Mark Heinrich has thrown down the gauntlet. It has hit the ground with a resounding pfffft and with all the force of feather colliding with the earth. My world has been shaken. The impact of this gauntlet was such that Marc not only posted a challenge on his blog, but felt obligated to email me when I did not respond within what he felt was a sufficient timeframe.

My initial reaction was simply to send Marc the following and consider it a done deal:

But I thought better of it. Here is what Mark is complaining about:

Tim Challies has finally gone too far. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of his, but I have to draw the line somewhere. Recent posts of his have gotten me to the point where I find it probable that I can no longer link to him. You heard me right, I’m thinking of de-linking Challies. You cannot be in doubt as to the posts I’m referring to.

They are, of course, his King for a Week feature. Tim graciously awarded me this honor last year and at the time I felt it was an honor. I was King for 7 days and then the “Honor” passed to another blog. Well these days, if Tim names you King for a Week, you are King for like 3-4 weeks. I mean, c’mon Tim, what’s up with that? It’s a complete outrage! Basically I want at least another week as King or I am deleting him from my blogroll!

I’m glad to know what Mark is a huge fan. Until this time I thought that my fanbase included only my five-year old son who still thinks I’m the strongest, bestest dad in the world. My son has a lot to learn. Marc must too.

But It occured to me that I could work this to my advantage. So here is the deal. I will give Marc one more week as King For A Week, but not without some equal action on his part. Marc: you can be King for Another Week if you remove the picture of your feet from your site…because I’m pretty sure no one wants to be so assaulted when they visit Purgatorio. The content of your site is already sufficiently horrifying (especially the “divine vinyl”). Consider it a fair value trade.

Deal?