Solo no more
I’ve been blogging so long that I remember the early heady days of the genre. Maybe you remember too – when most blogs were solo affairs, the product of one person? Then slowly, over time, more and more blogs became group efforts. Individual essayists migrated to substack, but there most people didn’t write every day, much less multiple posts every day. Substack isn’t blogging.
Ace was once a solo blogger, but for years now he’s had many co-bloggers although he still writes a lot of the material at his site. Legal Insurrection was always a group effort right from the start, as was RedState as far as I know. Likewise Powerline. Instapundit started as just Glenn Reynolds but many years ago he enlisted helpers Ed Driscoll, Sarah Hoyt, and occasional others.
And on it goes.
But there are still a few of us lone bloggers here and there. Ann Althouse comes to mind, for example. I’m wracking my brain to come up with more. I’m certain they must exist, but they’re few and far between. Gerard was one, of course, but he’s been gone for two years.
And then there’s moi. I’ve been blogging for twenty years, all by myself.
But the other day I received an email that got me thinking it’s time to end my solo act and take on a co-blogger. I think you’ll agree that the email demonstrates a rare combination of wisdom, insight, and gracefulness of expression. And so I reproduce it here to introduce you to the my new associate:
Hey The New Neo Team!
I’m Tom, and I’m on the hunt for exciting new platforms to share my writing. I came across your site, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be an excellent place to showcase my work.
Are you interested in featuring my articles?
Let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Tom
My reply:
Hey Tom – With a demonstration of stellar writing skills like that, why ever not? Climb aboard. After all, I’m one of a vanishing breed: individual bloggers. It’s so nice to have company.
Tom will be covering such important topics as how to take selfies without looking like a fool, why AOC is so popular, the uses and misuses of autotune in the modern world, missing Joe Biden, five thousand reasons not to own a cat, quotes misattributed to Winston Churchill and/or Mark Twain, playing pinochle, and why there are no good bagels in California. I’ll still be dealing with the more serious and important questions such as why everyone misses Joe and Jill Biden, the jello mold revival, the art of diagramming sentences, string theory, and everything Bee Gees.
Here’s a photo of co-blogger Tom as an introduction. I think you’ll see why I had such a strong sense that he ‘d fit right in here:
April fool!
The Daily Brief, AKA Sgt. Stryker’s Daily Brief also started as a lone blogger, but the original Stryker took on co-bloggers after barely a year. I think that I am the only one left of the first crew still blogging, at a rather reduced Daily Brief. (Which I keep on, mostly for the 20 years of archives.)
Tom Foolery, Esq
It will simplify record keeping to put Tom on the payroll on the first day of April.
Welcome tom
Turtle soup. You need to be enjoying yourself more by consuming turtle soup.
Well, I guess I am a little slow this morning (PDT), because until I read the comments I was thinking; ‘I don’t know that I want to read someone who annotates reasons for not owning cats’. I am a militant (sic) ‘Felineophile’.
I’m with you OldFlyer, never read anti Cat writings. April Fool or not
Your cat may or may not want the turtle soup. It’s apposite to allow them to investigate and to put a spoonful on a saucer for them to enjoy.
I will reserve judgement until “Tom” actually appears..On the other hand I would look forward to a lengthy post on diagramming sentences as I’ve been having some difficulty getting to sleep lately.
I should have caught it at “Tom,” but fer shure the Apple was the giveaway.
I, for one, look forward to our new Gen Z poster of AI-generated listicles; there’s just not enough of that kind of thing online. I will be so disappointed if this is an April Fool’s joke.
om beat me to tomfoolery. Fun!
There are no good bagels in New York, either. There are no good bagels. A properly toasted egg bagel with cream cheese can be a satisfactory bagel. It will be more pleasant if you add lox, but if you’ve got lox, you have to share some with the cat.
Ha. You had me going…
Democrats admit that their 29% approval rating is too high.
I was disappointed at first to see you were taking on a co-blogger, but then I was relieved when I saw his writing sample and realized you were kidding. And then I remembered the date.
I love reading your blog just the way it is. (Ok, I could do without trolls and without personal attacks from commenters.) Thank you for providing this space to share your thoughts and to encourage your commenters to share theirs.
Good one – you have such good commentators here that you don’t need to add anyone.
But, it would be nice to schedule an open post Sunday. I know a lot of people post on Sunday, but you have to check every prior post for the new stuff.
Your charm, Neo, is inimitable, April 1st or not.
Sigh….
And I had thought, maybe, neo had mustered the courage and forethought to take on a non-carbon-based intelligence as her co-blogger.
Grok 3 would have been great.
What might have been.
So no jello mold revival?
