Til we meet again
So today’s the last day of this humble blog’s existence—though I hear there might be some fireworks here tomorrow (and of course I’ll keep all the archives available). Thanks to everyone who’s stopped by in the past week to pay respects, offer condolences, ask me to keep at it, or just say hello.
I started blogging three years and one day ago by describing my life a bit and remarking that I wasn’t sure I had the time to work in this medium. I’m surprised that I kept it up for this long.
In retrospect, the early days of this blog were not so good, in bloggy terms. I’m still fond of this little item, which put me on the map almost from the start (thanks to a link from Eric Alterman) and got me my first regular readership of about 500 visitors per day. And I liked this somewhat similar item enough to re-run it earlier this year. But I didn’t really know what I was doing; I continued working on a 56k modem until March 30, 2004, and I didn’t have the sense to turn on the comments until May 10 (that post also works as a kind of Guide to the Early Blog in itself). In the end, I think it took me about six or eight months to begin to get the hang of this thing.
And then the next two years were so much fun! We made so many wonderful new friends and enemies, with the friends:enemies ratio running at a healthy 9:1. (I note with puzzlement that three of my daffiest and wackiest detractors—Kirby Olson, Dr. Jacques Albert, and “et alia”—all did their graduate work in literary study at the University of Washington. Something in the water out there?) Then this summer I began to flag, though I had some of the best bloggers on the planet as guest bloggers (thanks again to Lance, Amanda, Lindsay, and Chris) and though I did enjoy writing the long Yeats and Beckett posts. So I actually first began thinking about retiring from blogging back in September—but I decided I would at least try to make it through the midterm elections. Then in late October John Holbo announced that November would be Liberalpalooza Month, and, well, I figured it would just be rude beyond belief to sign off in the middle of a huge Valve Book Event dedicated to What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? So I decided to start winding things down in December instead, with the help of Oaktown Girl and the entire Ministry of Justice of the We Are All Giant Nuclear Fireball Now Party. But then I was nominated for the prestigious title of Best Educationesque Blog on the Internets, and dammit, just when I tried to get out, they pulled me back in. And so on and so forth. I finally decided, while I was down in Virginia Beach for Round One of Momcare® last month (Round Two begins today—by the time you read this I’ll be travelin’ Momward), that I would stick it out ‘til my third blogging anniversary. And so here I am.
Over the Christmas Molochmas break I gave Scott McLemee the official version of why I’m retiring: like a good member of the Party, I have a five-year plan. And in those five years, before my hockey skills desert me at last, I intend to complete two more books, The Left at War and Narrative and Disability. After that, Jamie will be out of high school, and as I told Scott, whatever arrangements we make for him then will be vastly different than the arrangement we have now. (Anyone who wants to consider Jamie for employment in an aquarium or marine science center, please let me know between now and 2012. Thank you.) Jamie and I have talked about working together on a sequel to Life As We Know It, and he says he’s up for it. More specifically, he says “cool!” So I have plenty of dead-tree plans in my future.
But I didn’t tell Scott the real reason I’m retiring the blog, which is this: I’ve now taken the medium as far as it can go. I feel it’s too constrained, too limiting. My new project for 2007 will involve v-casting my enormous looming ghostly head directly into your living room so that I can harangue you and your loved ones at any hour of the day. This new form will also be available in eight-track format with a “citizens’ band.” And we hope you like our new direction!
Damn. I’ve used that Spinal Tap joke before, too. You know how it feels when you think you’re just repeating yourself over and over again?
OK, so let me try to answer the most serious question I’ve gotten about this decision: why not just cut down? Post something under 2000 words for a change? Post once a week or once a month, instead of maniacally posting every weekday?
These are good questions. In fact, I went around the MLA two weeks ago introducing myself to people as “Michael Blogtoomuch of Penn State University,” and people kept saying, “Blogtoomuch—well, you’d better cut down a little then.” I didn’t get it at first. Finally when I heard it at the Postmodern Culture party it came to me: Blog too much so I’d better cut down a little then! Right!
I’ve tried that, actually, but it doesn’t work. Blog maintenance on this scale is a daily, sometimes hourly thing, regardless of whether there’s a new post up. And even if I didn’t try to maintain the blog on this scale (a good idea in itself), there’s still the problem of the invisible blogging. I don’t write these posts out in advance, you know. I sit down for an hour or two (more for the really long posts), write them in one take in WordPerfect, look ‘em over, transfer ‘em to the blog, preview, edit, submit, and then proofread one last time once they’re up. (Because sometimes you can’t catch a typo until it’s really up there on the blog, and even then, I’ve missed a bunch so far.) Which means, among other things, that I do a great deal of the planning-before-the-writing while I’m not blogging. And that’s what’s been so mentally exhausting. It’s like ABC from Glengarry Glen Ross: Always Be Composing. And while it’s been great mental exercise, and it’s compelled me to think out (and commit myself in public to) any number of things that otherwise would have laid around the mental toolshed for years, it’s not the kind of thing I can keep up forever, and it wouldn’t be seriously affected if I went to a lighter posting schedule. I’d still spend way too much time thinking about the Next Post and the Post After That.
Anyway, I won’t give up the mental exercise altogether. I have a new essay coming out one of these days in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and a 3000-word review essay of Roberto Mangabeira Unger’s What Should the Left Propose? appearing in the next issue of Dissent. Those of you who’ve been waiting for Installment VI of Theory Tuesday, the Introduction to Stuart Hall, can rest assured that it’ll appear as a chapter of The Left At War. And, of course, I’ll also be writing any number of things for any number of venues, except of course when I get rejections. Fie on those rejections!
