Monday, March 26, 2007
I demand golf clubs! Rocking chairs! Liquor!
I've decided that this will be the last season of "Big Ten Wonk."
Next season I'll continue to write on a regular basis on college basketball. I just don't know where, exactly. Watch this space for a referral.
Regular readers know that this past season I spent less time on, say, Northwestern than on North Carolina, Florida, UCLA, Kansas, Georgetown, and Butler. I know this shift befuddled a few of you and, given this blog's title, any befuddlement was entirely reasonable. So now I want to end that confusion: I want to write about college basketball. The whole thing.
Last month when Kyle Whelliston visited the casa on the occasion of Butler-Southern Illinois, the following few seconds unspooled:
ME: I think this is the last season of "Wonk."
KYLE: You say that every year.
ME: No, I mean, I'll still write. I just want to flit wherever I want topically.
KYLE: Oh. Well, that's OK.
ME: Thanks.
So, really, this isn't much of a change. My words will still be available on your computer, should you be so inclined. And who cares what it says in the address bar up there while you're reading said words?
Still, it does mean the end of a nice three-season run here at bigtenwonk.blogpost.com. Knowing that, I ran through several exit scenarios.
For example, I toyed with the notion of pulling a blog-equivalent Ziggy Stardust: announcing in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last post that this is it.
Or I could adopt the Roger Clemens/Brett Favre approach and make serial- or near-retirement into its own second career.
And then there's the "Seinfeld" model. It would mean I'd end my last post as I started my first post, talking about Quin Snyder and President James Buchanan. (No, I have no idea what I was thinking either. I was new at this.)
In the end I decided to steer a middle course between the first two. My last post will be next Tuesday, April 3. I'll talk about the previous night's national championship game, offer up a numerically appropriate 11 unsolicited homilies on 11 variegated topics, and then say au revoir, popping up at the new digs in the fall.
(For his part, Kyle has pledged that, taking his cue from Illinois fans bidding farewell to the Chief on February 21, he'll paint "WONK" in blue letters on his forehead and weep openly as he reads the last post, then don a black T-shirt. I, in turn, have asked that he plug the camera into the laptop that morning. This I have to see.)
Anyway, that's the plan. Now, back to our regularly scheduled madness....
¶ 6:25 AM
I've decided that this will be the last season of "Big Ten Wonk."
Next season I'll continue to write on a regular basis on college basketball. I just don't know where, exactly. Watch this space for a referral.
Regular readers know that this past season I spent less time on, say, Northwestern than on North Carolina, Florida, UCLA, Kansas, Georgetown, and Butler. I know this shift befuddled a few of you and, given this blog's title, any befuddlement was entirely reasonable. So now I want to end that confusion: I want to write about college basketball. The whole thing.
Last month when Kyle Whelliston visited the casa on the occasion of Butler-Southern Illinois, the following few seconds unspooled:
ME: I think this is the last season of "Wonk."
KYLE: You say that every year.
ME: No, I mean, I'll still write. I just want to flit wherever I want topically.
KYLE: Oh. Well, that's OK.
ME: Thanks.
So, really, this isn't much of a change. My words will still be available on your computer, should you be so inclined. And who cares what it says in the address bar up there while you're reading said words?
Still, it does mean the end of a nice three-season run here at bigtenwonk.blogpost.com. Knowing that, I ran through several exit scenarios.
For example, I toyed with the notion of pulling a blog-equivalent Ziggy Stardust: announcing in the last sentence of the last paragraph of the last post that this is it.
Or I could adopt the Roger Clemens/Brett Favre approach and make serial- or near-retirement into its own second career.
And then there's the "Seinfeld" model. It would mean I'd end my last post as I started my first post, talking about Quin Snyder and President James Buchanan. (No, I have no idea what I was thinking either. I was new at this.)
In the end I decided to steer a middle course between the first two. My last post will be next Tuesday, April 3. I'll talk about the previous night's national championship game, offer up a numerically appropriate 11 unsolicited homilies on 11 variegated topics, and then say au revoir, popping up at the new digs in the fall.
(For his part, Kyle has pledged that, taking his cue from Illinois fans bidding farewell to the Chief on February 21, he'll paint "WONK" in blue letters on his forehead and weep openly as he reads the last post, then don a black T-shirt. I, in turn, have asked that he plug the camera into the laptop that morning. This I have to see.)
Anyway, that's the plan. Now, back to our regularly scheduled madness....
¶ 6:25 AM
