WELL, THAT SUCKS: I won’t be at the Blogosphere panel after all. I got up at 4:30 a.m., drove to the airport for my 7:30 nonstop flight, was told at 6:45 that it was cancelled. The next flight would have gotten me to D.C. just in time to waltz in at noon — if everything went perfectly, which the agent told me was unlikely given “equipment and crew issues” at Charlotte. So rather than risk spending my day at Charlotte and still missing the panel, which seemed far and away the most likely outcome, I aborted.

To be fair, he was nice and helpful in trying to find alternate routes, didn’t give me any overoptimistic bullshit, and cheerfully refunded my ticket without any guff. And — in yet another reason to love Knoxville — the parking lot attendant didn’t even charge me when she heard why my stay was so brief. So I had a better experience than Lileks, but with the same ultimate outcome.

I’m going to take the opportunity to spend some quality time with my wife. Back later. In the meantime, check out this challenge to the Blogosphere from TAPPED.

UPDATE: Laurence Simon of Amish Technical Support has taken up the challenge.