So, dear friends and assorted enemies in a healthy 9:1 ratio, thanks for helping to make these three years of blogging so edifying. I still think this here blogosphere is a great venue for public intellectual work, and I’m deeply grateful to all the blogging liberals and progressives and lefties who decided they’d had it up to here with the “liberal” opinion industry of Joe Klein and Richard Cohen and Peter Beinart and decided to take matters into their own hands. I’ll be reading you all for as long as you keep writing. And don’t forget to look for my pseudonymous comments on those blogs! I’ll be the guy who sounds like me.
Oh, and Jamie will be here to take your calls. Yeah, I know I’ve posted this picture before (it’s from the 2005 conference of the Canadian Down Syndrome Society), but it’s one of my favorites. ‘Bye, everyone.
‘Bye, Michael, and thanks for all the great writing. You must be a tremendous teacher in person, because you are a darned good teacher over the internets. I guess I too will have some psychic energy freed up for other things, since I won’t be pondering your posts and all the comments. Good luck to you and the rest of your family.
Posted by on 01/08 at 10:46 AMOK, I really shouldn’t be the first person to commment here, but I just happened to check your blog about 10 minutes after you posted this. So be it.
I just wanted to send my best to you and your entire family, especially to your Mom and everyone involved in Momcare. The long-distance care of elderly and sick parents is hard on everyone involved, even when it goes smoothly. I’ll be sending good thoughts your way.
Thanks for the blog. Now I will go back and read all those posts from the first year that I haven’t read yet. And I’ll look for the Giant Looming Head emanations in my living room one of these days—just make sure it doesn’t conflict with Battlestar Galactica.
So long and thanks for all the fish!
Posted by Dr. Virago on 01/08 at 10:54 AMDitto what Ed said. Best wishes to you and your family.
Posted by on 01/08 at 10:54 AMI miss you already.
final captcha: “state,” as in a sad state of affairs.
Posted by Crazy Little Thing on 01/08 at 10:55 AMGoodbye, good luck, and thanks very much for great (and I do mean great) blogging! The blogosphere won’t be the same without you.
Captcha: “shown” as in “the way, you have.”
Posted by John Protevi on 01/08 at 11:13 AMEnjoy, brother. Don’t be a stranger.
Posted by Chris Clarke on 01/08 at 11:16 AMGood luck, Michael. I’ve enjoyed your writing a great deal over the last few years, you’ll be missed.
Posted by Matt F on 01/08 at 11:17 AMOh, no. First Billmon, now Berube!! While I didn’t comment here much, I lurked often and enjoyed the site tremendously. So this sad news comes as a shock to the system.
Dr. Berube, thank you for all your hard work and for being an unapologetic and eloquent voice of the “left”. Good luck with your ventures.
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:17 AMWell, goddamn. Hope to see you mixing it up in comments somewhere.
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:18 AMHang on a minute… I finish school, wander off into the forests of Oregon for a few weeks and come back to find… this? Wow. I can’t even leave you people alone for a minute.
Sorry to hear about the blog retirement, Michael. You’ll be missed.
Posted by Marita on 01/08 at 11:25 AMWell, now I’ll be able to follow my New Year’s resolution to spend less time reading blogs.
Seriously, I pretty much said what I wanted to say in comment 41 on the last thread but since this is the official “goodbye” post I’ll say it again: Michael, I will really miss your writing. (I suppose now I’ll actually have to read your books that I bought.) I’ve always found something in your posts worth reflecting upon. Thank you, Michael.
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:35 AMSweet sorrow.
Generous is the one word that articulates my impressions of this dangeral place. Thanks, Michael, and thanks to many many wonderful, generous commenters.
Captcha: season. Turn, turn.
Posted by black dog barking on 01/08 at 11:39 AMThis is my first comment here. Just wanted to say best of luck, and thanks for your book, and for the blog. Been a loyal reader. I just finished the book over New Years and ordered about six novels that you discuss (or mention) in the two syllabus chapters. Thanks again!
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:46 AMBad riddance!
Posted by David J Swift on 01/08 at 11:48 AMGreat, wouldn’t you know it? I pick today, of all days, to de-lurk here!
Posted by Hieronimo on 01/08 at 11:52 AMDamn. Will miss the place.
Posted by Mark on 01/08 at 11:52 AMThis blog has been a classy act from beginning to end. Had J.L. Austin lived to see it (we’d all be very surprised) he’d have created a new speech act category. Keep in touch.
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:53 AMThank you, Michael, for being the very model of a modern major academic. I will look forward to your future projects.
Posted by on 01/08 at 11:58 AMThanks for giving us so much to think and talk about these past three years, Michael. Looking forward to your future dead tree editions. Best wishes to you and your family.
Posted by Trevor on 01/08 at 11:59 AMOh… I hate good-byes (and I am sad that Dr. Virago already beat me to thanking you for all the fish). That line was all anyone in my family said over the holidays after watching that INSANE movie about the hitchhiker and the galaxy.
Anyhow, have a great 2007 and keep kicking ass (in the academy, I mean).
ground: as in breaking
Posted by on 01/08 at 12:04 PMYou did a great job. You will be missed. Good luck.
Posted by China Law Blog on 01/08 at 12:08 PMA little Stanley Kubrick, “...don’t know where, don’t know when.”
Some Bruddah IZ, wonderful rainbow cultural study.
And a little Mongo to flip the script.
It’s been a blast, Michael.
Posted by Bill Benzon on 01/08 at 12:11 PMNo more diacritics for me then. Et merde.
But I’m still hopeful : I bet on an upcoming Blog Itch vs Bérubé match, and, Michael, not a dime on you.
