Happy 9th...

... my super brilliant and trusting wife, and thanks for authorizing me to co-blog if only to push the Amazon Associates program. It's fun to see what anonymous readers shop for — from the mundane of toilet paper to the extravagance of high-end cameras, computers, and power tools. And it's very satisfying to track the earnings as a percentage of sales and view it as people's indirect and abiding appreciation of the blog.

When I started reading your blog in 2004, comments were not part of the experience. That was okay — I would occasionally send you a comment in a short email — from just… a guy… in Ohio… who reads and enjoys your blog and wants to encourage you to keep it up. I had dropped many of my subscriptions to newspapers and magazines because I'd begun to get everything I wanted off the internet.

So instead, I'd occasionally send you $10 through PayPal.  As encouragement.  And appreciation. I appreciated the quirky, ribald, and sometimes complex humor, the freewheeling way you would select topics and themes, your artist's eye, and your frequently unique perspectives on issues and insights into events.

Your bloggy writing style continually invites readers into your fascinating mind to join you in the process which you dive into with such self-confidence, grace, honesty, care, and verve — every day —constant as the loyalty of a good Labrador Retriever. It's infectious.

No Amazon link/push/shill/pimp tonight.

Congratulations to you and your readers on 9 great years. Here's to the next 9!