Well, I see by the clock on the wall...

[Update: I'm overwhelmed by your kind words and best wishes. Thanks again. In response to one frequently-asked-question, Mark will continue posting at Canada's premier milblog, The Torch. - DP]

When I started up my old Blogspot site in late 2001 - one of many, many sites which proliferated in the wake of the 9/11 attacks - I had no idea I'd keep at it as long as I did. And I've enjoyed every minute of it.

With a child on the way, however - not to mention an ever-increasing workload at my firm - I think it's time to make a graceful exit. Or a hiatus, at least. This is something I've been mulling over for a while, as I've found it increasingly difficult to keep blogging at my usual pace, but I've never been able to pull the trigger. My dithering over the issue made Brett Favre look like the model of decisiveness. But today's as good a day as any.

I plan to keep this site and the archives up, and if I contribute elsewhere (Blogcritics.org, for example) I'll probably link to it here. And my Twitter page should be active for a long, long time.

Thanks so much to all of you, especially the people who've guest-posted to this site over the years, and the bloggers and readers I had the pleasure of meeting on trips to Toronto and New York.

A few people deserve special mention: Mark Collins, whose contributions to this site over the past few years have put my own writing to shame; my friend Michael in Edmonton, who's helped me with all the technical stuff; and Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, who inspired me to start blogging in the first place.

As far back as I can remember, long before any of us had even heard of the internet, I wanted to be a newspaper columnist. The opinion pages in the newspaper were the first ones to which I turned. I may never get my own column, but this site let me get it all out of my system for the past 7 1/2 years, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

[Note: watch for a major, major news story to occur tomorrow, one day after I've put the blog on hold.]

Damian P.

Posted by damian at April 7, 2009 12:53 PM