Mullings An American Cyber Column By Rich Galen

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Turn, Turn, Turn

Rich Galen

Tuesday August 11, 2020

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We read in Ecclesiastes 3:1(and in the collected works of Pete Seeger), "To everything there is a season." Later, in 3:6 "A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;"
The time for Mullings is over. It has reached its sell-by date.
I've been writing Mullings more-or-less regularly for 22 years and it's just not fun anymore.
So, this will be it.
No soaring rhetoric. No tearful apologies. No scowling last shots.
I'll turn off the Paypal account so if you have an automatic renewal for the annual subscription drive you won't be paying for vaporware.
I'll keep my same email; galen@mullings.com so you can continue to make fun of me when Trump does something right, or I Tweet something wrong.
I'm behind by a couple of years in updating the Archives, and I'll try to get that done in the next month or so.
It has not been a struggle to write Mullings. It's never a question of "What am I going to write about tonight?" As any columnist will tell you, there are more things to write about than there is space or time available.
I'm a pretty good writer. Always have been. My saving grace has been I write very quickly. I'm not one of those writers who agonizes over every phrase. I rarely have had to struggle to find a clever way to write what I wanted to say. So, pumping out 750 words three, then two, days per week hasn't been a heavy lift.
I've also never been shy about taking a position. Being a non-Trumper from the moment he came down the elevator has cost me most of my readership and a good deal of money. I've never regretted a day because I know I would have had to fake being a Trump supporter for the sake of my income and email list numbers, and I would not have liked myself very much.
Some of you have noted that the "evergreen" columns, Christmas, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, first day of school, opening day of the baseball season, are your favorites.
Mine, too. I still shed tears when I edited them to keep them up-to-date.
The reach of Mullings has surprised me over the decades. Knowing I would write about wherever I was, whatever I was doing, and with whomever I was with has opened many doors.
To that end, I have done the most interesting things, in the most unique places, with the best people and, have been able to take you along for the ride.
I'll toss an occasional wistful glance at my Delta Airlines statement (two million+ miles) and my American Airlines statement (one million+ miles), and remember that time we went to Zanzibar and had drinks in Freddy Mercury's favorite bar, or played the piano at "Rick's Café" in Casablana, Morocco; or went looking for the statue of The Thinker in the Louvre only to be told it was in the Rodin Museum only to find, when I got there, it was on loan to Germany, or chatted with the Russian border guards in Eastern Ukraine, or that trip to Fallujah.
My life could have gone in a number of different ways, but being elected to the City Council in Marietta, Ohio (45750) got me interested in politics and led us to move to our Nation's Capital to practice the art at its highest levels.
One of the best parts of Mullings has been the Secret Decoder Ring and the Mullfoto of the Day. The SDR started so I could help document what I was writing about. The Mullfoto taught me to look at unique, odd, interesting, and/or amusing things with a photographer's eye, not just a writer's eye.
Before I turn out the lights I want to thank all the sponsors over all the years especially the folks at the Tarrance Group, Campaign Solutions, and Focus Data Solutions who have been along for the full ride.
You're on your own for the rest of this election cycle. I got my mail-in-ballot request from the Virginia Board of Elections, so I'll vote early and get it out of the way, but I'll watch (and Tweet @richgalen) about things I think I need to share.
Turn, turn, turn.
One last thing: The support and love from The Lad, Reed, and from the Mullings Director of Standards & Practices; Couldn't have - wouldn't have - done it without them.
Her name, by the way, is Susan.

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