    Uh, no.  But thanks!

    Posted by bitchphd  on  05/16  at  11:33 AM

  15. A well deserved break - but you’ll be missed.  Get some rest.  I recommend old re-runs of The Big Valley or I Love Lucy

    Posted by DK  on  05/16  at  12:11 PM

  16. "This humid blog...” Did I miss something?  Hope this isn’t an embarrassingly obvious point, but of course troposphere is correct.  If readership climbs much higher, we’ll need supplemental humidity for sure.

    In the meantime, Michael, make the most of your stay in the dry slackosphere-- or dare I say torposphere?

    And to Comrade McGowan: ration your energy; save some for the home front.  This blog has a geographically broad readership, and most of us will require less indoctrination than your typical NC denizen.  We the Choir already have the song (and dance) down pretty well.

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  02:35 PM

  17. This may seem off topic, but why the heck don’t you sell ads on your blog to cover your costs and maybe line your pockets with some extra hockey money?

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  02:55 PM

  18. John McGowan! How wonderful. (John was on my diss. committee, among other claims to fame.) Welcome, John! You have a mighty high standard to live up to . . .

    Posted by Sally  on  05/16  at  02:57 PM

  19. Have fun, but don’t come back unless there will be a NHL season!

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  06:29 PM

  20. That is to say: John McGowan was on my diss. committee.

    Posted by Sally  on  05/16  at  06:38 PM

  21. enjoy the vacation, Michael! you deserve it.

    welcome John & good luck--this is a snarkilishous bunch, here!

    does the “humid” cause the “clumpy”, or is that the other way ‘round? i worry that this John fellow will be insufficiently clumpy, while being extra humid (due to his Southern locale.)

    Posted by Librarian  on  05/16  at  07:52 PM

  22. So, Sally, Virginia Woolf: Reading the Renaissance is out of stock at Wal-Mart?  Well, I thought, laying down my blog in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision.

    Posted by Michael  on  05/16  at  08:33 PM

  23. Have a lovely time away.

    *waves*

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  08:54 PM

  24. John McGowan, of Rochester fame?

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  09:04 PM

  25. Not only do you earn three times what D. Ho does, but you also get a sabbatical for blogging and now a sabbatical from blogging?

    Posted by Sherman Dorn  on  05/16  at  10:36 PM

  26. Bérubé, do you not remember the dark days of April, when you rooted against the Tar Heels? And now you’re having a Tar Heel do the heavy lifting?

    The disgrace!

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  10:45 PM

  27. Not only do you earn three times what D. Ho does, but you also get a sabbatical for blogging and now a sabbatical from blogging?

    Yep, that’s about it.  I’ve got a tan to work on, dude.

    Do you not remember the dark days of April, when you rooted against the Tar Heels? And now you’re having a Tar Heel do the heavy lifting?

    I remember nothing. Pass the tanning lotion, would you?

    Posted by  on  05/16  at  11:02 PM

  28. Only if you get me another margarita. No salt, please!

    Posted by  on  05/17  at  09:26 AM

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