Posted by on 01/08 at 12:12 PMit has been a pleasure reading your blog and commenting when I had the energy. it will be missed, but I can finally catch up on some of the long entries thatI waited to read when I had time. Now there will be time. I will finally read your two most recent books soon, they are on pile with the three recent books of my old friend Henry Jenkins, who still blogs and might replace you as “the Hardest working Man in Ed business.”
Good luck to you and the rest of the family, particularly Jamie.
You will always be the Godfather of cultural Studies and Mister dynamite of Dengeral Studies.Posted by on 01/08 at 12:17 PMCiao Michael. You will be missed!
Posted by on 01/08 at 12:17 PMWell, shit.
But thanks for all the good shit, MB.
Posted by Jim D. on 01/08 at 12:22 PMAu revoir, et Traînées heureuses.
Posted by on 01/08 at 12:29 PMI’ve read and enjoyed every post and comment for well over a year now. (Okay, sometimes I skimmed the really long ones, too.) Thanks, and best wishes.
Posted by on 01/08 at 12:43 PMVINCENT: So you’re serious, you’re really gonna quit?
JULES: Most definitely.
VINCENT: So if you’re quitting the life, what’ll you do?
JULES: That’s what I’ve been sitting here contemplating. I’ve decided, basically, I’m gonna walk the earth.
VINCENT: What do you mean, walk the earth?
JULES: You know, like Caine in “KUNG FU”, just go from town to town, meet people, and get in adventures.
VINCENT: So you decided to be a bum?
JULES: I’ll just be Jules—no more, no less.
VINCENT: No Jules, without a job, residence, or legal tender you’re gonna be a bum!
JULES: Look my friend, this is just where you and I differ --
VINCENT: And when did you make this decision—while you were sitting there eatin’ your muffin?
JULES: Yeah. I was just sitting here drinking my coffee, eating my muffin, when I had what alcoholics refer to as a “moment of clarity.”Posted by Roxanne on 01/08 at 12:55 PMThe world will do something really stupid, a very sure thing, and you will have to comment via blogs. Hope Hope Hope.
Good bye and Good luckPosted by on 01/08 at 12:56 PMDelurking (on blog) for the first and last time to say that I’ll miss your crazy, wonderful posts. It was great to meet you at MLA.
Posted by Flavia on 01/08 at 01:02 PMHappy trails, brother.
Mebbe I’ll see ya at the beach!!!Posted by on 01/08 at 01:08 PMThis is/was my favorite blog. Let’s hope I get more work done without you.
So long, and indeed, Dr. Virago, the fish were wonderful.
Captcha: make
I guess we’ll just have to make due without you…
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:13 PMThe sockpuppets just wanted to give you a going away shout out.
(After Dr JA - sans the gun moll.)We’re gonna miss
usyou whenwe’reyou’re gone,
We’re gonna miss you all day long,
Oh we know we will miss you when you’re gone,
We’re gonna miss you by your way,
We’re gonna miss you every day,
Oh we know you’re gonna miss us when you’re gone.- Sprezzatura, HAL, Arutazzerps, the Real Cortegiano, Kirby Olson, Nobody, Lee Siegel, and many, many more. (You know who you were.)
P.S.
This was a terrific blog. You and your commenters said exactly what we were thinking but phrased it much more elegantly and graciously than we ever could. Thank you so much to everyone for writing and commenting!Posted by on 01/08 at 01:15 PMSeems ‘tis the season for legends to retire.
I’m going to miss everything. Even the enemies tended to a higher than usual class of wacky weirdness. And the friends are mighty special.
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:19 PMI wish I had something appropriately witty and/or wise to say at this moment, but I got (next to) nothing.
Thanks for so many wonderful posts and for fostering such a great community, many of whom I look forward to encountering on other blogs in the future.
So long, Michael. Ya done the intertubes proud!
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:22 PMHappy trails, brother.
Posted by Bill Benzon on 01/08 at 01:23 PMLooking forward to the Enormous-Looming-Ghostly-Head-cast.
Thanks, and all the best.
Posted by Amy on 01/08 at 01:28 PMthe University of Washington. Something in the water out there?
You mean other than the mercury and PCB laden seafood????
My new project for 2007 will involve v-casting my enormous looming ghostly head directly into your living room so that I can harangue you and your loved ones at any hour of the day.
I have aluminum foil and i know how to use it.{captcha is “but” so}
You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello.
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello, hello, hello.
I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello.
You say yes, I say no (I say yes but I may mean no)
You say stop and I say go, go, go
(I can stay till it’s time to go)
Oh No, oh no.
You say goodbye and I say hello, hello, hello.
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello, hello, hello.
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello, hello, hello.
I don’t know why you say goodbye
I say hello, hello, hello.
Hello, hello, hello.
Hela, heba, helloa.
Hela, heba, helloa.
aaaa aaaaaaaye helloyaPosted by on 01/08 at 01:28 PMLet me add my voice to the chorus of those simply saying thanks. You’ve given us so much.
captcha: hell!
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:29 PMFarewell, Berube. You still owe me for Chris Clarke’s cab fare, as you are the apparent leader of the nebulous GNF party to which Clarke belongs. Please send the check + tip before you retire.
All best.
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:40 PMMichael was the one who inspired me to start blogging, and to this day this is the best blog on the internets. But the pressures are certainly real; I’ve only managed to keep things under control by being absorbed into a collective.
Have fun with the dead trees! We’ll be here if you come back.
Posted by Sean Carroll on 01/08 at 01:43 PMThe captcha word is “income” and it couldn’t be a better one for the amount of great fun, knowledge, wisdom and compassion your blog brought to me.
