Bad habits.

This blog has been just that, a bad habit.

Others have quit. Take a look at my links over there. Since the last time I cleaned it up, Tribe, Jim Winter and Bryon Quertermous have tossed in the towel. Laura Lippman's taken a hiatus from her Memory Project, and Daniel Hatadi is laying back. The First Offenders are on summer break and Naked Authors are also taking a vacation.

The stalwarts are still posting regularly. Dusty Rhoades and Stephen Blackmoore's LA Noir, for example, have never been more entertaining.

I mention all of this in order to celebrate not the end of a blog, but the beginning. I direct you to Static in the Attic , a new blog started by my friend Scott Holmes. His most recent post is terrific. Here's a sample:

“'I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.'”

You know you’re picturing that commercial…flower children who haven’t left the sixties, dancing and singing on lush rolling grassy knolls…It was the Kum By Ya of the seventies.

All for a soft drink that police use to get blood stains off of asphalt."

That's great stuff.

This is the circle of life, my friends. Some blogs pass away and others spring up to take their place. Or, to stick with my metaphor of bad habits, some people quit chewing gum while others take that first step toward a raging meth addiction.

Check out Static in the Attic and welcome Scott to the blogosphere.

What? Did you think I was leaving?

Hell, you'll need antibiotics to get rid of me.