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Let’s get the sad news out of the way first.
After an exhilarating five-year run, this blog is ending its run here. Websites change, and take new directions.
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The slightly better news is that we have a couple of weeks until my final post, so let’s have fun.
I’ve enjoyed everything about creating and writing Oddly Enough. My advice is, if somebody offers to pay you to be a sarcastic smartass, take the job. Especially if it includes dental insurance.
Some of the things I will miss most…
9. The Photos: The Reuters photo file is a grand candy store. It has been a treat to look through it daily, searching for goofy gems in a sea of serious images. I’m sure it’s fair to say many of the shots in my blog don’t get used anyplace else. Indeed, it was the richness of our photo archive that inspired the blog’s fabled Goofy Face Museum and Doughnut Shop, which will be a runaway success if it ever opens.
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8. The Animals: Readers know I have a soft spot for animals. I have supported animal rescue in this blog, and have come down hard on people who don’t respect animals. Hey, I’m talking about YOU, bullfighters! If you want to do something special to remember this blog, please help an animal. Doing something nice for people wouldn’t hurt you, either.
7. The Words: This is a blog for lovers of our language. I have tried my best to revive neglected words such as haberdasher and scalawag and floozy. If you heard someone shout “Huzzah!” in Starbucks today, you can probably thank me. In fact, I imagine it WAS me.
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6. Lamar: I didn’t see it coming when I created this recurring character representing the incompetence in all of us. Somehow Lamar has ended up with his own following, even marriage proposals. When the blog goes away Lamar will be relocated to a secret place by the Federal Witless Protection Program. Don’t worry about losing touch with him, I’m sure he’ll send out a change of address note.
5. The Duchess: A blogger’s best friend, without a doubt. When I want to pander for page views, I turn to Catherine and she never lets me down.
4. Those wacky Republicans: Where do I begin? With Sarah Palin’s fractured history, with Herman Cain’s Libya meltdown, with Rick Perry’s “Oops,” or just with Donald Trump?
3. The Truth: I’m allowed to invent fun stuff in this blog, but as a journalist I know the truth is much stranger than anything I can imagine. When a city in Turkey equips the local morgue with the latest gadgetry in case any of the bodies stored there have been declared dead by mistake… When officials in Georgia consider saving money by using prison inmates to fight residential fires alongside real firefighters… I just can’t beat that.
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2. The Commenters: I value all my readers, but especially those who have contributed so much to the comments section. We’ve received an astonishing 46,000 reader comments in five years, many of them written in haiku, in limerick form, as parodies of Cole Porter songs and Shakespeare plays, and other creative styles. I plan to keep in touch with the regulars, and maybe even go see some of them when they’re allowed to have visitors.
1. And the number one thing I’ll miss about this blog is… Wait. It’s here somewhere. Nobody leaves this room!
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Top: An erect-crested penguin watches as Richard Tesore, head of the NGO Rescate Fauna Marina, holds a baby La Plata river dolphin in Piriapolis, east of Montevideo, November 5, 2010. REUTERS/Andres Stapff
Left: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney looks at an ear of a corn during his visit to AgVision Agriculture Software, in Ankeny, Iowa May 27, 2011. REUTERS/Brian C. Frank
Right: Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin gestures as she speaks in Woodbury, New York, February 17, 2011.
REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
Left: Britain’s Catherine Duchess of Cambridge attends a reception and dinner in aid of the National Memorial Arboretum Appeal at St. James’ Palace in London, November 10, 2011. REUTERS/Pool
Right: Spanish banderiller Pedro Muriel is gored by a bull during a bullfight at the Malagueta bullring in Malaga August 22, 2010. REUTERS/Jon Nazca
Bottom right combo: My own animals…