Thanks.

The outpouring of sentiment from sites across the Apple web community has been pretty overwhelming. I’m sobbing into my morning gin and tonic as I type this.

And you know what? Tears actually make a great mixer. My tears, of course, are not as sweet as the tears of children, but you take what you can get.

Anyway, my thanks to Mike Lee, Brent Simmons, John Gruber, Paul Kafasis, Gus Mueller, Scott McNulty, Tom Krazit, Chris Breen, Dan Moren, Glenn Fleishman, Rich Mogull, Snaggy, Jason Snell, Matt Deatherage (who gets in his last digs at my spelling – like I’ve said, I’m a product of a poor education, Matt!) and all the people in the comments here.

You know what?! Forget it! I’m staying! I love you guys! I could never leave you! We’re getting the band back together! We’re going to pile in the VW microbus and drive around playing our music our way and solving mysteries and we’re gonna rock all night long and if anyone tries to tell us to be quiet we’re gonna say “Go to bed, old man, because rock and roll is here to stay!”

Oh, wait, I still don’t have any money.

Plus, we were never a band together or anything like that.

Dammit.

Never mind.

Last day. Final post coming up later.

And it’s a tear-jerker, so bring some liquor.

Whither the Staff?

Well, despite drinking my weight in Tres Generaciones Anejo, I was unable to make time and space roll backwards and undo the Entity’s shocker announcement of last week.

I did actually close a loop in the space/time continuum that was causing Stan Sigman to read off the same index card over and over and over and over. So, that was good. Get that guy back on the golf course where he belongs.

But when I woke up this morning after going to bed on Saturday morning and dragged myself into the office, there was the Entity, taking things out of his desk and putting them into a cardboard box.

Single paper clip. Bag of Baked Lays. Pencil. Bag of Baked Lays. Swingline stapler. Bag of Baked Lays. Thoronson portable particle accelerator. Bag of Baked Lays…

He’s out of here on Friday.

So that’s it.

Come Friday, the show’s over.

It’s not so bad, I guess. I’ve been doing this for six years and I still haven’t scored that free Cinema Display I dreamed of when I first posted on Blogspot.

I talked with the staff today and they all spent the weekend thinking about their options.

Thor’s obviously set since he’s independently wealthy. He just stood there for a second then said “Well, I’m going skydiving.” Then he walked out.

Now, Howard…

Well…

How do I say this?

Howard actually had to be put down over a year ago.

I just…

I didn’t have the heart to tell you.

Yep. Hip dysplasia. Sad, really.

Um…

Uh…

You’re crying.

Um, I’m just kidding. We, uh, we actually drove him out to a biiiig farm in the country and he’s running around, uh, chasing the chickens and, uh, taking pictures of them… for a big… farm… exposé… for Life magazine.

Really.

He’s going to blow the farm stereotype wide open.

Totally. Don’t cry.

It’s Chet we had to have put down.

No, actually, this was kind of a shock to me, but he’s already got another job lined up. Yep. He’s reached some form of détente with the rest of his family and is going to work for the Mac Business Unit at Microsoft. It’s nice for him. It’s a nice middle ground. I think the current version was looking a little too Mac-like and they were looking for someone to help really crap up the interface for them. You know, tart it up like a cheap whore.

I think he’s going to do well there.

Masako simply announced that she’s decided to “go back to her people”. No one was really sure if she meant the Japanese or lesbians. I like to imagine it’s the lesbians. As a matter of fact, I like to imagine that a little too much, if you know what I mean.

And I think you do.

So, I’m like, “Well, Ugluk. Looks like it’s just you and me, buddy.”

And then the Entity offers to drop him off in 20,000 B.C. on his way back to his dimension.

Great. Thanks a lot.

You know, I can’t do this site alone. There’s vast amounts of research, interviewing and writing, not to mention all the web maintenance, marketing and administration.

And then someone has to keep the hot tub maintained, brush the polo ponies and oil the Solid Gold CARS Dancers.

So…

Friday it is.

What the hell am I going to do after that? There’s no way I’m going back to chartered accountancy. No way, man.

More delicious Macworld content! And low fat!

Macworld Expo may be other, but you can still read about it over and over and over and over and over again.

Here’s the second part of my Two-Part Macworld Trilogy on Macworld.com.

And if you’re already bleeding from your eyes from reading too much Macworld coverage, you can hear me dish the latest rumor in this podcast with Macworld’s Philip Michaels. Why should your eyes do all the suffering?!

Travel Day And More.

Monday was a travel day so not much to report, but the word on the street here near the Moscone Center is that the thing in the air might actually be Apple’s fleet of attack helicopters. Or, possibly, hunks of flying metal as Apple’s elite squad of lesbian ninjas destroy the robot menace that plagues us all.

For sources are now telling us that Apple has broken free of the robot blockade and, indeed, we can see flashes of light in the sky to the south indicating that Macworld 2008 will take place tomorrow, validating not only the travel plans of several thousand Apple enthusiasts but also many parking vouchers at the Moscone Center.

While the keynote tomorrow will be embargoed from WiFi access, we’ll bring you a semi-live blog in the semi-nude shortly thereafter.

Apple declined to comment for this brief story but said some shit is too cool even for killer robots to hold back.

How true.