Thanks a million, it was always a terrific read.Um abraço from São Paulo.Posted by on 01/08 at 01:48 PMBon voyajee! (tosses bouquet, waves handkerchief, holds back a tear)
Posted by on 01/08 at 01:49 PMThanks for showing us all (me in particular) what can be done---intellectual work-wise, disability advocacy-wise---in the genere blogi.
Posted by kristina on 01/08 at 01:56 PMSo sorry to see you go, but I do understand. It will be a little more lonely having one less parent of a special needs kids out there.
Fortunately, your fans can help you live in infamy and finally vote you that Koufax you’ve long deserved. Not that I’m biased.
Stay well and have fun with Jamie.
Posted by MB Williams on 01/08 at 02:00 PMYes, I echo all of the above, and especially what “black dog barking” said:
Generous is the one word that articulates my impressions of this dangeral place.
Posted by Oaktown Girl on 01/08 at 02:01 PMDue to my own time constraints I haven’t posted much the last several months, and my lurking has been hit and miss. So you can imagine the shock when I saw that you were no longer going to be bloggin’. Nearly brought a tear to my eye (but, manly man that I am, I resisted).
We’ll all miss you, Prof. Berube. And we’ll miss your family and the entire community of this blog. Truly the best damn humble little blog around.
captcha is hand, as in let’s all give Michael a hand for a job well done!
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:07 PMWWWHAAAAAAAATTT!!!!!
no more Dr. B? My world doesn’t make sense anymore....I can understand the desire to be free from the chains of the blogosphere, but think of your loyal public Doc, who will now regularly eviscerate Horowitz in e-print? This just won’t do.
Posted by rev.paperboy on 01/08 at 02:09 PMAnd don’t forget to look for my pseudonymous comments on those blogs!
So you’re the one impersonating Ann Althouse!
Best wishes to you and your family. And best of luck with the citizen band project. MSM (main stream music), watch out!
I look forward to reading your work in other media, especially that chapter on Hall.
Posted by J— on 01/08 at 02:10 PMMichael, I don’t know how I’m going to fill that five minutes every day now, but anything that gets you more time to write about Jamie, I can definitely get behind. I always tell people that reading Life as We Know It was a turning point in the way I think about Down syndrome and how it affects my (and Russell’s) life. Thanks for keeping us all amused and informed, and enjoy your retirement.
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:12 PMI can’t get over the fact that having a blog simultaneously crimps ones actual life but also introduces one to several fabulous, fabulous people. It is a trade off. One possibility is to have a no-content blog, but in reality that is also quite a bit of time. I speak about such a blog as a theoretician of course. Thanks for deciding to have a seriously non-no-content blog for your time amongst the ‘tubes.
Since I feel like you are streaking to safety in happiness, but also like Spock has died (but not really) and you are getting out and we are staying in, I only have this to say to you, Michael Tiberius Berube:
“From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee. For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”
More like the opposite of that, actually. I am decidedly quoting Star Trek II and not the Melvillian.
Posted by Pinko Punko on 01/08 at 02:12 PMI came over here to see if you had posted any thoughts about the disabled girl whose girlhood is being surgically preserved, only to find that I won’t be able to rely on your spot on mix of humor and wisdom at all for much longer. I hope abandoning your friends and groupies is worth it all!
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:14 PMMy new project for 2007 will involve v-casting my enormous looming ghostly head directly into your living room so that I can harangue you and your loved ones at any hour of the day.
Is it disturbing that I wish this weren’t a joke?
I’ve only managed to keep things under control by being absorbed into a collective.
Aha! Professor Carroll provides the answer! Professor Bérubé merely needs to join a blog collective, where daily maintenance and frequent posts are not required. Perhaps a collaboration with the We Are All Consumed by the Grey Goo of Out-of-control Nanotechnology Party would be fruitful. Or even better: join Scienceblogs! Not only would it mean virtually hangin’ with Sean and P.Z., it would provide an alternative perspective. The front page could have a picture of Madge the manicurist, and the blog could be called “You’re Sokaling in It.”
Gad, I might as well go ahead and get my GED in lameness. Regardless, best wishes, Professor. Perhaps I’ll make it back to State College someday, and I can stalk you (Stalked by someone who’s Buck Naked. Wouldn’t that be something?). Or there’s always those family trips to New Haven…
Meanwhile, I eagerly await a joint blog project between christian h. and Professor
Grouchy MedievalistSteel, on which I can make goofy comments about mathematics and the rightful claimant to the Kingdom of Jerusalem.Posted by on 01/08 at 02:17 PMI will miss this blog enormously. Although, as others have said, maybe now I’ll get some work done.
Nah, I’ll just find some other way to procrastinate--but it will not be as interesting or entertaining or edifying as le blogue has been. Thank you, and best wishes to you and your family. I promise to consume my share of your dead tree productions.
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:23 PMMichael knows he has an open/standing invite to join at least one lit-blog collective, but those last few paragraphs are the kicker: it’s not the time spent blogging, or even writing posts, that kills—it’s all the mental checklisting of things to blog about, the rewriting of daily life into digestible bits for a wide audience, &c. After a while, it drains. Here’s to this being a blog-sabbatical instead of a blog-retirement, though. Very few voices are as strong or consistent as Michael’s, and GNF only knows what he’ll sound like at some future time, refreshed and recharged…
Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman on 01/08 at 02:25 PMit’s all the mental checklisting of things to blog about, the rewriting of daily life into digestible bits for a wide audience, &c. After a while, it drains.
What Scott said.
