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Farewell to 'Simple Justice' and Scott Greenfield, the Blogosphere's Truth Serum
On Monday morning, Scott Greenfield added a post to his Simple Justice blog ("5 Years") marking that prolific blog's five-year anniversary. He wrote of how he started the blog back in 2007 as "a way to keep busy" and somehow ended up writing a staggering 4,744 posts over the next five years.
In the "5 Years" post, Scott looked back on the years he's been writing Simple Justice, the things that prompted him to write, the significant changes in the blogosphere, friends and enemies made, and more. Then he humbly made a reference to his work at Simple Justice now being "part of the old, forgotten blawgosphere" (obviously not true), thanked everyone for reading and keeping him honest, linked to some video that I didn't watch about a dolphin "thanking everyone for all the fish," and wrapped up post number 4,744. I didn't think twice about it.
This morning, Greenfield's buddy Brian Tannebaum (who along with Greenfield and Mark Bennett make up the "Three Angry Lawyers" in this video) wrote a post entitled, "See Ya Greenfield" in which he bid Greenfield farewell. Tannebaum linked to the "5 Years" post and explained that Greenfield "is done blogging at Simple Justice. You can all stop your guessing and 'aw shucks, really?' He's done, It's over. Greenfield has a wicked sense of humor and wit but he would never waste his time faking his exit from the blogosphere. You're not worth it."
Wait, what!? I went back to the "5 Years" post, read it again, and still didn't conclude that Scott was shutting down Simple Justice. But some of the commenters obviously had reached that conclusion and were offering Greenfield their thanks for five great years, including one who said that "this morning's Douglas Adams reference was an unexpected surprise." Douglas Adams? After a short journey through Wikipedia, I finally found the following that shed light on the "5 Years" post:
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish is the fourth book of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy written by Douglas Adams. Its title is the message left by the dolphins when they departed Planet Earth just before it was demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, as described in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." The phrase has since been adopted by some science fiction fans as a humorous way to say "goodbye" and a song of the same name was featured in the 2005 film adaptation of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Ahhh, got it.
So no more Scott Greenfield in the blogosphere? That, my friends, is a major loss. He thanked his readers in "5 Years" for "keeping him honest" but really it should be the other way around. To me, more than anyone else, Greenfield was the best at holding his fellow lawyers and bloggers -- as well as himself -- accountable for their actions and inactions. He wrote what he believed, straight up, no chaser. I admire him greatly for that. If you agreed with him, terrific. If you did not, no problem there either -- just don't come looking to him for a hug or an apology, or for him to let you off the hook for being wrong or acting wrong.
As a blogger, Scott was not a "pleaser," an approach to life that many bloggers including myself fall into as it can be the easy way to go. Rather, Scott was the blogosphere's truth serum.
Thank you, Scott, for a fabulous five years writing Simple Justice. I know you will continue to make your presence felt in the blogosphere.
Posted by Bruce Carton on February 14, 2012 at 04:20 PM | Permalink
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