Fucking up.

Some time late last week, I wrote my 3,000 post on Ad Aged. Not a milestone like the four-minute mile or surviving Niagara Falls in a barrel, but to my small mind, something notable nonetheless.

Along the way over these past five years, Ad Aged has brought me a handful of friends and on average a couple hundred daily readers, give or take a few dozen. It's hardly the sort of blog that sets the world on fire. I am no Seth Godin or Perez Hilton. But I am pleased overall with my level of readership. It's way more than I ever imagined.

Also along the way, I've done some stupid things in this space. Most recently I insulted someone I admire. Not his work or his logic--that's fair game. But I insulted him personally and in a unnecessary and mean-spirited way. I've apologized and taken the offending post down, but that doesn't take away the hurt I caused. A hurt I am truly sorry for.

Mark Harris is a little-known writer I greatly admire. His baseball novels are among the best American fiction of the late 20th Century. He closes his most famous book, "Bang the Drum Slowly," with these words--the lesson the hero of the novel, Henry Wiggen, learned. "From now on, I rag no one."

I've always known the wisdom of these words. And have tried to abide by them. But recently I slipped. And therefore fucked up.

I know better. And will try to be better in the future.