A word from the management

I really am going to get back to some actual blogging, but for now I thought I'd just explain a little about the site in its latest incarnation, version 3.0. After eight months on Movable Type, I've had to go back to Blogger, at least for the time being, owing to some mysterious bug that developed in my MT installation. Regular readers will know what I'm talking about: it took forever for posted items to show up on the site, and even longer for comments. At least, I assume that's what the problem was -- it seems zippy enough with Blogger, so I guess it can't have been the server. Since I've been away, Blogger has gotten a lot more sophisticated -- nicer templates, individual post archives, even a pass at commenting. It's no MT, but then again it works, and doesn't seem (yet) to be clogged with comment spam. I've retained most of the functionality of previous versions, but with a simpler, more elegant design -- and way faster page-loads. I'm guessing I'll break fewer browsers this time, too. (Readers who dare may wish to compare the site in its current form with version 1 and version 2.) Some innovations, this time: I'm going to post my latest National Post columns separately from the main blog (in fact, they're in a blog of their own). The ten most recent columns are listed and linked at right, just under the "Recent Posts" index. Clicking on any of them, besides calling up the text of the column in question, will give you acccess to a fuller listing of this year's columns. Previous years' columns are also archived: see "Back Columns" lower down in the sidebar. (I may gather all of these, recent, near-recent and past, on a separate Columns page.) Links noted in passing, but not worthy of lengthier comment, are posted in the Miniblog, also at right (in rotation with Recent Posts/Recent Columns). As with the main blog and the recent columns blog, readers can post comments to these, if they wish. And to help you keep track of ongoing discussions or pieces from the archives you want to refer back to, every entry on the site -- posts, columns, and miniblog links -- can be "bookmarked" and listed on the main page for ready reference. (Cookies required.) Interestingly, this works even with the Movable Type posts, which you might come across as you search the site. I'm working on a way to integrate these archives with the rest. Some other things on my to-do list, which readers may be able to help me with:

1. Comments remain a problem. Blogger's implementation is cumbersome, and requires jumping to a separate page before posting. I'd far rather the form were integrated with the post pages, as the comments themselves are. I tried a hack from bloggerhacks for this, but it's scarcely an improvement. And while I notice some Canadian bloggers using something called TheirSay, there doesn't seem to be any way to get hold of it. Can anybody steer me straight? I really don't want to go back to using Haloscan.
(UPDATE: Mike Brock to the rescue. Stay tuned.)
2. The template I've adapted from Blogger is a bit unwieldy. I've tried to put the style tags in a separate CSS sheet, like the pros, but for some obscure reason it fails to read the "body" tags when I do. Everything else, it reads: just not "body." Any thoughts?
3. The bookmarking feature, which I've adapted from the MT site, does not work as well as it might. Though it's possible to add a bookmark from any point, they can only be listed or removed on the main page. Any scripting advice would be gratefully received.
4. Finally, I'm looking into Word Press, which I understand has all of the elegance and functionality of Movable Type -- navigational links between posts, integrated comments, categories, plus loads of plugins -- without the sluggishness and complications. On to version 4!