The Last Word On Nothing

Neither one of us is good at good-byes.

Tom, who abhors leaving a party, prefers to remain until every other guest has departed, the host has passed out or gone to bed, and he’s holding forth to the household pets and/or appliances. That way, he knows he won’t miss out on any of the fun.

Erika would rather slip out quietly while a party is in full swing, the guests are laughing uproariously and everyone is in that blissed-out “What a great party!” stage. That way, she knows she won’t commit some embarrassing faux pas that will be noticed by all the partygoers, then retold for decades as an epic tale of social disaster.

And yet it must be done: the time has come for us to say good-bye to LWON.

We’re going under our own steam, but not quite willingly.

We have cherished communing with the wise and graceful writers of LWON. We are most grateful to LWON’s founders, for starting this project three short years ago. We are proud to have been a small part of LWON’s vision: to enable writers to tell compelling science stories that are not being told elsewhere, on their own terms and without concern for salability or fitting a particular publication’s preferences of style or subject matter.

We have embraced and enjoyed our dialogues with you, our loyal readers (Erika: “Thanks, Mom and Dad!”). You are the best audience on the Internet. You are informed and engaged. You challenge us and question our assumptions. You have enabled LWON to grow from a plucky under-blog into a force to be reckoned with in the science writing universe.

We’ll miss all of you greatly. Thank you for allowing us to call ourselves LWONians, and for making that experience one of the most rewarding of our professional lives.

Of course, like a lysogenic viral infection, we’ll stick around, continuing to enjoy LWON’s unparalleled content as readers and hopefully authoring the occasional guest post ourselves.

But for now, goodbye. We know that we’re leaving in the middle of the party, and we’re so very grateful for the awesome time we’ve had.

*****

Photo credit: Moyan Brenn/flickr.