In 2007, journalist Michael Parsons wrote:

“Successful blogging is hard, dirty work: it’s the hand-to-hand combat of the writing world. [...] Like all people who rise to the top of their profession, it demonstrates a simple truth: good bloggers work like dogs. You can’t expect readers to show up unless you show up. And the internet never closes. [...] It takes amazing focus and energy not only to drink from the fire hose of content that is the World Wide Web and make sense of it, but also to direct your own little water pistol back at it and actually get noticed. You need a big ego, a loud voice, and a thick skin. And you need to burn with a restless intensity that makes people want to come back and see what you’ve got to say.”

Which means anyone who  can show up for years and be a major part of a successful blog deserves our respect.

Francesca has been with this blog since its beginning. I believe she was the first one hired and in her tenure her singular voice has contributed so much to what this blog has become, so it is with all due solemnity that we mark Francesca’s departure from Manolo for the Big Girl.

It’s no secret that Francesca and I had a difference of opinion on virtually everything in the known universe (and before you all go ZOMG PLUMCAKE HAD HER KILLED!!! I didn’t. Not even a little. ) but she was remarkably sensitive about our readership, and I respected that.  She stood up for you crazy-making knuckleheads wonderful people all the time, even when it might put her on the receiving end of me Telling Her Things.

I remember one time I had posted some looks from the Paris haute couture shows and she sent me a scolding email about how unless I could show a way you all could reproduce the look at home then I shouldn’t do it. Of course I probably told her where she and her scolding email could go (haute couture doesn’t come in sizes. It’s cut on the body, thus totally accessible for the big girl, provided she can afford it.)

The point is, she stood up for you all and that wasn’t easy considering I take the Faulknerian view of anyone trying to edit my work.

You’ve got to respect her for that.

What does this mean for the blog? Well, I believe Twistie will be doing the weekly sales posts although I’ll try to keep an eye on those too. Big Girls in Art will probably continue as a semi-regular featurette, but the rest of the Francesca-specific features will be retired until further notice. I will try to keep an eye on things for our petite friends, but honestly since I don’t think about it much, please pester me if it’s been too long since we’ve represented The Lollipop Guild. The rest we’ll figure out as we go along.

As a final good luck and goodbye, I thought we’d end with a big question.

Today Miss Plumcake wants to know:
What has been your all-time favorite Francesca moment?

Oh Conan, you elongated ginger minx, I know you need comforting now in your time of need.

No, I know what you’re thinking “Wouldn’t I be better off in the arms of my awesome wife and amazing children?” Hush now. Don’t speak. Ours is a love that dare not speak its easily-freckling name.

Can you imagine how amazing our children would be? Sure you’d be able to see through their skin like those weird geckos that occasionally find their way into my bathtub and scare the hell out of me at least twice a year, but we could single-handedly breed an entire new generation of writers for The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live. We could marry them off to Tina Fey’s kids and create a race of superwriters.

Come on, Coco, someone’s gotta write the lines Jimmy Fallon’s kids will eventually botch on live television.