I want to thank all of you for your support and participation with the Elephant project. It started as a whim and a reaction to the closing off of comments at The Belmont Club. In many ways this has been a success. In others a failure. Comments, visits and page views have grown and April was our best month. I have enjoyed the experience and promised myself that when it took too much of my time and became less fun, it would end. That time has arrived.I want to extend special thanks to my co-host and friend who I never met, Whit. We have talked on the phone and exchanged laughs and views and discussed the world of the blog. I will miss some of the clever smart people who I have had the pleasure to exchanges views with. I confess that I will not miss the pettiness and petulance that goes with the territory. That is just the way it goes. I have no animosity or ill feelings to anyone.
Personally, I will return to my privacy and focus more on the creative part of my busy and full life. Best of luck to all of you. I mean that. - Deuce
A very impressive run, my friend.
ReplyDeleteHope you leave your great artwork and our dribbles up for posterity, and hopefully a way to keep in touch...
Perhaps a big link or linked graphic to Observanda, so the crew can stay in touch also?
Thanks, again, it's been great.
Doug
If anyone knows of any self-help books or tapes for EB addiction, please leave a link.
ReplyDeleteSteve at Threatswatch:
ReplyDeleteOpen Letter: My Burden of Conscience
Well Deuce, that I sign in to the Bar at 5:30 AM on a Saturday is surely a sign of how much I enjoy what you and your co-proprietors have given us here. Many thanks for all the hours spent laughing and anguishing over the events of our time.
ReplyDeleteAll my best to you and yours.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteI hope that does not mean that you've run out of things to say. :) You have a very good eye for the iconic. I'll keep to the hope that you'll soon get your second wind.
thanks for the waterhole
ReplyDeletewill you leave it or close it?
adios, amigo
ReplyDeleteGuess this'll wind down my bloggong participation, as well.
The adventures will continue, aye?
How will I know when, my comped room, in Tambor, is ready?
What is "Occupation": thanks for the waterhole...will you leave it or close it?
ReplyDeleteDeuce can never be replaced, but I'll try to keep the threads from getting too big until whit comes back. Maybe a couple of weeks off will do 2164th some good. But he is living in dreamland if he thinks he can just walk away from the Bar anytime he wants to. There's a twelve-step program for that. ;-)
All the Best to you, Deuce!
ReplyDeleteKeep the faith, brother!
"Deuce can never be replaced, but I'll try to keep the threads from getting too big until whit comes back."
ReplyDelete---
You jivin us Ms T?
If not, please explain!
Godspeed on your new endeavours. May they bring you joy and contentment. Thank you for your views on the news-especially the humerous retorts to commentators! Perhaps after a sabbatical, you will return.
ReplyDeleteDoug: You jivin us Ms T?
ReplyDeleteIf not, please explain!
I mean simply that I'll keep the EB lights on for Deuce, literally, by starting new threads when they get near the triple digits in posts. At least for a couple weeks before I fly out to WESTPAC.
If we had to, I'm sure we could work out some sort of rotation. The posts won't be as good, but it'll keep the comments going.
ReplyDeleteHope you return soon, 2164.
Deuce,
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful experience you provided us all. The consummate gentleman and host. The knowledgeable and brave recorder of events that will shape our world for decades.
The forebearence you allowed each of us in the presentation of our individual personalities and ideas was true leadership.
To those who offered their time and knowledge I thank you too. A more knowledgeable and eclectic group will not come together for many a day, much to my dismay.
But it is to you Deuce I raise my cup. Those who know you personally are lucky people. May good health follow you and yours. Gods speed my friend.
Mr. Deuce suh,
ReplyDeleteI cants tell ya the misery dat I feel rites now. Mr Habu always read me what you say and to my ears it was truth.
Now I will take this sad day to da bog and let da critters know dat you gone on to other thangs. I know we'll whup up a party in yo honor.
May your best days be ahead for all you love and care for. My sorrow could not be deeper but I understands that each man's life is a tapestry and that you have weaved this one as only a master could. Now a new road presents itself and da pull'in on your soul is mighty.
Possumtater
Whit,
ReplyDeleteDeuce said you two had never met but that what he owed you was great. I think that is true.
At the end of the Civil War Robert E. Lee was asked who his best general was, and he answered. "It was a man I never met, Nathan B. Forrest."
Often times in our lives these things happen. People we never have a chance to meet contribute to our being in ways they can never know. You and Deuce fit that bill.
May health follow you and yours forever.
