Good Night, and Good Luck.

Kindhearted readers, I bear sad news.  Earlier this week the highest of the higher-ups at my place of employment released a memorandum officially decreeing it against company policy for employees to maintain blogs such as this one (to be clear: blogs of the semi-anonymous, semi-personal, link-heavy, sometimes opinionated, current-events-driven, politically mouthy, and generally frivolous variety).  In the days and hours since its distribution to all employees, the new policy has been republished on several industry sites and has been the subject of much internal and external discussion. Prior to this, blogging guidelines at my office had been vague at best; it seemed safe to assume that my particular brand of bonhomie was a low-risk recreational endeavor.  Several months ago, however, the controversial(-ish) personal blog posts of one worker bee on my floor brought the issue to the fore. The perp was promptly fired, and ta-da: A new no-blog bottom line emerged.  What I'm getting at is that in the interest of bread and butter, I've decided it's best to not attempt to have my cake and eat it too, or something like that, so to speak. Until circumstances change, I'm putting this menagerie of friendly curios to sleep.  But in the meantime, fear not -- I'll be channeling the energies that once made their way onto this page into raucous emails to the likes of you, old-school pen-and paper diary entries, and a couple of creative projects I've been meaning to get around to for some time.  (And, I suppose, my "day job.")  At any rate, be well, do good work and keep in touch.

High Five!

Another Dec alum reminded me that today is National High Five Day, a glorious holiday that traces its humble origins to UVa circa 2002 (and more specifically, this manifesto). High five! If you're stuck at a desk and aren't feeling the fingers-and-palm connection, I recommend this video from 2005 (which admittedly isn't actually all that funny but still really made me laugh).

Nothing to Unmask

"I like that foolishness is one of your most frequent tags," a loyal reader tells me (to date: thirteen posts). A few words on foolishness from Milan Kundera in The Curtain:

Just what is foolishness? Reason is capable of unmasking the evil hiding treacherously behind a fine lie.  But faced with foolishness, reason is powerless.  There is nothing to unmask. Foolishness does not wear a mask.  It is simply there, innocent.  Sincere.  Naked.  And indefinable.

Thanks (Again)

Dear readers, I know I already did a thank you post. But I'd just like to say that I think it's really lovely that you've not just checked in and commented but have also linked, status messaged, forwarded, bookmarked, RSS fed and (best of all) read posts aloud to your roommates (because that's what roommates are for). Hooray and thanks! Before I wrap it up for this evening, two stories in the NYT regarding earlier posts: Some smart replies to Caitlin Flanagan's op-ed and a very tough review of "Widows" at 59E59 sent my way by Leah ... 

Thanks for Reading

This blogging thing being a brand-spanking-new little caper for me, I'm aware that I could suddenly run out of things to post or suddenly have a heart attack.  I'm also aware of perspicacious Jane Smiley's observation on writing novels, which I think certainly holds true (and then some) when it comes to keeping a blog: "If to live is to progress, if you are lucky, from foolishness to wisdom, then to write ... is to broadcast the various stages of your foolishness."  Which is all to say, thanks for humoring me, and thanks for the feedback! And enjoy.