(background music)

 

It still amazes me that we, or more precisely TPTB, pulled this off. Blog-type thingies come and go, but even if we were to go dark tomorrow, we could still congratulate ourselves on a good and admirable run. Not to fear, my Glibs and Glibettes, we are in no danger of doing that.

The state of the organization is strong. The fileservers are humming away, deep in their alpine vaults. The cash box is heavy with silver, and the squirrels are fat and happy.

 

“Happy Birthday, Glibertarians. Happy Birthday to you.”

 

And here we are four years later, still going strong. Sure, there are lots of narrowly-focused libertarian blogs out there but we have transcended that niche and have become the contemporary equivalent of a glossy, mid-market, general circulation magazine. We have arrived.

None of this could have happened without you. Yes, you. Whether you donate money, comment, or contribute content, you are what makes this place happen. You are what makes this place worthwhile. Like it or not, we are a community of like-minded people and beings.

 

We couldn’t tell you until now but “Flo Tuss” is a huge fan.

 

The community has expanded in some new and exciting ways the past year. The most excellent Nephilium began hosting a Glibs online video chat as a response to Covid lockdown isolation. That thing took off like a California wildfire and is now an important social outlet and networking opportunity for many of us. SP added a chat forum which has proved invaluable for writer development and allowing people to have ongoing, granular, discussions on a variety of topics. And thanks to the dynamic duo of KK and Tulip, we now has awesome Glibs cooking show with excellent production values.

 

You’ll need one of these if you Zoom with us. Remember that they’re only nerds if they know more than you about a topic.

 

This is where the obligatory annual award-show level tongue bathing begins.

First and foremost, we need to thank our stalwart daily linkers. These are the folks who stay up late, or get up early to provide you the freshest, most snarkworthy links on these here interwebs. Links are our bread and butter.

Links without comments are like Aunt Jemima Pearl Milling pancakes without the syrup; like the Spring without the Fall. Commenters are our backbone; the insights, perspective, and snark you people provide help your fellow Glibs get through our days in a world awash in statists, grifters, control freaks, and free-stuffers. This is a forum where you can blow-off steam, and engage in juvenile bluster without fear of being cancelled.

 

Ms. Stormy Daniels at the Glibby awards. She loved her little cameo in the H&H series.

 

Though these folks loom so large as to not need mention, it is obligatory to thank the heavy-hitters here, those folks who contribute and inordinate amount of time and creativity to this site: SugarFree for his weekly (JHTFC, how does he do this?) Hat-and-Hair series, Baked Penguin for his excellent panel cartoon, and CPRM for his Hat-and-Hair animated cartoon, Animal for his serialized novel about Allamakee County (etc), Mexican Sharpshooter for his weekly beer reviews, and Not Adahn for his weekly astrology column.

But it’s not all fun and games, Ozymandias has shared with us his detailed and horrifying Anthrax exposè which is now available in book form. If you are able to do so, please buy this and give copies to anyone you know who might be interested or who might help this gain traction. The incidents he documents are one of the great scandals of our time.

 

The award for best short-form posts goes to Derpetologist.

 

This site could well have subsisted by just providing daily links and letting the commenters have at ‘em. Yet, we are blessed with an incredible pool of talented content-contributors: writers, cartoonists, animators, photographers, videographers, artists, artisans, astrologers, chefs, lens-grinders, world-class slackers, tankers, tinkerers, and subject-matter experts in a variety of fields.

 

Subject-matter experts in a variety of fields.

 

There are so many other regular, irregular, and sporadic contributors that even if I brought in Winston’s Mom for help we’d still be here come Michaelmas and still not have thanked all of our content contributors properly. So if I fail to mention you, your work, or your genre, please know that this is not a deliberate omission or snub, but the fact that I’m an old stoner working under a tight deadline as SP menacingly brandishes rusty tin-can lids at me and reminds me I’m overdue for my tetanus booster.

 

“And a really wonderful human being…”

 

Speaking of whom, I cannot emphasize how much this place depends on SP, as both webmistress and dorm mother. Content may be king, but without her we’d all be standing on streetcorners distributing badly mimeographed tracts. Yet here we are with this spiffy website which keeps outgrowing our hosting plans. How she does this all and has a full life, I’ll never know.

I also want to shout out to our many lurkers, who apparently include at least one staffer from TOS. We see you just outside the firelight, eyes glowing, like a pack of hyenas. Yes, we can be an intimidating lot. It’s okay if you just want a little taste of commenting. This is pure; you won’t get hooked, I promise.

 

Smoked Chubs were always available at the deli counter of Giant Foods, the beloved local DC/Balt grocery chain.

 

And, of course, you boys and girls at Fort Meade, Maryland, who pop a chub every time some federal judge pisses her panties and puts us on surveillance for making a woodchipper joke. Hey, how’s the renovation of the base’s old WW2 civilian internment camp, going? Those 384 beds should be enough to house us, all, right?

 

The so-called Meade Monument in Fredericksburg, Virginia. “In one of those ironic twists of history, a monument erected to honor Confederate troops who fought at the December 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg somehow now bears the name of a Union general.”

 

Lastly, I’d like to shout out to our AWOL Glibs, particularly Dr Groovus Maximus, and Mr Lizard. We miss our friends and hope that you can join us again, or at least shout out to let us know you’re okay.

 

These delightful young women are the Glibs editorial interns for 2021. They will be helping to edit your submissions. Sometimes the squealing and giggling get annoying, also the pillow fights.

 

Have something to say? Want to try your hand at writing? Want to share an awesome project, talent or adventure with the rest or us? Just do it. No topic is too small. And we can always use original illustrations, artwork, etc. We have resources available for aspiring contributors. We can help with proofreading, formatting, finding illustrations, etc. Just ask. We also have a contributing writers lounge over at our shiny new forum.

Thanks for being part of our community. Here’s to a great four years gone, and an even better fifth year of Glibness.

 

Baked Penguin’s date, the lovely television weather presenter Bodacea Tatasz.