So Long to True/Slant

By way of explanation, I had fully intended to move posts from True/Slant over here to Balls & Whistles as they were written/posted, but, ah, yeah. Not so much. Really.

So, with True/Slant shutting down, I thought I should move most of the work there over to here. As a result, there are about a beejillion posts in the last week of July, 2010 -- my sorry efforts to copy and cut and paste the True/Slant content here.

Man, that was tedious. But it is here and, I think, relatively easy to find. Things should get back to normal at Balls & Whistles and I've got a few irons in the fire, so we'll see what happens. Meantime, here's my goodbye post from True/Slant:

From True/Slant on July 29, 2010:

Elvis Has Just Left the Building.

All good things must come to an end, or so I’m told. And like the back up fullback who gets a visit from the Turk on the last day of NFL training camp, so it is with my ride with True/Slant. It’s been fun, difficult, frustrating, enlightening, annoying, gratifying and sometimes hilarious (in a Pinter-esque sort of way, I realize), but still. Sometimes, it was all of those things all at the same time.

What that means for now is that I’ll be blogging independently and selling my wares for other stories to the highest bidders. (Do people even pay reporters any more? And if they do, and if you know any of those people and, um, have them on speed-dial or are like ‘friends’ with them on the facebooky machine, drop a dime for me.)

Also, finally, for the love of all that is holy and right, I will be working on finishing my book on the Pittsburgh Passion, “Rough & Tumble, Pioneer Women in the World of Female, Full-Contact Football.” Look for it, um, sometime.

But before I hand in my playbook and skate-sharpener and turn off the jumbotron, I have to say, many thanks to Coates Bateman, Michael Roston and Lewis Dvorkin, for keeping True/Slant up and running, which gave me a comfy place to write, but also a place where I got to read and interact with so many great writers. To Coates and Michael personally, thanks for all of the encouragement.

You can find me here, at my regular, old-fashioned blog, Balls & Whistles.

In the words of the all-world, all-time great Pittsburgh Penguins announcer Mike Lange, Elvis has just left the building.