Dearly beloved, we are blogging together today to mark...

Well, okay, that's a wedding rite while what I'm really looking for is better suited for a wake.

First off, Lorne Gunter's blog "As I Please" is a little dead at the moment. With the Klein retirement, the Harper throne speech, and a few other interesting local issues at the forefront, he's just too busy. This has been known to happen before: in November '05 he made 23 posts, in January '06 54 posts, and a mere 7 in the month of December 2005 (and all of those posts were between December 1st and December 3rd). In fact, that's the defining characteristic of "As I Please". As soon as somebody (Mike Jenkinson, Kevin Michael Grace, or Colby Cosh usually) make a joke about Lorne's lack of posting, he goes on a crazy marathon. The 54 posts in January '06 started on the 10th, and already 54 posts by the 31st...and Lorne's posts aren't quick little "here's a funny cartoon" or "lets rank tennis players" or "celebrity marriage wrapup" affairs, unlike some bloggers I could mention. [do it! do it! earn that jackass' wrath! I dare you! I've always wanted to kick it to that sumbitch -ed] Basic summary: don't expect a post from Lorne for a while (I don't think I'm high-ranking enough to influence him), but when you see one post from him check the blog 2-3 times per day. You've been warned.

Also, ABFreedom has closed down shop for a while. He has turned off comments and also, apparently, direct post linking. The lack of posting leaves it impossible to speculate, but I'll still try it here: he's had some sort of personal family matter, he's been dealing with it for a while, and it is yet unclear when posting will resume. [however did Edmonton Police Services think they could solve crimes without your deductive genius? -ed] This means that I will be writing to a crowd 1 smaller than usual [I didn't know -1 was a valid readership figure... -ed], and also no traffic on the only site so far to actually link to me. Normally you'd see a pathetic "please come back" at this point. I, however, am many things but pathetic certainly isn't amoungst them. That blog will return when it shall return, no sooner.

Finally, though it was announced back on March 20th, this NHL playoff run will likely mark the permanent demise of the Battle of Alberta blog.