Posted by Chris Clarke on 01/08 at 02:26 PMGoodbye Michael, this was by far my favorite blog on the intertubes. Heartfelt thanks for all the energy you’ve invested in this thing, all the times you made me laugh hard while I was sitting alone in from of my computer and thanks for all the thought food you provided! You will be missed! Now back to the Rhetorical Occasions....
captcha: “court” as in: can he be taken to any WAAGNFNP court for doing this?
Posted by Adrian on 01/08 at 02:26 PMThank you for your hard work on this blog the past few years, Michael. Enjoy your “rest” while you write two books and take care of your family.
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:37 PMThen this summer I began to flag
Even at half-speed, you lapped the field. Thanks for writing such an entertaining and edifying blog, and good luck with all of your future projects.
Posted by Matt on 01/08 at 02:41 PMBut what about the “We are all Nuclear Fireball Now” party meetings???
(Party name edited due to lack of remembrance of the entire *&%&ing acronym)
Best,
Steve
Posted by on 01/08 at 02:44 PMFollowing up on mds and Scott—Michael has a standing offer to guest-post at Cosmic Variance at any time! Further accounts of debates about the philosophy of science at knifepoint would be especially welcome.
Posted by Sean Carroll on 01/08 at 02:50 PMWait. This is one of those written-so-convincingly-it’s-believable satirical pieces, right? It’s just a finely wrought joke? You won’t really forsake the strangers in the comment box, just to spend more time thinking about the non-blog parts of life?
Whats’s that? You’re serious?
Oh. Okay.
I’ve relished your wit, appreciated the fine writing, and learned a bit more about literary theory than I did in all my undergrad years. Thanks, Michael, and [deity deleted]speed! I’ll miss the smartest locus in the blogosphere.
Posted by Orange on 01/08 at 02:53 PM(Er, “What’s that?")
Posted by Orange on 01/08 at 02:54 PMHave you people not seen the portents? Look up! What’s that passing above your head? Mark the occasion!
(Do you think I would plan such wanton destruction on my own?)
Posted by Scott Eric Kaufman on 01/08 at 02:59 PMOthers are far more articulate than I, so I’ll just add my humble thanks and wish you and your family the best.
It’s been my pleasure.
We Are All Sad Nuclear Fireball Now.
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:02 PMDang!
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:07 PMBummer, dude…
Good luck in the new year!
Posted by dave™© on 01/08 at 03:07 PMDon’t think that there isn’t a price to pay for abandoning such an excellant blog. And I believe you know what that priceis.
You go to da box for 2 minutes by yourself… and you feel shame… then you get free.
Best of luck.
Posted by B.hunter on 01/08 at 03:07 PMBon voyage--it’s been a lovely, fearless, touching, humane blog, and I know I’ll be coming back to look up posts and threads even now that you’ve gone on to other things.
I have much sympathy with what you’ve said about the ABC component of blogging and the need to devote energies elsewhere. I’m seriously considering ducking out, too, even though the blogosphere has been very kind to me.
Very best wishes.
Posted by Ancrene Wiseass on 01/08 at 03:13 PMNow I’m doubly, no triply, irritated with myself that I didn’t go to the event at The Tank a few weeks ago! Carpe diem, indeed. All the best, Professor Berube ... we’ll miss you.
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:20 PMOkay, I’m still waiting for that other shoe to drop. Like, this blog is ending, but M. Berube is going to start another one. Or something.
But if not ... well, best of luck to you and yours, Prof. Your humor, compassion, and insight have been almost enough to make one believe that all those things they say about you Eastern Liberal Elitists may not be altogether accurate.
I’m going to miss you. Really. (Now please drop that other shoe.)
Captcha: friend. Nuff said, as Stan Lee used to say.
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:22 PMHave you people not seen the portents? Look up! What’s that passing above your head? Mark the occasion!
Shhhh!
We AwaitSpace Trash EntrySpacetime’s Triumphant End
...silently.
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:28 PMIf not actually disgruntled by this news, I am far from gruntled.
Good luck with the books, life, and all that rot.
Jeff
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:30 PMAll right, then. You’re actually serious? Really really serious? Really? Yes?
Who woulda thunk it! I thought this was another inside joke.
This has been my favorite blog and well worth the time it takes to read the posts and the comments. So add me to the long list of congrats, regrets, and best wishes.
But dammit, we’re getting too serious here.
What we ought to do is start spreading vicious rumors about the real reasons for MB’s leaving the bloggery: 1) perfect record of 3 years w/o LPGA blogging preserved; 2) more time for proselytizing for the WAAGNFN, or rather, party-building (or is that just for hockey in icy times and golf in non-icy times?); 3) was about to be outed as both billmon and fafblog; 4) some kind of Faustian or Ashtarothian bargain coming due; 5) lost a bet with David Horowitz; 6) thought of a really really cool pseudonym and blog title and wants to start from scratch to get the thrill of building a readership back (don’t call it a comeback!); 7) creative differences with fellow band members, a la Rage Against the Machine, The Tea Party, At the Drive In, etc., etc.
Come on, people, we need to respond to loss with creativity! Take a chance--you can’t do worse than I just did!
Prediction: MB will be back once he discovers that doing the norbizness/chris clarke thing is time-consuming in its own way....
Posted by The Constructivist on 01/08 at 03:33 PMI will miss this blog tremendously (I read daily, though I don’t think I’ve ever commented). And I will miss Jamie most of all. Yours is the blog link I sent to a friend when her friend had a baby born with DS. So she could look a few years into her future and see what a truly remarkable journey she was on.....
Thanks for everything.
("making": this is making me sad!)
