Guess this could be filed under breaking news, but several readers have written in this morning to say that Tony Kornheiser just announced on his radio show that he has taken a buyout from the Washington Post. The DC Sports Bog has taken some notes:

“All I ever wanted to be was a newspaper writer,” he said, which is not something that anyone under the age of 30 will ever say again. “This other stuff is great, but I don’t care about it,” he continued. “In my mind that’s what it says on the headstone, it says ‘newspaper guy.’ “

A reader adds that Kornheiser said: “I guess I am officially retired in a couple of weeks. At least I got some certificates to the Cold Stone Creamery.” Added another: “He’s being funny, but you can tell that he’s disappointed.” Kornheiser said he will be kept on in a part-time capacity to do “Talking Points” with Wilbon. According to a reader, Kornheiser also said that Pulitzer Prize-winning TV critic Tom Shales also took a buyout. (EDIT: Shales took one two years ago, but writes on contract.)

We grew up reading the Post - we’d pick it up from the driveway at 6 a.m. every morning and devour the sports section and breakfast at the same time. More than the sports section, we enjoyed Kornheiser’s Sunday styles columns, where he’d rant about his kids, culture, the Redskins, and basically anything that struck his fancy. We have more than a handful of them tucked away in a manilla folder in our desk. To us, he’ll have no peer when it comes to sports humor.

Sometime in middle school, we faxed a one-page letter to the Washington Post sports department (this was way before gmail and even AOL), telling them we’d like to help them out in any way, shape or form. Mostly, we just wanted to meet Kornheiser. We recall sitting by the fax machine for a good 20 minutes afterward, just in case they wrote back. Shockingly, they didn’t.

Sometime between the summer after college and our first job, we went into the Washington Post for an interview. We met with their high school sports editor, who was a nice fellow, and he explained to us that if we wanted to start out as a stringer, we’d cover high school sports, mostly at night. We went in knowing that there was a two percent chance we’d give it a shot. We were 22, living in a city where all our friends lived, and we’d have to work nights? No way. But we went in to meet with him anyway, and also because we thought maybe we’d see Kornheiser and introduce ourselves. Didn’t happen.

Even though Kornheiser’s hardly been writing for the paper over the last few years, it’s a sad day for us.