Goodbye to All This

Happy July Fourth, all!

When I started writing this I Witness blog, I had no real notion of what I'd write about or what the format might require--length, frequency, subject matter, certain computer skills. I'd been egged into considering it by several friends and neighbors who thought I had interesting stories worth sharing. I thought maybe a blog mixing opinion, reviews, pop music history, and personal stuff would revive my lost or dormant verbal skills (after too many years of writing little more than descriptions for eBay and Abebooks listings), and enable me to generate a lazy, meandering autobiography of sorts along the way.

Nearly 14 months ago, I imagined maybe I could get to a hundred segments, given the wide-open range of subjects and possible stories. It took me a while to settle into a rhythm, but after a while I was happily producing a new... something every few days as memories surged within me. I even picked up some regular readers who would occasionally leave comments.

Well, this is posting #96, 14 months later, and my enthusiasm has waned. The number of readers has dropped off too, I believe--at least, almost no one's offering comments, and the counter at the bottom of this page takes longer and longer to register a new hundred. So, as the Kingston Trio used to say on stage, "in response to a diminishing number of requests," I'm skipping the last few chapters...

(Just imagine: you are now spared "96 Tears," a witty catalog of the great one-hit wonders of rock; "Wreck of the Old 97," a look at the story-songs of Blues and Old Timey music; "The Splendid Little War of '98," my support for the theory that U.S. foreign policy, and our subsequent disgraceful history of interventionism, including in Iraq, got its start in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War; "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall," a tirade against the pharmaceutical company drug-pushers who show up hour after hour after hour on television, and in spam after spam after spam on your computer; and "100 Years of Solitude," well... that may be what I'll experience next; as Shakespeare put it, "The rest is silence.")

Yes, I'm skipping the last few chapters and shutting up. If there's any reason to continue--important memories resurfacing; something I really am compelled to write about; or (the least likely scenario) I Witness fans clamoring for my return--then maybe there'll be more. But for now...

Stick a fork in me; I'm done.