Arrington had also revealed in January that death threats had led him to hire a private security service. Yet the Industry Standard's predictions market consensus put Arrington's chance of returning to TechCrunch on time at . The guy can't stay away.

The best part of his is near the end. He nonchalantly explains how he cut a deal with a vacation house owner in Hawaii to trade TechCrunch coverage for an extended stay.

When my time was up to leave, I asked Potts if I could stay another week. He said something about being fully booked, but I offered to pay more than his usual rate and said I'd plug Surfboard House on TechCrunch (consider that a disclosure). He had (and still has) no idea what TechCrunch is, but the dollars did the trick. Schedules were juggled, I stayed.

This is one of the things that drive's Arrington's detractors crazy, and makes me enjoy reading him. Your average newspaper reporter would be forbidden from even discussing such a "plug." Journalism profs who read TechCrunch today will lie awake tonight wrestling with the ethics involved. But Arrington, a lawyer turned blogger, blithely admits to horse-trading because he knows most of his readers don't care, as long as it's a vacation spot and not a Bay Area startup.