Posted by on 01/08 at 03:35 PMPrediction: MB will be back once he discovers that doing the norbizness/chris clarke thing is time-consuming in its own way....
Although once you build up a reputation as a commenter, you can lay off on almost all blogs for months and months without anyone noticing.
Posted by Chris Clarke on 01/08 at 03:37 PMChris, how about a villanelle for FHP’s blog? That article I recommended to Amanda a few days ago is all about how it’s a perfect genre for dealing with loss.... How about a villanelle elegy for Le Blogue Berube? Is that even possible?
Posted by The Constructivist on 01/08 at 03:45 PMI whipped one out just for you, TC.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.Posted by Dylan Thomas on 01/08 at 03:49 PMOh, people notice.
Posted by Roxanne on 01/08 at 03:57 PMBut who is going to spoil David Horowitz’s day now?
Posted by on 01/08 at 04:08 PMThank you. Live long and prosper.
Posted by on 01/08 at 04:17 PMOh, no. First Billmon, and then Kevin’s cat Jasmine and now you’re leaving. I can’t tell you how much your blog has meant to me. I would read your Jamie posts three and four times, I struggled through your academic lectures and felt so gratified when I figured them out, I have bought your books. I must confess, I didn’t usually get through the hockey posts. I found Chris Clarke because of you. You can’t leave. You can’t become indespensible and then just cut and run. You’re breaking my heart.
Posted by on 01/08 at 04:19 PMI’m very sorry to see you go, Michael, but understand your reasons. I hope you’ll be back sporadically, but meanwhile, best wishes on your book projects.
Posted by Heraclitus on 01/08 at 04:34 PMThanks for making me laugh harder and think harder than any other place on the InterTubes. May your time off be happy and productive.
Posted by Corndog on 01/08 at 04:45 PMThe last few days of comments before now have felt like a party, or the dream of a party, in which we KNOW that our brilliant, beloved, and generous host is closing the house and leaving for good, but we’re none of us ready to leave. And so we continue to follow the threads of funny or aimless or amicably argumentative conversation out the door and into the driveway, because if we turned around to say goodbye and thanks it would just sound too breezy, even ungrateful (there’s really no more of this Veuve Cliquot?), and would in any case bring us face to face with the knowledge that we’re not likely to see the likes of this mix anywhere, ever again. I turned off my computer this morning just as Michael had posted his goodbye, no comments yet, and turned it back on just now to find most of us getting silly and sentimental and sad. Good. Skip the villanelle; I think this is the forum for dealing with loss. Goodbye Michael, and thank you.
Posted by on 01/08 at 04:48 PMOh, phoo. Well, I get the Momcare thing all too well, so I understand.
Thanks for all the wonderful writing, Michael.
Posted by Linkmeister on 01/08 at 04:49 PMMany thanks for all you’ve written. I’ve loved your blog and its comments.
Posted by on 01/08 at 04:51 PMBest of luck with everything.
I must now wail out a hearty “Oh my God… How will we ever get through this ever more dangeral world?”
Posted by the talking dog on 01/08 at 05:19 PMI will miss your intelligent silliness and your intelligent intelligence.
All the best to you and your family, and a happy 2006<.
Posted by on 01/08 at 05:23 PMSo long dear Choirmaster--we here at Free Exchange will try to continue the great tradition of driving DHo into a spiraling mass of sputtering nonsense that you so eloquently perfected.
We have appreciated your great sense of when to take things seriously and when to poke fun, and most importantly, when to do both.
You are welcome on our blog anytime!
Posted by cps on 01/08 at 05:23 PMsome kind of Faustian or Ashtarothian bargain coming due;
Well, in all fairness, I don’t believe Michael ever gave Lord Astaroth his due credit for delivering the 2006 Weblog award. Lord Astaroth, as you know, guaranteed victory way back on Weblog voting Day One (#2) when everyone else was filled with doubt:
Verily, let us speak of education, and blogs, and educational blogs, and the Demon Astaroth
who can make men wonderfully knowing in all Liberal Sciences, and by whose presence and alchemy shall this blog be elevated to the immortal heights of 2006 Weblog “Best Educational Blog”.But there’s no Astarothian-bargain debt collection going on here. Astaroth knows Our Leader is grateful...and busy with Momcare.
Posted by Oaktown Girl on 01/08 at 05:23 PMI must say that, largely because of the length of posts on this blog, I hadn’t been stopping in as much as I used to/would have liked to. On the other hand, I’d just like to say how much I loved the book, which I bought wholesale from the warehouse to pump up sales (I live in Canada) and finished before Christmas. If more like this is coming, then I will be there to read it, blog or no blog. Thank you.
Posted by on 01/08 at 05:32 PMI haven’t felt this bad since Le Gros Bill hung ‘em up at the old Forum.
May the five-hole always be open to you, old son, and I say that as a former goaltender.Posted by on 01/08 at 05:38 PMFrom the new minnesota review, MB admits “the immediacy of the feedback [on blogs] is drug-like.” Going cold turkey is the best way I know, but can’t someone invent some kind of patch for bloggers?
Posted by The Constructivist on 01/08 at 05:49 PMSad to see this ‘ol blog go Berube—I missed the opportunity to take one of your classes when I was down in Champaign and always thought of this blog as a mini correspondence course.
Dollars to donuts you can’t stay away from the web for long… Here’s to Berube as lonelyprof13 on Youtube.
Last note: I was a fan of the hockey bloggin’ and am sure there were more of us out there than you imagined.
Posted by on 01/08 at 06:04 PMThanks for all the erudition. You will be missed (but will probably feel the breeze as the missiles pass).
