Kilimanjaro is a snow covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai "Ngàje Ngài," the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.
— Ernest Hemingway, "The Snows of Kilimanjaro"
Well, it's official. You know you have achieved blogging irrelevance when Alltop drops you from its econoblog pages.
Not that I'm complaining, mind you. For those of you who haven't noticed, my non-self-referential, non-self-indulgent blogging output at this location has plummeted precipitously over the past several months. There are several reasons for this, most of which I will not bore you with. Suffice it to say the primary obstacle to my regular engagement with these pages has been a change in my vocational responsibilities. These new duties allow me neither the time nor the energy to 1) think cogently about issues and topics which might be of interest to my audience or 2) write them down in a form and with a polish which I would not be ashamed of. Neither of these is easy or quick, at least for me. Hence the silence.
This silence will continue for the forseeable future. I cannot anticipate a change in my circumstances which might allow me to return to regular blogging. Nor can I rule one out. We'll just have to see, and, if it happens, find out whether whatever I may or may not choose to write in the future is something my past readers will find interesting.
Before I leave, I do wish to express deep appreciation for the many individuals who have spent valuable time out of their limited lives reading and responding to my work here, and engaging in argument and discussion with me through this strange electronic medium. Their names and contributions are too numerous and lengthy to list in this brief farewell, but you can find most of them scattered throughout these pages. I have learned a lot from many, many people over the past several years, and I have enjoyed their virtual company. Perhaps we will meet in another life over a cigar and a vintage Port, and laugh about everything and nothing at all.
But now, Compton and the plane are here, and the mountain is waiting. It's time to go.
See ya.
© 2010 The Epicurean Dealmaker. All rights reserved.
