Goodbye: The Church of Schwartz

Though it's been scarcely a year since I began writing here, it seems like it's been much longer.  I find myself looking back through the archives more and more often, to remind myself of “how I did it last time”, or to check up on how my old predictions came out.

As exciting as it is to begin drawing from my blog’s ‘history’, this is still a very young site.  For the most part, the friends, readers, and commenters who’ve gathered here have stayed—if for no other reason than they just got here.  The Lions in Winter simply hasn’t been around long enough for the natural cycle of an Internet community to make a complete trip around; very few regular commenters have come, stayed, grown close, grown distant, and then left.

However, while TLIW hasn’t been around that long, the Lions blogosphere has . . and today, we say goodbye to The Church Of Schwartz.  As you can see, hackers have eviscerated the site—and its archives.  The authors, Reverend Spielman and Deacon Blades Boyd, have elected not to try to recreate from scratch what they’d spent the last year building.

The email from the good Reverend to the members of The Lions Congregation, the CoS’s weekly Lions writer roundtable, saddened and depressed me.  The number of truly dedicated Lions fans is relatively small; that of the excellent, frequently-updated Lions blogs even smaller.

We won't be losing Rev or the Deacon as fans, of course—and the Reverend assures me that they’ll continue to read and comment on Lions blogs and forums as they always have—but now, there’s one less place on the Internet that Lions fans can go for thoughtful, well-presented analysis and discussion, and for that we’re all worse off.

Reverend, Deacon, if you’re reading this, I’m pouring two mugs of hot, hard cider, and keeping two seats by the blue bonfire open for you.  You’re welcome to sit and drink here any time.