The 1000th Post!

*Tepid, widely scattered applause*

Thank you, thank you all for coming.

Even if it isn't actually Post No. 1000, this post commemorates my having posted 1000 times here.

Even if one of these was only a 'sticky note' post trying to direct 2007 BlogHer conferees to a pretty generic 'welcome to Chicago' post... I think the idea was to attract a whole new demographic of 'mommy bloggers.' I believe that's about the most coveted demographic in the Blogosphere... sort of like that 18-49 demographic in broadcasting. I used to be among that number....

Well, anyway, I never did become the token male among the mommy bloggers. Turns out there are all sorts of stay at home fathers who, in essence, are mommy bloggers.

And the few 'sticky note'-type posts and the occasional cartoon posts are more than outweighed -- crushed under the verbiage, really -- of my typical much looooonger posts.

As this one threatens to become....

*Pause for laughter -- when none is
forthcoming, plow bravely ahead.*

I hit the 100-post mark at the end of August 2006. At the time (using "the Narrator" alter ego -- another device that's never caught on) I compared a sitcom hitting 100 episodes to a blog reaching 100 posts. The 100th episode of a sitcom, I wrote then, "is a cause for great celebration, not just for the fans of a beloved TV show, but for the producers and actors and anyone else who stands to profit from syndication." The 100th sitcom episode is often a special one, filled with inside references for devoted fans. "In studied contrast," I said then, "all 100 [blog] posts mean for certain is that the blogger is sufficiently stubborn, delusional, or at least sufficiently self-absorbed to keep plugging away."

Well, let's see... stubborn, delusional, self-absorbed.... Yes, I'm still three for three....

*Hopeful pause for laughter -- now there
is only the sound of crickets chirping*

I try to write something here every weekday morning before plunging into the day's work. Some days work must take priority. It probably should be given priority more often... but Second Effort has become an important exercise for me.

I've noticed there are days when writing this blog is all I can do. Yesterday was one of those days. This point was really driven home for me a couple of years ago when I was recovering from my cancer surgery: I couldn't work at all -- I couldn't force myself, no matter how hard I tried -- but I could recount my hospital adventures. And, despite the large quantities of painkillers I was taking at the time, much of what I wrote then was in complete sentences.

*Increasingly desperate pause for laughter --
but there's still only the sound of crickets chirping*

And, what a coincidence. Today just happens to be the second anniversary of my successful cancer surgery.

*Desperate ploy for sympathetic applause --
but there is still only the sound of crickets chirping*

Well, anyway, I appreciate all of you dropping by. If you see anything you like here -- not this post, obviously -- feel free to tell a friend about it. If you see something you don't like, tell an enemy. I'll take readers any way I can get them.

*No pause at all. No point. Crickets getting louder.*

I hate to cut all this merrymaking short... but I didn't come into the Undisclosed Location this morning just to write this post. Actually I hope to get some of the work done this morning I couldn't do yesterday. Thank you again for stopping by.

*Crickets. More crickets. How do crickets get
into a Loop office building... and in February?*