This blog is on indefinite hiatus.

Additional note, Thursday 11/2: Thank you all, so much, for your comments and emails. Regular posting will probably resume here sometime after late December, with significant changes in intent and focus. (Read: less politics without cause, less involvement in others’ arguments.)

Along these lines: Wapsie, way down in comment number 52, poses a question that I thought deserved your attention. I repost it here for your convenience. I have an answer, of sorts, perhaps to be explored in 2007, perhaps not. But the question is worth asking even without an answer.

See you in January.

Beautiful dog.

I’ve had the thought that blogs are “over.”

It’s a question worth posing on every blog:

What has all the good writing, the confirmation that there is really Someone Intelligent and Caring out there, actually accomplished—besides making us feel a little better for a few minutes?

Be honest about that. Even with the really big-time blogs. What real, solid gains—for people other than the big bloggers themselves, who enjoy a quasi-celebrity and a quasi-legitimacy—have been made because of blogs?

I’m not posing the question to put this blog down. It’s thoughtful, it’s well-written. But Chris himself mentions doubt about the real utility of blogs among his reasons to go on hiatus.

I think it’s a doubt worth addressing.

What is this medium for, exactly?

Note:Many old comments were lost in a database crash in 2008. Some conversations may seem to make less sense than they would have. A few will make more sense now.

1. 
   pz 2006 11 05 at 1:11:07 am

   Isn’t it obvious what they’re good for? I’m in it for the money. And the groupies. And the awe-struck look of respect and amazement when someone asks what you do, and you proudly reply, “I’m a blogger.”  I screwed up and failed to capitalize on that decade when any no-talent hack could learn three chords, grow his hair down to his ass, and become a rock star, so I jumped avidly on this new, glorious opportunity to win fame and love and riches without actually having to do anything.

2. 
   pz 2006 11 05 at 1:14:05 am

   OK, I probably lied a little bit in that last comment.

3. 
   Yubi 2006 11 05 at 3:19:44 am

   Good “fishin’” to you “guys”!
   Glad you’re “back”, but also that you take time off for your “people”!
   Most probably will be here when you decide to return, but have/spend some good time with your “people”!

4. 
   Rana 2006 11 06 at 4:31:23 pm

   I’ll see you in the new year…

5. 
   Jenn 2006 11 07 at 5:54:28 pm

   Peace.

6. 
   SUEZBOO 2006 11 07 at 8:00:38 pm

   Chris, Enjoy the time with your family, especially Zeke who looks like a Really Fine Dog.
   I’ll be glad when you return but that’s selfish.Relax and enjoy - should be cool enough for really long treks in the mountains.What do I know? I’m a Southern Hemisphere person.
   Thanks for the writing.Seeya.

7. 
   deviousdiva 2006 11 08 at 3:04:52 pm

   Best of everything to you.
   Take care. Do what you have to do and we’ll be seeing you if you decide to return.

8. 
   Rob G 2006 11 08 at 3:30:24 pm

   It’s the end of Post Mbodernism? That’s good, right?

9. 
   anne 2006 11 10 at 11:54:05 am

   I will miss you.

10. 
    Jym 2006 11 10 at 6:12:42 pm

    =v= Last night I dreamt that I was reading new entries on this blog.

11. 
    dale 2006 11 12 at 11:06:17 pm

    I think my reading here had fallen off a bit, lately, because I could sense that the joy of it was getting muddy and trodden down for you.  The writing still marvellous, as ever—I don’t think you’re capable of un-marvellous writing—but the light wasn’t quite right, there were shadows falling in the wrong places.

    I realize I’m irresponsible, but I think the only compelling reason to blog is to have a good time, and that the time to quit is when it stops being fun.  So quit for now.  And come up to Portland, sometime, and let me buy you a beer.