May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung, may you be in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you're dead, and may gentle be all your steps as you walk beyond this valley…

Friday was my last day at Reason, and I've just been finishing up last stuff and getting ready to be fitted with my MSM subcutaneous microchip. So let me say what a privilege it has been working at Reason these past four years. This was a truly fantastic place to work, and I leave with too many regrets to mention. Among other things, it pains me to be taking off just as we finally have our brand-spankin' new CMS, with a more responsive Hit & Run and an all-around better and more manageable site. For this achievement I should publicly thank Mike Alissi, the mysterious Pierce Inverarity figure who quietly makes just about everything happen at Reason. I'm just sorry I only got a week to play on the new site.

The great Radley Balko and "Delaware" Dave Weigel will be expertly serving up the Reason you've come to know and loathe love, and will undoubtedly cause you to forget I was ever here within a matter of hours. I've been honored to work with all the Reason staff and to edit myself into trouble under Nick Gillespie, who is what Rupert Pupkin would call a great artist, a great innovator, and a great great loss. Every former employee hopes to see his old bosses brought to ruin so he can claim that he was the indispensable element, but in my case I hope Reason soars to ever greater orbits of world domination and pan-galactic comity.

Finally, all my love to you, the fabulous little people. A quality publication is about great readers as well as great writers, and it's a too-rare pleasure to write for a readership that is engaged, informed, argumentative, and prone to understanding jokes. To both the regular commenters and the great lurking masses, I say thank you. I very much hope to see you at the L.A. Times, and I fully expect to keep seeing you at Reason.