About the sidebar links.

Yes, I am aware that many of them are outdated, linking to blogs that no longer exist, have been made private or long ago went dormant.

I used to purge dead blog links.

But now, I do not. 

It's probably sentimentalism, but honestly I can't bear to delete them. They are a reminder of what was and the chronicler in me thinks there should be some memorial to the vanished writers. 

The old blog world--Catholic and otherwise--had its share of problems. But it also had its good points. And compared to the social media platforms which have mostly supplanted it, it was civil and relatively decent.

Which is something I could not have imagined myself saying during the blog flame wars of the first decade of this benighted century. But it is, sadly, quite true.

To absent friends.