This was news to me, I confess, but apparently Brian McGrory set a time limit when he signed on as the Globe's metro editor in May 2007. He wanted to be able to return to full-time columnist duty after two years. And as of January, he'll be doing exactly that.
That's unfortunate for Globe readers. Throughout McGrory's editing tenure, but especially in the last year or so, I've been struck at the Globe's knack for ferreting out idiosyncratic local stories that read well whether you're a recent transplant to Boston or someone who's lived here for decades, and that provide a sense of how greater Boston feels at this particular moment in time.