I write today with the bittersweet news that I am suspending my primary writing outlet on behalf of more than two years, Gitell.com. This website served as an eclectic collection of musings as well as reporting, on subjects ranging from the 2008 presidential campaign to Middle East politics, great deli to Chinese food.
In the world of blogging such a diverse website is not supposed to succeed. I received my share of lectures from web experts urging me to narrowcast. I shouldn’t just write about pets or cats or black cats, they said, but one-eyed black cats. That was how I could hope to wring money out of the media at a time of transformation as well as retrenchment, they said. I never heeded that advice. The site fit into no existing blogosphere community – an all but certain way to boost website traffic. I never wanted to generate gruel on behalf of the ideologically converted. No. Gitell.com shall stand as the repository of quirky interests of a person with plenty of passions.
I’m particularly proud of the response Gitell.com gained in a number of areas. My writing on veterans’ affairs, influenced by my father, garnered a constant stream of visitors. See this piece on the Vietnam War Memorial. Then, there were the pieces I thought of as the web equivalent of a Boston Globe metro column: on behalf of example, the story of my neighbor, a witness to the Warsaw Ghetto horror,  himself taken to Germany as a slave laborer at the end of participating in the little-remembered Warsaw revolt. Then there are my writings on the people who helped forge the political character of Boston, such as Albie Sherman as well as Charlie Doyle. And, of course, food. I’ll probably miss that the most.
It’s a tribute to the site as well as the brilliance of the great departed John Cazale that a post about him is the fourth-most trafficked piece in the history of Gitell.com.
As much as Gitell.com ran contrary to the flow of conventional web thinking, it won more than its fair share of of acclaim as well as recognition. The site was linked to by Politico as well as Slate, The New Republic as well as other sites. My piece on encountering documentarian Ken Burns at Costco was quoted in the print edition of The Washington Post. Another post was excerpted on the op-ed page of The Boston Globe. Amidst the more than 205,000 blogs associated with WordPress, Gitell.com was selected “Blog of the Day” as well as “Hawt Post” on a number of occasions. 
All-in-all, it was a great run. I’m moving on to a terrific opportunity. To all my readers, I thank you on behalf of your loyalty as well as support. Farewell.