I look forward to your father and son book. It will be well worth waiting for, I’m sure.
Posted by gmoke on 01/08 at 06:04 PMAh, this is what I was looking for earlier.
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay ! say nay ! for shame
To save thee from the blame
Of all my grief and grame.
And wilt thou leave me thus ?Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
That hath lov’d thee so long ?
In wealth and woe among :
And is thy heart so strong
As for to leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
That hath given thee my heart
Never for to depart ;
Neither for pain nor smart :
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
And have no more pity,
Of him that loveth thee ?
Alas ! thy cruelty !
And wilt thou leave me thus ?
Say nay ! Say nay !Posted by on 01/08 at 06:17 PMWait, something Wendy said back up at #71 requires some clarification. No matter how the home page manifests itself in the days and months to come, there is a need for a menu connection for the tour dates and calendar. Thus those who are near various environs will be able to support you in meatspace; hell even in hockey arenas. So please please be at least the minimalist in providing regular updates of where to meet the floating head and hockey stick.
hell, even the captcha words are draining away as we approach the naming of that nine billionth signifier. Third time i have had the same word in two days.
Posted by on 01/08 at 06:28 PMImpending GNF sign...#6, I think.
Posted by The Constructivist on 01/08 at 06:30 PMDouble bummer, dude! With much affection, adios.
Posted by sfmike on 01/08 at 06:31 PMMichael
Thanks so very much for your work, words and just sharing. You will be missed, but go and enjoy life and Jamie and all who make you happy.
Take care!
Jon
Posted by on 01/08 at 06:44 PMAh, it is truly an Arbitrary But Not Fun Monday.
Sure, it’s not arbitrary for you, but for those of us who need your words and this wonderful commenting community, well, shoot.
Leaves me thinking of this by Lester Bangs, which he wrote about Elvis but I’ve adapted for the occasion:
“If love is truly going out of fashion, which I do not believe, then along with our nurtured indifference to each other will be an even more contemptuous indifference to each other’s objects of reverence. I thought it was Billmon, you thought it was Shakespeare’s Sis or whoever else seemed to speak for your own private, entirely circumscribed situation’s many pains and few ecstasies. We will continue to fragment in this manner, because solipsism holds all the cards at present; it is a king whose domain engulfs even Bérubé’s. But I can guarantee you one thing; we will never agree on anything as we agreed on Bérubé’s. So I won’t bother saying goodbye to his corpse. I will say goodbye to you.”
Posted by George on 01/08 at 06:47 PMHockey season won’t be the same without ya. Godspeed.
GrahamPosted by on 01/08 at 06:56 PMxxxoooxxx
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:15 PMI haven’t been by here in ages, but I’m still gonna miss you. Bye!
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:17 PMThanks for all the memories! Stay in touch with non-academia!
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:20 PMWell, despite you being hilariously wrong about the merits of The Clash’s great drummer Topper Headon, I’ll certainly miss reading and mostly lurking ‘round here. I’ll especially miss the Jamie stories.
Best of luck etc.
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:26 PMWhat an elegant last blog post. You make all kinds of sense. Thank you for all your bloggistry, and I wish you and your lovely family the best.
But damn, dude, you still just broke my heart into the little bitty bits.
I should have known something like this was coming, ‘cause this morning before dawn, I went into the bathroom. I usually pee by the light of the, um, nightlight, but something compelled me to flip on the glaring overhead light, so I was able to see the SCORPION resting quietly on the tile in front of the commode.
And from then up till now I’d been thinking random stuff like, whoa, scorpion. Huh. Scorpion? Yup. Be shakin’ out my shoes henceforth.
But now? It was a damn harbinger. You understand, of course, that I am not casting you as the scorpion. It was simply harbinging about something coming that was gonna sting a little.
I am not making this up. There was truly a scorpion, and I regret mightily that I flushed it. I ought to have preserved it as evidence, in a jar with holes poked into the lid.
Okay, well, bye.
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:39 PMThanks, Michael. A consistently excellent blog like this is a joy and a wonder. I am privileged to have been one of your readers.
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:42 PMMany thanks, Dr. Berube, for the most fun blog on the internets. I will miss lurking here in the future. All the best to you and yours.
Posted by Ian Gray on 01/08 at 07:49 PMThank you, Michael, and all the best to you and your family. On your last blog, I wish you had a better opponent: how about a Hans Kung, a Razinger/Benedict, a Dom Crossan, or even a resurrected Tielhard de Chardin (Party of Noosphere!) or Graham Greene (Party of Greene-land!). Now that would have been a discussion! I’m also sorry we won’t get your blog on the Jesuits at Regis.
Posted by on 01/08 at 07:51 PMYou just removed the asterisk from Ghandi’s “be the change you want to see” credo (*unless Le Blog Dangereal/WAAGNFN accomplishes much the same with links and much snarkery).
Thank you for the eloquence. The other Doc Mara and I still owe you and Janet dinner. No amount of blog-cloaking will get you out of that. Perhaps now you will be able to put down the keyboard and pick up a fork. No wonder you were tearing into that skirt steak....
captcha: “was”
Posted by DocMara on 01/08 at 08:06 PMI wish you weren’t going away, but thank you for providing an obsessively read blog over the last three years. Good luck!
Posted by on 01/08 at 08:15 PMMichael, you must do what you must do, but your voice will be missed. (Also, how can you do this when I’ve finally met you and finally learned to pronounce your name correctly!!!! It’s just. not. fair.)
Best to you and your family, and I’ll miss the posts about Jamie most of all.
