On a spring night in 1997, then-editor Mike Curtin called me at home to ask if I’d like to write a column for The Dispatch. I said yes instantly, and then I began worrying.
There was a comet passing by at the time (Hale-Bopp — look it up), and I thought it might be a portent. What if, like the comet, I was destined to streak into view and then, having quickly run out of column ideas, fade away?
Well, that was about 3,000 columns ago, so if nothing else I can say that I never ran out of ideas. I might have recycled a few but in a world as wacky as ours, it’s more or less impossible to run out.
It is possible, though, to arrive at a point where you want to try other things. And so, this will be my last column for The Dispatch.
I do intend to keep writing. I’m setting up one of those Substack things — it’s an online platform for writers where you’ll find me at joeblundo.substack.com. I’ll still aim satire at the target-rich environments that are Columbus and Ohio. This being an election year, I also look forward to mocking a candidate or two. And because my wife and I babysit two great column topics — ages 6 and 3 — I might work in a mention of grandchildren now and then.