Today marks the 12th anniversary of The Glittering Eye. Over that period I have written more than 11,000 posts, an average of three per day, and readers have contributed more than 70,000 comments.
I have achieved nearly all of the objectives I had when I started the blog, most importantly a vibrant, mostly productive comments section and for that I want to thank the regular readers of this blog. You know who you are.
I suspect the one goal I have not realized will elude me.
The Glittering Eye continues to provide therapy for me. It keeps me engaged and interested. Believe me, without it my faculties would have become greatly dulled. Like the Red Queen, I must run twice as fast to stay in the same place.
So I plan to keep writing on an indefinite basis. My health is good and I still have my wits about me. I don’t work as hard on the blog as I used to. I used to read hundreds of blogs from all across the political spectrum and devoted to a huge number of suspects, searching for things to write about. That number is now down to about 20.
11,000 is a lot of posts but despite that number I still have lots of ideas. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I discard at least two ideas for every post I actually write. The only reason I don’t write more is that having returned to a full-time job places demands on my time and energy.
As usual I’ll take this opportunity to highlight a few of the posts of which I’m particularly proud:
My first real post
Anthems
Learning From History: the Relief and Rebuilding of New Orleans
The Influence of Immigrants on American Political Thought
My most-read post: How to Poach a Chicken Breast
Reading your Anthems post makes me realize how glad I am nobody was going around singing Battle Hymn of the Republic after 9/11. It’s a beautiful song with long marching lines–to have it suffer the same fate as God Bless America belted out at every Yankees game for our troops would be an atrocity.
The American music of the first half of the 20th century–Joplin, Armstrong, Ellington, Porter, the Gershwins, the blues, honky-tonk, bluegrass, folk, Charles Ives (probably not), the Boswell Sisters–is such a powerful force. It’s really eclipsed the music of the 19th century. So when you’re mentioning unofficial anthems–the opening of Rhapsody in Blue is about as American to me as you can get.
Let’s say 250 words per post, on average, times 11,000 gives us 2.75 million words. Figure a debut novel comes in at maybe 75,000 words, that just shy of 37 books, three a year. Which is a hell of an output. I know these things at the level of muscle memory, and that’s a whole lot of writing, and always thoughtful, always well-reasoned, well-sourced, and rendered in solid prose.
It’s really a huge accomplishment, and you should be proud of it.
Now, if I may take the piss, as our British friends say. . . a typical minimum signing deal might be $25,000. 37 books at 25k each is $925,000. At least double that if you found a reader base. In the next 11,000 posts you should consider introducing a detective, or possibly a kid with a scar on his forehead.
I was thinking of a kid detective with a scar on his forehead.
Honestly, Michael, one of the defects of my personality is how well I fit Oscar Wilde’s definition of a cynic: I know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Some of the things I know are that 99 out of 100 authors don’t actually make money at it when you take opportunity costs into account and that selling to the publisher is a full-time job.
Said another way, I admire your ability to produce as much as you do while being able to sell yourself to your publisher. That’s a real gift.
I think you have done an excellent job, and even though it may get heated, it has remained civilized. I am not sure if you have some magic pixie dust or something, but keep it up.
Thank you for the time and effort. Even if I do not agree with them, I also appreciate the other comments. They force me to reevaluate my positions.
Congrats on the milestone, and thanks. Always enjoyable, often informative, and with dog pics and recipes, what more could one ask for?
Speaking of recipes….I think you linked to the poached chicken once before and I meant to try it but haven’t gotten around to it. Now I’ve committed 2 minutes- 20 minutes to memory so I’ll definitely test it out soon.
Writing is such a satisfying form of self-expression. And, Dave you have been blessed with the ability to pen some 11,000 issues, topics and sidebars, over a dozen years, in a calm, even-handed, educational style. What an accomplishment for you, and a gift to the rest of us!
Congrats! Your persistence is amazing.
Steve
I got a nice compliment from a colleague today. He said I was the most motivated person he had ever met. Oddly, I don’t see myself that way. More as a shadow of my former self.
There’s an old saying —-> “if you want something done ask a “busy” person to do it.” Basically, busy people usually don’t spend time to quantify their own busy schedules. They simply pack more into them to meet goals or the higher expectations of others. I think it probably holds true with motivated people, in not reveling in their degree of motivation — oftentimes not even being aware of it. Others, however, can more accurately gauge such traits by impersonally comparing what is observed and measured in their own environment.