My goodness, what a long, strange trip it’s been. I may have had to fall off the blog lately (work and lots of overseas travel sucked up my time), but you people have been a huge part of my life for almost four and a half years now — unbelievable!

So how, I thought to myself, can I possibly come up with anything like a coherent post with which to say goodbye? Answer: I can only go back to the beginning (well, sort of). I’d been watching the show since the debut episode, when I busted out laughing at the over-the-top credits and didn’t stop until the end. But you know how it goes with Stephen: you find the show, you love it, you watch it religiously, and after a while you drive your friends nuts with the constant references. (To paraphrase Sarah Vowell — you know that Kevin Bacon game? Well, I was like that with The Colbert Report; talking to me on any subject would invariably lead back to him before long.) And then you get tickets to the show, you meet Stephen, and the real whirlwind begins!