This week marks my final few days as your devoted Fishbowl blogger, and to mark the occassion I have decided to get to the bottom of some of the thornier issues we’ve tackled on Fishbowl together for these ten months. Does the New York media love showtunes? Why are there so many Canadians lurking within our midst? Why are we so moved to scrutinize the New York Times? What’s better for the lower back, crunches or leg lifts?

Because you need to know the answers to these pressing questions and more, we present THE FISHBOWL FINAL&#153, a five-part interview series that we whipped up because we really liked that name. Below you will see the first installment — an exclusive interview with Frank Rich which will settle the whole showtune-and-the-media question once and for all — and during the week we will be following up with pearls of wisdom from Bonnie Fuller, Jay Rosen, David Zinczenko, and Arianna Huffington. Yes. We can’t believe they talked to us, either.

In any case, it was fun and we hope you enjoy our little farewell series. Please continue to let us know how much you love showtunes. We now return to our regularly-scheduled programming.

THE FISHBOWL FINAL

• Frank Rich on Showtunes, Blogging, and What’s Butchering Broadway (or, Look, Frank Rich Is Still Making Hats*) (Jan. 30, 2006)

• David Zinczenko is Living His Best Life (or, Of Edit, Abs and Ice Cream) (Feb. 1, 2006)
• PressThinking with Jay Rosen: The Times of Our Times, and Other Media Preoccupations (Feb. 2, 2006)
• Bonnie Fuller: The Big Life (and New Book!) of a Geeky Canadian (Feb. 3, 2006)
• Arianna Huffington: Politics, Punditry and the HuffPo Family (Feb. 6, 2006)