all this setup is somewhat tiresome

and it still doesn't look quite right,
but check it out!   a brand new, bright shiny web log.

Part of me thinks I already had most of my online-interaction bases covered, what with grinnellplans, gmail and the ubiquitous facemaster, but this might be fun so I'm giving it a try.

You'll probably be unsurprised to learn that the blog's tag line relates to F. Scott Fitzgerald.  It's NOT Fitzgerald, for the record, but rather Raymond Chandler on Fitzgerald...

"He had one of the rarest qualities in all literature, and it's a great shame that the word for it has been thoroughly debased by the cosmetic racketeers, so that one is almost ashamed to use it to describe a real distinction. Nevertheless, the word is charm--charm as Keats would have used it. Who has it today? It's not a matter of pretty writing or clear style. It's a kind of subdued magic, controlled and exquisite, the sort of thing you get from good string quartets."

He nails it. 
I don't quite have it.  I aspire to it, in writing and almost everything else.