(Yeah, yeah, you were expecting naked pictures. Here):  

After nearly eight weeks away from Open Salon (which I immediately amended to "I won't post but I will lurk and occasionally comment"), I'm back. I managed to get some things done this summer (although I obviously didn't learn how to frame pictures I put into the text on these posts), but mostly I relaxed. I know I promised Zum and Cap'n Parrot I'd bring back presents, but my gifts are of the more, er, ethereal kind.

Reading OS without the pressure of posting is a revelation. I highly recommend everyone try it. Damn, you people are smart! Funny. Intense. Honest. Insecure. Maybe just a little messed up. But in a good way.

One of the best parts of stepping away from posting is that you don't have to keep up with the drama of breaking news and trying to be original, not to mention the agony/ecstasy of editor picks and online fistfights.  Actually, I kind of missed that part.

In any event, I was lurking and I had a chance to read your work that much more carefully. I realized how much I wished you were writing the op-eds for the major media outlets, or drawing political cartoons for some magazine that continues to be hip and maybe even profitable or filling the pages of this or that literary magazine (such that still exist) or at least making signs for protestors to carry, since you all show a hell of a lot more creativity than they do.

Open Salon is for writers and people here are writing. You're also discussing, debating, arguing and by and large thinking, which seems to be out of fashion in most of American discourse these days. That means a lot to me. So does the fact that Open Salon sees itself as a community. I thank those of you who wrote on September 11. That also means a lot to me.

So I'm back to posting, but I'm also going to pay more attention than ever to what everyone else is writing because it amazes, surprises and on the whole, pleases. Yeah, we're all terrific here on OS, so quick, group hug everyone; now let's all get back to work.