Comments in the morning. I just had this flashback to four years ago and my newbie blogging reactions over how nice I thought it was getting up in the morning to a bunch of stuff to read. Even though the stats are still sort of collapsing (everyone seemingly migrating to the beer blog ever so slowly), the comments are far more important at Gen X at 40 as I now and for some time have had no real expectations for this organ of mine other than being a place of pleasant if vigorous and unexpected.
You see things have changed. Last month I got about 105,000 visits from 57,207 unique visitors. While that latter number is the highest ever, I think the visits peaked in August 2005 at 338,790 but I only had 30516 uniques in that month. So I think we can see that I have gone from a 1/11 to less than 1/2. I used to kid myself that you were coming back 11 times a day. Can you say "spam filters"? It is indicative of it all, of course. Where once we thought these blogs were going to be newspapers, we are just pen pals. And that is more than good enough.
I have to give particular thanks for one particular reader this morning. Chris Taylor was good enough to share baseball tickets he could not use. I had it in my head they were for Toronto and Detroit and they enter the weekend's mid-table letter pile. And, as it is for a Thursday, I think 5 hours driving for a 3 hour event will be a pass and I ask if I can pass them on again to someone who is going to use them and the ever kind Chris says sure. So I give the tickets away, come home to find them, end up having to dig through the recycling box to find the envelope and there it is - and it is not for the Jays against the Tigers...it's for the Thursday night game next week against the Sox! I am so there. Six rows back of the visitor's dugout screaming my love for Manny. I think I will go early to get some photos. My daugther is already planning the poster referencing Gerry Remy and portland.
What is the superlative of "woot"? "Most wooty"?
Comments
gr - May 1, 2007 10:07 AM
Actually, I DO visit here 11 times a day!!!
cm - May 1, 2007 10:13 AM
Most wooty, indeed. Happy May Day!
Hans - May 1, 2007 10:58 AM
Hurray Hurray
The first of May
Outdoor Screwing
Starts Today.
--Anonymous.
Gorthos - May 1, 2007 11:11 AM
Huzzah to Hans for the best May Day poem ever written.
Ahh.. May Day, when good old die hard commies like my dad used to get drunk together and wax rhetorical over whispered things they did in Germany in the early 60s.. sigh.. to be a kid again..
Gorthos - May 1, 2007 11:13 AM
UPDATE: did you know that according to the NEVER WRONG wikipedia, today is LOYALTY day in the us???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loyalty_Day
huh? In Canada, we call April 30th "Try To Hide Income From Revenue Canada Day".. I guess we DO differ a bit..
gr - May 1, 2007 12:07 PM
OK Gorthos, what am I supposed to loyal to?
gr - May 1, 2007 12:08 PM
BE loyal to. I need my lunch, darnit.
Anybody here remember giving tiny little baskets of flowers and candy to neighbors on May Day?
Alan - May 1, 2007 1:08 PM
No. That reminds me of one of the nicest neighbourly practices in PEI where before Christmas rather than having the cookie exchange party people just visited and gave you their cookies without expectation of a direct swap. With the election call for the end of the month that will probably put a damper on this year's Christmas baskets as it takes about 12 to 15 months for all to be forgotten and/or forgiven.
Gorthos - May 1, 2007 2:37 PM
I woudl assume Gary, that unless you were some sort of traitor to the state, you would know the answer to that question :)
(you commie artist type person!!)
Chris Taylor - May 1, 2007 4:47 PM
You're a good guy, Al, but I like the Tigers too much to subject them to you. The Red Sox, on the other hand...
gr - May 1, 2007 5:00 PM
Actually gorthos, I read the entry and wrote a snappy reply but this thing of Alan's called me SPAM.
Yeah, loyalty to the US. OK, fair enough, but I think it was Mark Twain who said something like 'loyal to my country always, to my gov't when it deserves it', and of course, was it Ben Franklin who said 'patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel'?
Then again, mission accomplished.
Alan - May 1, 2007 5:03 PM
I am now officially designating Chris as the beer blog correspondent for GTA press pass purposes.
gorthos - May 1, 2007 8:40 PM
Ben Franklin was one of the most amazing men in histoty.. Excellent Quote GR
gorthos - May 1, 2007 8:41 PM
HISTORY damnI hate my fingers
gorthos - May 1, 2007 8:46 PM
Moreso than any other American icon, Franklin was worthy of worshipful status:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin
David Janes - May 1, 2007 9:20 PM
Samuel Johnson said it. "Mission Accomplished", as you say.
portland - May 1, 2007 10:04 PM
you got red sox tickets because you write a blog! jesus, i didn't know that. i too am now writing a blog. it's called www. send me your fucking red sox tickets right now at gen xyz. it's better than your blog because i'm giving away stuff on it; gazoos, key chains, dates with hookers, new cars, whatever you want, whatever i can promise to you. politics, entertainment, sports, belly gazing galore. and i mean actual belly gazing ladies (i got me a camera). www.i want your fucking red sox tickets right now at gen. alphabet dot dot. check it out now.
the world is crazy man. you have one of those $20 skydome hot dogs for me.
Alan - May 1, 2007 10:05 PM
We're going early for batting practice, too.
portland - May 1, 2007 11:28 PM
bastard and bugger hell. that's all i have to say on this subject.
portland - May 1, 2007 11:31 PM
except that i'm happy for you.
see the game tonight by the way. kid is way too hard on himself. better to get beat by A's than a divsion rival. and he perserved the tie for chrissakes. he didnt even stink up the joint. i mean they're gonna lose 80 at least. c'mon. noone is upset at you.
Jay Currie - May 2, 2007 3:37 AM
Apparently, according to Instapundit (who does not need the link) it is also Law Day in the USofA. Which makes Hans' poem of particular interest to the personal injury bar.
Alan - May 2, 2007 8:10 AM
[Ed.: <i>Rimshot!</i>]
I did watch the game and it is sad when you sit there and thing "WHY DID HE PULL OKAJIMA". One bad pitch every five games is what I can live with. It's only early May.
Hans - May 2, 2007 10:22 AM
I did not write the poem, but I wish I had.
It was told to me by another lawyer-lad.
gr - May 2, 2007 11:27 AM
Not very nice of me to get the country and individual wrong on that quote, eh David? Sorry about that, but I got the historical period, roughly speaking, correct. So, yes, mission accomplished, and as the song goes 'rule Brittania' etc
gr - May 2, 2007 11:30 AM
Oh, and David, her name is spelled 'Naomi Wolf', not 'Noami'.
Mission accomplisehd.
Alan - May 2, 2007 11:41 AM
Warning: spelling mistake pointery-outery always turns back on itself.
Gorthos - May 2, 2007 1:17 PM
Its "outterry" Alan..
gr - May 2, 2007 3:05 PM
I have been very immature. And Gorthos' spelling stinks every day.
gorthos - May 2, 2007 6:52 PM
My spelling is mostly perfect.
It is my six finger typing and overly-quick clicking of the "post" or "Send" buttons that stinks. I like to think of it as my version of new-speak.. I discard the rules of english spelling with vigor!