The 703 Club

I just noticed on my Blogspot account page that this is will be my 703rd published post. When I started this journey on 6 January 2012, I didn't know that I'd have 703 things to say about anything. Seems that I did--and it seems, also, that post #700 slipped by me, unnoticed. (Coincidence: We lived in Hiram, Ohio, on Rt. 700 for a number of years in the early 1960s.)

I don't suppose there's anything special that is going to happen to me because of reaching Number 700. I always get a big kick out of those SNL skits that declare there's a special club for folks who have hosted the show a certain number of times. The most recent one, I think, was in March 2013 when Justin Timberlake hosted for the fifth time--and he was invited into the Five-Timers Club (no apostrophe in the skit!), where he met other hosts from years gone by (Steve Martin, Candice Bergen, Chevy Chase, Paul Simon, and others). Here's a link to the video.

Ain't gonna happen for me.

I'm not sure why I began blogging. It was probably associated with my retirement from teaching. Suddenly, I no longer had an audience--a live one, an interactive one. Yes, I've published (and continue to publish) many book reviews and essays and some books--but I don't really know much about the response to those things. (Some of those responses I don't want to know.) So maybe I was just a little lonely when I started blogging?

I do know this: I had no intention of doing this every day, seven days a week. I thought I'd post something every few days, when the mood or an idea struck. And if you look back at those early weeks, you'll see that I skipped days now and then.

But soon, writing the blog posts became part of my day--every day, traveling or not, in sickness and in health. My old Puritan Ethic kicked in, and I knew that if I didn't post something, I would suffer some very unpleasant floggings from Mr. Guilt. (By the way, that term guilty pleasure never made any sense to me. Brought up in the home I was, I've always felt that all guilt is unpleasant. To say the least.) Guilt does not come, for me, in the shape of Jiminy Cricket floating in on an umbrella, a smile affixed to his insectile face. No, Guilt, for me, is something hideous that would rather eat my hand than shake it.

I exaggerate. (But not by much.)

Looking over these 700+ posts, I see I've done all kinds of things here ...

• memories of childhood and later
• serializations of books I've been working on
• essays on topics ranging from education, to health, to writers and books and movies I like, to political issues
• plain old silliness

At the end of that very first post, I wrote this:

Be patient: I'm starting slowly here, trying to figure out what to put on this site.  What to say.  I hope I'll be what I've always been: informed, annoying, entertaining, annoying, and annoying.

Well, I don't know how annoying I've been (not too much, I hope). I hope you "regulars" have had some fun visiting this page. I've had fun putting stuff there. And I have the feeling that as long as I'm sentient and healthy, I'm going to keep doing so. Every cotton-pickin' day!

BTW: I just decided to check the number of "hits" on my site--just to see: I've had 147,344 (as of 10:55 a.m., 18 December 2013). That's an average of about 201 people/post. I'm flattered, surprised, humbled ... grateful. And certain that, oh, Miley Cyrus would get that many hits per hour! (Or minute? Second?) Maybe I should take up twerking in some tight Santa-shorts? (Now, just try to get that image out of your head!)