Habu & Possumtater
You'll be back, Deuce; you just need a "vacation." Go have some fun.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, it's gotta be said, your posts were getting more, and more, excellent. It's obvious you have been putting an inordinate amount of time into the Bar. Since the bar is presently set up in such a way that precludes you from, either, "getting lucky," or making money I can see where you've just gotta take a break.
I've really enjoyed having a few (many?) drinks with you, my friend; and hope we can get together later for many more.
by the way, we need some "tradecraft" for how to contact you in Costa Rica.
Have a Good One, Hoss; and, don't Get Any On Ya.
If I have to, I will get down on my knees and beg the boss to reconsider. The Bar won't be the same without him. His artwork and fortitude in keeping the posts going have been invaluable. We'll get Deuce back, one way or another.
ReplyDeleteIn a sense, the EB has become a virtual community. Like any bar, people pop in and out. Sometimes the conversations are intimate, sometimes the whole room is talking about the same thing. At times, the EB is more of a chat room than a blog.
In the coming days, we should decide where we're going from here. It may be that someone steps up to assume some posting duties or it may be that we shut the bar and scatter to the four corners of the web.
In the words of one of our favorite politicians (sarcasm off) Mrs. William Jefferson Clinton, "Let's chat, let's dialog."
I'll start. I've been hanging out down the street, pretty much, for the last couple of weeks, and I'll tell you why.
ReplyDeleteEven though his performance on the War, and on the Borders hasn't been perfect, he's still my President, and the Man I'm depending on to keep my family safe. Overall, I'm pretty happy with his record in this regard. He fought off the Russians, the Europeans, and the Democrats and gave our country Missile Defense. He pushed through the F-22, and F-35 Programs. He backed Rumsfeld in the "Transformation" process, and thus, incurred the wrath of the entire Defense Establishment.
I'm, also, more or less satisfied with him as regards "Domestic" issues. He's stood behind very strong tax cuts on investment, and for that has been beat on, and beat on, by the Dems for five years. He promoted "No Child Left Behind," and Medicare Part D; and, for that, and some border issues, has been beat unmercifully by some Repubs.
Anyway, I pretty much support the man, and it was becoming too painful to log in and read comment, after comment, of ridicule, disparagement, and denigration of a man I respect. I just had to take a break. I can't promise that I'll feel any different, tomorrow.
Guys, many times in my small home town I walked into a bar, and had a choice between sitting next to a guy that was ALWAYS bitching, and moaning, or sitting next to someone who was normally in a reasonably cheerful mood. I very seldom went out of my way to sit next to the grouch. Did You?
NEXT!
Ah thats too bad, but good blogging is a damn near full time occupation. Hope to hear from you occasionaly.
ReplyDeleteIf you could restrict yourself to 1 or 2 a week, take time off like Wretch, whenever the mood strikes...
ReplyDeleteBut Ms T, Cutler, and Whit offer hope of some respite.
That Possumtater writes a Moving Post:
I got all teared-up forcin myself to read through it.
We could have some of that for threads.
Kind of like going to Mass w/the tater.
Course I never been to a Mass, so that is mere speculation on my part.
Well done Deuce! We will be here when you get back!
ReplyDeleteI like Cheerful Moanin,
ReplyDeleteRufus,
Specially for Nooners.
Is this the end?
ReplyDeleteGod speed Deuce
ReplyDeleteReader from day one.
Thanks for all the kind words. Fellow Peacekeeper, we finally saw your email. Now would be a good time to work on that first post. If anyone else would care to give it a go, just email us. The link is at the top.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI've really come to respect your thoughts 2164th...or dare I call you deuce...
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems I've found with your blog is too many posts. More then one a day is too many. A couple a week is fine. The internet need not operate in real time, though, in the comments, the quick replies is nice there is no need for the lead post to change so often.
Anyway, I'll miss you insights though, somehow, I can't see you remaining quiet for long.
Ash: The internet need not operate in real time, though, in the comments, the quick replies is nice there is no need for the lead post to change so often.
ReplyDeleteIt struck me that the Belmont Club was more of a place for taking a deep breath and leisurely hashing out some serious war analysis while the Elephant Bar was a little noisier and rowdier, but just as deep when the conversation turned there. Either way, both blogs are really just people, and the crowd will go where it goes.
2164--Just got back from a short trip, to see the news. Very sad to hear it, but certainly understand how much work it takes, and want to say how much I enjoyed your efforts and reading all the comments. Best to you and yours, and good fortune with the projects you have going. You take care, now. Bob
ReplyDeleteI want to thank all of you for your very kind words. The only problem I see is that when I am able to return, I would have to extract a promise that you not be so nice to me in the future.
ReplyDelete