Springfield Illinois Blogger Calls It Quits

Springfield, Illinois blogger "Dave" of The11thhour announced yesterday, March 20th, 2008, his decision to retire from the local blogging scene. For over three years (2005) Dave's blog had become a local stop for those interested in his unique mix of humor and skepticism.

Most of Dave's posts consisted of portions of local, state, and national news stories often quoted from the Illinois State Journal-Register with which he mixed short, but entertaining personal comments. Dave's experience as a former news producer, reporter, and radio talk show host was evident in his style of writing - often time inviting reader comments.

Dave often shared snippets of his personal life revealing that he was married, had a young son, and two daughters. He also revealed that he lived on Springfield's prosperous West Side, which he advocated calling New Springfield, but never revealed where he was employed.

He occasionally wrote of a former spouse, with whom he appeared to have a negative relationship - stating that she was one of the factors behind his decision to remain an anonymous blogger.

Dave wrote often of his concerns for the U.S., and was highly critical of the Bush Administration, and the Iraq War. Although admitting that he voted in the recent Republican Primary he recently endorsed Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Dave's final post hints that he may resume blogging at some point spurring several of his regular readers to post comments pleading for him to resume posting.

Dave's final post gives no hint as to why he chose to stop posting, but a recent post reveals that Dave has been suffering with the chronic, and for some debilitating, disease Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

He had also revealed his sense of betrayal by a lifelong friend JeromeProphet another Springfield, Illinois blogger. A link to JeromeProphet, which had appeared on Dave's blog since June of 2005 was removed only days before Dave's announcement.

UPDATE: Dave has left a comment in which he states that his health was not the reason behind his decision to cease blogging. Other corrections appear within his comment, and this post has been updated to reflect those corrections. No bad intention were behind the errors. And I only speculated that health might be the reason. And of course I wouldn't be so foolish as to believe that anything I could ever write would trigger a decision on Dave's part to cease blogging.

The reason I didn't indicate how many daughters Dave has is because I wasn't sure if he ever indicated just how many he had from his post, and was too tired at the time to search his blog to confirm. Also, while I knew he had written about having a daughter I felt that it was better to err on the side of safety, and not give away any facts that had not already been published.

Thanks to Dave I have added the letter "s" to the end of the word "Quits" which I misspelled. I have been criticized for having pointed out similar mistakes on Dave's blog, and I only did so to help Dave, but it appears my good intentions have been interpreted along with every other aspect of my blogging as some sinister attempt to bring Dave down.

The word debilitating was used to describe the disease, which it often is for those who suffer from it, not to describe Dave's personal condition, and the original wording of the sentence was structured in a way which could have been misinterpreted, I have modified the sentence to prevent that - except in the case of those most determined to find malice where none has ever existed.

As for those who have spewed their uninformed bias, and hatred, even referring to me as the Devil, I could respond in kind, but I can only suggest that you find other activities in your life to fill the void that so obviously exist so as to motivate you to comment in such a way.

I have no need to apologize for any of my posts, the long list of false accusations directed at me which were included in Dave's recent post about his health problems constituted one of the most obviously "passive aggressive" examples of blogging I have ever seen in text.

To drop that bomb, and then close up shop, instead of staying around long enough to cite sources for his allegations in fact makes a matching bookend for the post that Brian Pierce ended up retracting.

I call you to task Mr. Dave. Cite your sources, or be revealed for what you have done.

Show me a post in which I accused you - specifically - of being a racist.

As to your problem about me writing about the West Side - learn to live with it. Not all bloggers live in the same economic class, and not all see things as you do. What you have done is to take comments I make about class in the U.S., and locally, and have decided it's all about you.

I write about race, and it's about you. I write about class and it's about you. I write about gas guzzlers and it's about you. It's all about you. Get this, it's not all about you. My post are about what I want them to be, and they're rarely with you in mind.

And that is my last word on this. There were years where you and your first wife and three sons lived in town where I never heard from you or saw you, and we did just fine. We never see each other now, but the expression familiarity breeds contempt can sometimes prove true. Maybe if we never knew about each other's blog we'd still be alright with each other? And maybe that's the lesson here. Because no matter how good the group, be it the Beatles, or the Who, eventually egos tend to flare, and it all comes to an end. I hope that's not the case, but I'm requesting for the sake of what remains of our "friendship" that you cease from reading my blog.

Love and peace to Dave, his wife, one ex-wife, two daughters, four sons, and any pets too.