Category: blogging

Jon Swift Roundup 2023…and My Hopes for 2024

On December 26, a dedicated and stalwart man named Batocchio, who blogs at Vagabond Scholar, posted this year's contributions to a wonderful blogging tradition that dates back to 2007. That's when a prominent blogger named Al Weisel (pictured above), who blogged satirically as a purported conservative under the name Jon Swift, began asking other bloggers … Continue reading Jon Swift Roundup 2023…and My Hopes for 2024 →

My Fifth Blogoversary: A Simple Acrostic

B logging has become theL oveliest, previously unimaginedO pening to a world ofG enerous, creative, thoughtfullyO pinionated and oh-so-V erbal colleagues, friends,E ducators. I find thisR obust blogosphereS cintillating in ways I'd neverA nticipated, and I offer myR esounding gratitude toY ou who are journeying with me. Warmest thanks to my blogging and non-blogging readers … Continue reading My Fifth Blogoversary: A Simple Acrostic →

Wherein I Learn a Thing or Two About Lemmings…

Photo by u041fu0430u0432u0435u043b u0413u0430u0432u0440u0438u043au043eu0432 on Pexels.com One of my favorite things about blogging is the way we learn from one another. This story began, I thought, with a bit of political humor. A high point of President Biden’s state of the union address was his masterful orchestration of the angry Republicans’ raucous denials that they’d … Continue reading Wherein I Learn a Thing or Two About Lemmings… →

Here Are the (non-Taylor) Swifties: Jon Swift Roundup 2022

I'm grateful to have been invited to participate in the Jon Swift Roundup 2022, a lovely blogging tradition begun by a satiric blogger named Al Weisel, whose nom de blog was Jon Swift. It was Weisel's way to encourage other bloggers with audiences less robust than his own. After Weisel's untimely death, several of his … Continue reading Here Are the (non-Taylor) Swifties: Jon Swift Roundup 2022 →

So This Is the (Expletive Deleted) That Happened Here Yesterday

Photo by Leeloo Thefirst on Pexels.com I had my post nearly ready for publishing in the morning. I went through it one final time and made some tweaks that I thought were improvements. I pressed "Publish" about 9:30 am and then looked, as I always do, at the places where it should appear: WP Reader? … Continue reading So This Is the (Expletive Deleted) That Happened Here Yesterday →

Backstage in My Blog World: An Explanation and an Apology–Revisited

NOTE: I have had a more-than-usual amount of crappy tech snafus in my blogging and personal life the past few days. Rather than bore you with all the bytes that bit me, I decided to reblog one of my earliest posts--written shortly after I began this blog two years ago. I'd like to think I've become slightly more technically adept since then, but... Some of the explanatory material about WP was necessary because at the time I had more email subscribers than fellow bloggers. I had fun writing this piece, and I hope you'll have fun reading it.

Who Was Jon Swift?

No—I’m not referring familiarly to the Gulliver’s Travels guy here. This Jon Swift, I’ve learned recently, was a legendary figure in the blogosphere. There’s a connection between the two, of course. But I’m getting ahead of myself. In early December, I received an email from a man name Batocchio, with a lovely invitation. Would I be interested in submitting my favorite post from my blog to The 2020 Jon Swift Roundup: “The Best Posts of the Year, Chosen by the Bloggers Themselves”?

Wherein My Personal Blogosphere Expands Via a Fun Exchange With a Super New Acquaintance

I’ve often said that I’m one happy blogger: I love to write and to research new topics; I’m grateful for your feedback; and—this was one aspect of blogging that I hadn’t anticipated but is becoming one of the most valuable—I feel personally enriched by meeting so many extraordinary, talented people from all over the world.

The most recent is Judy Dykstra-Brown, a poet, writer, artist, and lecturer who blogs at Life Lessons. She’s a prolific blogger, posting something—sometimes several things—every day. That energy alone boggles my once-or-at-most-twice-weekly blogger mind!

And Now a Word From Our…

Sponsor? I have no sponsor, and my accountant says that’s a problem because it also means I have no blogging income. Thus, after a year of blogging and accurately filling out the appropriate Schedule C form itemizing the costs I incur in this endeavor, I am in serious danger of slipping to the wrong side of the law.

According to my accountant, I will no longer be able to take those vast deductions, which could possibly reach all the way into triple digits.