SO LONG, FRIENDS, AND THANKS. As of today, January 22 2003, I am breaking up. After a few months off and extensive deliberation, I have decided that the best thing right now is not to continue together in my present formation. While the past twenty-six years have been tremendously rewarding for everyone invovled, I feel it�s time for me to move on.

No doubt, many will ask me �why?� I have no easy answer to that question. The decision to break up now probably comes as a shock, given the success I�ve had, most recently as a college graduate, substitute teacher, and retail bookseller. But something about the past few years hasn�t been fulfilling. I feel creatively stifled, and for this reason and others, I think now is the time to pack it in and think about the future.

When this project began in July 1976, I had very specific goals I hoped to acheive over the next quarter-century. While there is still plenty of room for growth within this outfit, these goals and others have been met and oftentimes surpassed.

Any present projects that have been in the works will continue to fruition. JP is hard at work on an aggressive beer-drinking campaign, which should continue until the procurement of a full-time job or liver failure, whichever comes first. Meanwhile, JP will continue his tenure at Barnes & Noble booksellers, which is now looking like it will continue for all of eternity. Finally, JP plans to continue seeking publication for the series of erotic fiction he�s been laboring on for the better part of a year.

These pursuits and others have kept everyone active and happy, and they shall continue until deemed complete. Any tour dates, parties, shifts of work, drinking games, costume balls, Renaissance festivals, kabuki theatre performaces, poetry readings, Scattergories tournaments, and naps I have scheduled for the upcoming months will proceed as planned.

Rest assured, there is no ill will here. I am not breaking up for any of the usual reasons�creative differences, label switches, relocation, marriage. I do not hate each other. I simply feel that more breathing room is needed amongst the constituent parts of the outfit. As many of you can probably know, it�s not easy to keep a project like this going for so long.

Once again, I want to thank everyone who has encouraged and supported me throughout my career. Just because I am breaking up does not mean this is the end. It�s just the end of something that is actually the beginning of something else that will someday also end.

They say that when God closes a door, He farts. Then He opens a window to air out the room. And I plan to take advantage of that.

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