Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends.
This evening I sent a message to my wonderful PlaneBusiness Banter subscribers, alerting them to the fact that as of today, PlaneBusiness Banter has ceased publication.
After two years of publishing the MF Wings Weekly Airline Review as part of my creation of the airline industry research area at the then brand-new Motley Fool investment website back in 1995, three years of publishing the PlaneBusiness Daily Banter, almost three years as Senior Contributing Analyst covering airlines at TheStreet.com, and after 25 years of writing PlaneBusiness Banter, yours truly has made the decision to cease publication of PBB.
At this point in my life, the most important thing to me is my health. Many of you know I have been plagued by long-haul COVID-19 immune system malfunctions that first raised their ugly head about three months after I came down with the virus in March of 2020. While getting both Pfizer vaccinations and a booster helped reduce the severity and frequency of the flare-ups, the stress of not knowing when or if I would feel like myself — particularly when I was tasked with working on an issue of PlaneBusiness Banter — has taken a toll.
As I told my subscribers tonight, this does not mean I’m going away. It just means that the publication I founded, PlaneBusiness Banter, has been put to pasture. What comes next is — well — I’m not sure. All I’m sure of at this point is you will, in the short term, find me here, as well as on Twitter.
That is, if I am to be found.
Have to admit the first thing I am going to do is simply rest. Get myself healthy again. Reduce the stress level. Start working on the stack of new books on my bedside table. Hell, maybe I’ll bake some cookies. Who knows? Shame that just when I finally pull the trigger and do this, the temperature drops 70 degrees from where it was this afternoon in Texas. So I dunno if there will be a walk tomorrow or not.
But you get the picture.
Frankly, the fact I don’t have to once again transform myself into a healthcare reporter with a specialty in infectious diseases for an issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is a huge relief. Scott McCartney, the recently-retired “Middle Seat” columnist for the Wall Street Journal noted in one of his retirement columns how he had not liked having to become a health care expert the last two years either. Yep. I get it.
Enough for now. It’s late. I’m tired. It’s been a stressful day. A stressful week, as I found writing a goodbye letter to subscribers was much harder than I had imagined it would be.
But tomorrow, as Scarlett assured us, is another day.
I look forward to it.
Talk to you later.