1 Time and change happeneth to us all, dear. It happened to me, fairly recently. There's no guarantee that Den Beste will break his sabbatical, but there's no guarantee that he won't, either. To keep one's enthusiasm for a serious and demanding pastime, one must focus on its rewards and contrive to ignore its costs. Den Beste appears to have been discouraged by the mountains of E-mail he gets, much of which is critical, nit-picky, or disagreeable in tone. Perhaps he'll return after he's shaken off the effect -- and will henceforward delete all his E-mail unread, a tonic for the pundit's soul that I've found most refreshing.

2 He's done a hell of a lot, and he's earned, and I'm sure he needs, a break. I suspect that sooner or later he will need to blog again. In the meantime, we'll try to hold the fort for him.

3 He'll be back once all those who pester quit visiting. Until then, we still have your words, and those of our Curmudgeon, to read.