Monday, March 28, 2011

and still counting


1524.


At first, I thought my friend Billie was celebrating the year of Mexico City's re-founding.  Or the year Verrazzano failed to claim Manhattan for Francis I and raise the culinary standards of the Big Apple.


But I was wrong.


She was observing her six years of blogging with her 1524th post.  Says she: "I can't believe that I could have found 1524 things to blog about."


I have long had a soft spot in my heart for Billie.  When I took the risk of publishing a series of posts on drug policy, she included a link to my blog in one of her posts.  And my readership grew.


I knew I had been blogging for just over three years.  But I had no idea how many posts that meant.  It turns out to be 1075.


That was after I indulged in a bit of, what the government would call, "seasonal adjusting."


I looked through my post list and found several dusty drafts that never saw the light of day.  Stillborn.  And as sad as any miscarriage.


At one point they held such high hope.  The very essence of wit or clever observation.  But in gestation something went horribly wrong.


A pithy quotation from my favorite living novelist.  A tale of cultural clashes.  An ironic photograph.


Each ended up on the cutting room floor.  Or, more aptly, was assigned to the electronic equivalent of Limbo.


Here's an example.


Take a look at the photograph at the top of this post,  It appears to be pregnant with juxtapositions.


When I first saw the church apparently perched atop the Pemex station, I thought of all sorts of clever options.  What drivers really worship.  Or something about the true foundations of the Mexican church.


But neither of those quite worked.


After all, it is the Mexican state, not the Mexican church, that derives its wealth from oil.  And the pope and the Mexican state are not even allowed to stay in the same hotel, let alone the same bed.  Or, so says the 1917 constitution.


You see the problem.


So, the photograph sat in my draft box along with the Scott Turow quotation, the tourist confused about why Mexicans call cheese "queso," and several other post wannabes.


Who knows why they didn't work out?  I suspect most were doomed from conception.


But that question is no easier to answer than other mysteries of life.


Why does the smell of oranges remind us of Christmas?


Why does the laughter of women make our souls cozily warm?


Why do the French think Jerry Lewis is a comic genius?


All I know is, this blogging business is great fun.  And I am pleased to have met bloggers like Billie on this very interesting road.

20 comments:

Calypso said...

Billie and I started Blogging about the same time - I am only at 1325 entries - lagging behind hmmm. Your FREQUENCY will catch you up very fast.

I am pretty sure my number of words exceeds you both however with an average exceeding 500 an entry or 662,500 words with the average book on Amazon being 77,000 that would make it more than 8.5 books!

Yikes I'll shut up now ;-)

Francisco Trevino said...

Be assured, readers like me look forward to reading yours and others posts. Please continue the good work.
Saludos,
Francisco

Art Moretti said...

Would you tell us the Scott Turow quote, please?

tancho said...

Now if we only got a few pennies per page it would pay for the cup of coffee sitting by the keyboard every morning......

tancho said...

I need to clean up my "edit page" where what once I thought were great stories, now seem pretty lame and boring. Rarely after looking at them, do they ever gain publish status. Some ideas were never meant to be heard.....

Steve Cotton said...

I guess that is why editors have spikes. And we have draft baskets.

Steve Cotton said...

For some reason, following my travel series, I have been having a lot of trouble writing. Some of my posts are taking up to six hours just to get the ideas on screen. I notice several other bloggers have said similar things. It may be the shift to the coming summer.

Steve Cotton said...

I would, but I shipped it off to the inferno without saving a copy. When I get in a cleaning mood, I am ruthless.

Steve Cotton said...

And that is one reason I keep writing. I thoroughly enjoy these conversations.

Steve Cotton said...

I know you have answered this question before, but how do you know how many words you have published? (By the way, I enjoy reading every one of them.) My posts tend to vary in length, but I suspect you are correct that yours are longer than mine.

Al said...

And I've read all 1075. With enjoyment.

Steve Cotton said...

That is why you remain a core portion of my audience. I must admit, though, I miss the lunches.

Joanne said...

What I wonder is whether the posts that you think will generate interest do or not. What captures the reader's imagination? Do you have a good understanding of that? Do some posts fall flat, so to speak?

Steve Cotton said...

Quite often, I will create what I think is the equivalent of a poetic soufflé only to have it fall flatter than flan. We writers are often the worst judges of our own work. But when everything falls together, as you know, it is well worth the effort.

SidAted said...

Put another way, "If I'd known that I had so much to say, I'd have started talking a lot sooner"....

ANM said...

Where I come from, the "laugh of women" means that there is a palace coup being planned, and if one wants to keep his head, he best tuck it in, turtle-like, laying low until the laughter passes.

ANM

Steve Cotton said...

Good one that. But I always start talking long before I know I have.

Steve Cotton said...

That comes from being raised in the Northwest equivalent of the Borgia Palace.

Mexican Trailrunner said...

Heh. The first thought that came to mind when I saw this picture was money laundering. sigh

Steve Cotton said...

I like that, too.