The Newsletter Must Die
During the latter half of September and all of October, I had no desire to publish The Newsletter. As a result, my benighted but beloved little fortnightly got rather far off schedule. During that time, I thought about the policy of malign neglect I'd decided upon following the failure of this summer's "Summer Reading" issues. I thought about the phrasing I would use in an email to the staff, the same pikers who choice to sit-out "Summer Reading," informing them that Vol. X, No. 8 would be the last issue of The Newsletter. The very last. For all time. "Fine and good," I thought to myself, "let's kill the fucker. But, it would be best not to make any decisions about the future until the ravenous beastie is back on track." I thought that was an excellent point. Now that Vol. X, Nos. 2-5 have gone out with the post, I find that I no longer wish The Newsletter dead. Or that may not be quite right, maybe I do wish it dead, but I do not want Vol. X, No. 8 to be the ultimate issue. I am already thinking about the columns I'll write in Volume XI (January-April '06). I am no longer furious over "Summer Reading" as I was in August and September; now, I find the entire debacle to be profoundly sad. My faith in the staff, my dear, dear friends on the staff, has been sundered. The Newsletter will never be the shining marvel I dreamed, nor will it even be what it was before "Summer Reading." Much of this was surely hubris on my part; all this is my comeuppance. But, I still derive joy from writing "The Last Angry Man," from mocking up the issues and sealing the envelopes.

The Newsletter must die, but not today. And not tomorrow.