Happy April Fool’s Day to you too Boss.
I was fooled. As both Neo and I are Tom Lehrer fans, we are both aware of the musical based on his tunes. Tom foolery. 🙂
@hxuley: had thought, maybe, neo had mustered the courage and forethought to take on a non-carbon-based intelligence as her co-blogger.
Grok 3 would have been great.
What might have been.
She’s too far behind Althouse. But why don’t you ask Grok to create that blog written by neo + Grok for you to read? You don’t need neo to do it for you.
That is, if it is the content you want, as opposed to a convert. Grok away, no one is stopping you.
I’ve now got twenty years of this sort of thing under my belt. But my most successful effort by far was this one from fifteen years ago. I say “successful” because it not only fooled a lot of people, but it also got a lot of links and about 50K visitors or so – almost all of whom took it seriously, and many of whom got quite angry at me. It got so out of hand that I had to issue a disclaimer the next day, which you can see at the link as an addendum to the post. Plus, I also posted this the next day; here are the first few paragraphs:
Those were the days, my friends.
Interesting to review the 2010 comments and see who’s still around.
Whether it’s Tom or Miss Frankenstein, I’d like to see blog posts on diagramming sentences.
In fact, I’d like to see a specialized AI assistant that draws diagrams side-by-side, as sentences are written, on this blog.
I especially look forward to the comments.
That is, if it is the content you want, as opposed to a convert. Grok away, no one is stopping you.
My first pass included a smiley at the end.
But then I thought, nah, neo readers are savvy enough to detect a joke, especially on April’s Fool.
Most are.
Cornflour:
Diagramming sentences was one of my favorite things in grade school. We had a lot of assignments of that nature. For the most part, my teachers were born in the 1800s. In fact, I believe that all my grade school teachers had been born in the 1800s.
@huxley:My first pass included a smiley at the end…. neo readers are savvy enough to detect a joke, especially on April’s Fool.
Funny, I made the same mistake.
I hadn’t checked that 2010 post, so I thought the dade esque avatar might be real,
You had me going there for a moment!
I loved diagramming sentences as a child. Nobody gets to do it anymore.
Jeez neo you even tipped them off – artfully of course and I don’t mean Deco – that it (old Guam post) was April Fool’s and they still didn’t get it? Not a feather in thei IQ cap …
Yes to the sentence-diagramming!
I guess that the joy in diagramming sentences was a girl thing.
As I was in grade school from 1941 to 1947, I got my fill. Too bad I don’t remember any thing–except that there were lines branching off here and there. The trick was to know where to put the branches.
Grammar was easily my least favorite class. Poor Mr. Holechko. Not one student had any respect for the guy.
I believed this for 1:15.
@ Oldflyer: “The trick was to know where to put the branches.”
I am finding in my own writing (sans diagramming) that I find it preferable to continue to use full nouns, rather than too many pronouns, to ensure the proper subject is understood in a too long run on sentence.
And some phrasing word order can seem OK in various options, but then one particular order ends up seeming the best/ better available.
A lot of what passes for journalism seems to lack any real editorial support, including essays by the journals “editors”.
Even after 60+ years from the diagramming stage, I hope some of the preferred word structure still seeps through to today.
Barely remembered diagramming from grade school, I think it was well on the way out by then. Then I fell in love with it when I home schooled my kids. But it did remind me a little of the old golfer’s joke; I hate golf, I hate golf, I hate gol… I love golf!
Neo, @3:51— You got me thinking, resulting in my having to take off my shoes to do all the counting of the years, but it seems most of my teachers could have been also born in the 1800s… late 1800s. My father was born in 1887. Long story. I have surmised over the years of visiting here that we are about the same age, but raised on different coasts.
My teahers were different from any teachers I later had contact with either through my daughters’ schooling, or those I encountered in the course of my work. I’m very glad I got the model years I got.
Diagramming sentences seemed weird at first, but made sense and I can still do a reasonable job of it today…
Given that it’s no longer April Fool’s day, I can point out: Even the New York Times admits there are good bagels in California.
https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/California-s-bagel-scene-is-better-than-New-16010494.php
Better not tell that to anyone from Montreal….
I fell for it.
You got me too, neo! I figured it out before the very end, and might have sooner had I seen it yesterday, rather than today, but this one was clever in its simplicity and theme.
Very well done!
Understood. Consider co-blogging with Hoosierboy for that combination of Turkish and domestic tobaccos and down home Midwestern bullshit!
https://hoosierboy.blogspot.com/
This was an easy one. I didn’t even have to read the article, though that made it obvious. One look at the headline, and the first words to pop into my head were “April fools!”
Happy April, everyone!