Posted by Dr. Crazy on 01/08 at 08:18 PMThanks for Le Bloque and for three years of tremendously stimulating writing. Best of luck to you and yours, whatever you decide to embark on next.
Others have said what needed saying with far more eloquence than I would be able to muster, so I’ll shut up and go away now (though I’ll keep checking your feed, just in case...).
captcha: ‘top’ as in ‘of the world, ma!’
Posted by Bistroist on 01/08 at 08:24 PMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!
Damn it all.
Good blog. Wish you weren’t going. It’s been swell.
Thanks for everything.
Posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden on 01/08 at 08:30 PMWell this stinks, but I certainly understand. Thanks for all the great posts. I’ll be watching for your next book. And if ya’ll ever find yerself in South Carolina…
Posted by Ann Bartow on 01/08 at 08:39 PMDear Prof Berube (I can’t do them Frenchified accents) - may I call you Michael instead?
Dear Michael, It has been - oh,lemme see now - some decades since I graduated , so long ago that it was pre-post-modernism.Everything I know about that gang i.e.Foucault, Derrida and about post-post-modernism I owe to you. Thank you for making me feel like I am still an educated person.I have loved your blog and will miss it.
Best to you and your family for 2007.Posted by on 01/08 at 08:54 PMBut who will persuade me that literary criticism isn’t rubbish? Now I’ll have to buy your damned books.
Posted by on 01/08 at 08:56 PMMany thanks for the humor granted and the thought generated by this wonderful blog. You were one of my daily reads, Dr. Berube, though this autodidact rarely felt comfortable enough in his learning to comment here.
Should you find yourself downtown in Webster’s, I’d be honored to buy you a coffee and give you a thank you in person.
Fred
The Third Invisible Secret Owner of Webster’s BookstorePosted by handdrummer on 01/08 at 08:58 PMMichael,
Your final post is moving in tone and touching in its frankness. You are a rare person who gives much more than he takes. Best wishes for your work. I look forward to the “books and coffee” talk here at Purdue in a few weeks on _What’s Liberal_, as well as the after party (yes!). I’ll hoist a glass to ya!
Posted by A. G. Rud on 01/08 at 09:10 PMThis is starting to feel like some kind of high school yearbook. Best of luck in all you do! It’s been great knowing you! Remember that time when Roxanne . . . .?
Forget all of us, Michael, and go puck yourself silly on the rink. Oh, and GOOD LUCK. See ya at my annual get-together, in stairwells, on couches, or wherever you land.
It’s Jamie we’re really going to miss. Get that life as you know it updated soon. Some of us will even buy it, floating head notwithstanding.
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:12 PMZut alors! You will be le missed! Adieu.
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:16 PMBon voyage, Professor Bérubé!
captcha: nation
Posted by ifthethunderdontgetya on 01/08 at 09:16 PMMichael,
Thanks for being here. Score some more goals and ‘Illegetimi non carborundum’.
As for Jamie, I’m sure he’ll be great. I’ve been working for NYS OMRDD for almost 30 years and I’ve learned that the parents’ commitment makes ALL the difference. (Also, if available in PA, a good Medicaid Service Coordinator can’t hurt, though you probably already know that.)
My best,
DaveHPosted by on 01/08 at 09:19 PMMy heart is breaking!!!
I do understand, but damn, I’m gonna miss this blog!
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:20 PMMy new project for 2007 will involve v-casting my enormous looming ghostly head directly into your living room so that I can harangue you and your loved ones at any hour of the day.
Is it disturbing that I wish this weren’t a joke?
Are we sure it is? After all, Brad DeLong has been trying something like this (though his usual text-based posts continue to appear). He’s not a giant looming head, per se, but a smaller head-and-shoulders uttering professorial musings betwixt slurps of coffee.
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:32 PMThis reminds me of the guy who wrote Calvin and Hobbes. When he stopped the daily strip, didn’t he say that he wanted to continue his work in a less restrictive environment? And yet, where is the next Calvin and Hobbes book, I ask you?
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:33 PMWe’ll miss you, Berube-san!
I will probably be shamelessly cribbing lecture ideas from your various “Theory Tuesday” type posts for years.
Posted by Amardeep on 01/08 at 09:38 PM(delurk)
Fine!I’m delurking to say goodbye and thank you. Now I’m flouncing off in a huff. Harumph!
(/delurk)Posted by Tata on 01/08 at 09:42 PMMichael -
I just stumbled on your blog via Crooked Timber a couple of weeks ago and thought “what a little gem”.
I bookmarked you and now you’re heading for the door!Good luck to you and yours.
Posted by aidan on 01/08 at 09:49 PMWaaaahhhhh!
Posted by Laura on 01/08 at 09:54 PMMichael, thanks for all the great writing. As I mentioned before, you taught me something. I’ll wait for your books.
Posted by on 01/08 at 09:54 PM---Whaaa? I’ve been away for the last four days, and missed the gradual dusking: hadn’t believed that this would actually happen. Mondays are a systemic shock in the best of circumstances, and now this?
Michael, I’ve always been in awe of your output in terms of both Q’s, so your blog burnout is certainly understandable… Why, I’d often budget two or three days’ worth of mental energy in advance before merely venturing here!
Your energetic and astute proprietorship has been much appreciated. Boy, will we miss you. Best to you and the fam for as long as the grass grows and the streams flow… *choke*
--Say, what about a quarterly… or at least a Barryesque “Year in Review” report, or somethin’?
Berube’s face. It was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not angry or ferocious, but looked at me as Berube used to look… The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or hot air; and, though the eyes were wide open, they were perfectly motionless…
Posted by Romy B. on 01/08 at 10:00 PM