No.
Nothing against Mike, who a favorite of this site.
MTC's anniversaries tend not to be recognized by Why Today Doesn't Suck.
But Tuesday is, indeed, the eleventh anniversary of what I believe to be, Reddit aside, not only the longest-lasting Ticket blog, but, at present, the only one.
Is that at all surprising? It is, a little, to me. There have been others that have popped up and lasted a few weeks. A couple of them were interesting, good. Was hoping they would hang around. But they vanished as abruptly as they appeared. (A couple survive on the link-list on this page.) But it seems odd to me that we've got this amazing station -- I mean, the evidence that it is the greatest radio station in the country is substantial -- with the absolutely hippest social-media-savvy listenership around in DFW and elsewhere, and yet there is really very little celebration of it online. Maybe Reddit's comprehensiveness sucks all of the interest in anyone doing their own periodic running commentary on the station. Certainly there is room for commentary in addition to my meager offerings.
Which, to date, and not counting this one, equal 940 posts. I think a handful of those are archival reposts, but that's still a lot.
In any event, I want to thank all of you chordates who have clicked on the site, offered comments, dropped me emails, checked out the reds, and generally supported my efforts here. Yes, even those of you I have to bounce from time to time.
And I thought I'd better give you my current thinking on the site. You will have observed I haven't posted in quite some time. I very much appreciate those of you who have continued to comment and especially those who have been encouraging about keeping the site going. That's how I get paid.
I still love The Ticket. I still love checking in for comments. I still like breaking the occasional newsie item. I still like hearing from Deep-Fingered Correspondents from time to time with Ticket Tidbits.
Some have speculated that certain over-woke and over-anti-woke Confessor commentary, or perhaps the poli-talk on The Ticket itself, are driving me away from this particular hobby.
Annoying as those comments are on both sides of the aisle, and as tedious and disappointing as some of the hosts' posturing can be, it's not so. It's not all that tough to bounce inappropriate comments, and usually that calms the commentariat down. The political showgram stuff seems to have moderated some, what little I've been able to hear. And I'm actually very fond of even the most bumptious of my readers.*
*Side note on Surly, formerly Shaggy: Early in this site's history, a sometime commenter dropped me an email warning me about Shaggy, with whom he was butting heads on some site maintained by my correspondent. I recognized Shaggy as a bit of a grumpasaurus, but also perceived he was sharp and, in general, willing to follow the Rules of the Confessional. So he remains welcome here.
Nope, this is all on me. About a year-and-a-half ago, and again a few months ago, my life took some gigantic swerves. I guess the kids call them "pivots" these days. These were not bad things, they were and are rather good things, but two things have resulted:
First, my Ticket listening time has been slashed. Just can't do it like I used to, even the early-morning Musers have taken a huge hit. For reasons unrelated to The Contagion, I am not in my car nearly as much, which is a big factor in reducing my listening.
Second, multiple projects are demanding huge chunks of even my discretionary time, which is to say, my writing time. I have at least three major writing projects going now that are not My Ticket Confession. The time just isn't there, and, of course, because of the first factor, I don't hear as much that would inspire a column.
None of this demands that I quit the site. But I feel that if I can't hear the station as much as I would like, I not only don't have much grist for my writing mill, I'm likely not really to know what's going on at the station. Kinda feel like I'm letting the good Confessor down.
But . . .
. . . I do still hear the station from time to time. Today, for example, I was able to catch a fair amount of Mike Sirois, Rich Phillips, and Danny Bailis in the Jake/Dan slot. Great show, really solid content and a pleasure to hear Rich (another favorite of mine and, at one time, an MTC pick to be a national breakout play-by-play talent) again. Then heard WTDS hosted by Mike, and maybe 45 minutes of The Hardline. All good.
So this is not farewell. I'll do my best to gin up a topic from time to time, so please do stay tuned, check in with comments, and always, always say nice things about My Ticket Confession.
At which I thank you all for shopping.
Even, occasionally, one or another Sirois.
And to my first Confessor, that Nice Young Michael Gruber, I offer my thanks for your first-ever comment on this site, wherever you are.
And you too, Barb Smith, who put this site on the map.
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