The Putative Penultimate Post

If a tree falls in the forest and there's no one there to hear it…

- various attributed sources

 

To be or not to be, that is the question…

 

- Shakespeare's Hamlet

 

About the time I started blogging in the fall of 2011, one of the Star Tribune's Sunday financial writers -- her surname escapes me, but I'm fairly certain her first name was Jennifer --announced that she was publishing her last column, which would be her twenty-ninth.  She was voluntarily moving on to different endeavors.  Her news struck me as a little early to be pulling the curtain on a column, especially since I usually found her offerings to be worthwhile.  It was then I secretly set for myself the seemingly very attainable goal of writing at least thirty posts on the Quentin Chronicle.  Then, if I chose to hang it up, at least I'd have the satisfaction in my own little world of knowing that I'd outlasted the Strib's columnist!

 

It has not escaped my attention that my next post on the QC will be my two hundred fiftieth, a nice round number.  It is time for introspection and decision making.  Do I want to keep doing this?  In order to answer the question, the starting point should probably be to remember why I started blogging in the first place.  My daughter Jill is the one who talked me into blogging.  There were two main reasons at the time, and a third later entered the picture.   As I explained in my December 6, 2011 introductory post (Following David Brinkley's Lead), prior to blogging I had been writing and sending periodic unsolicited movie reviews via e-mail to my family for a number of years.  Putting future reviews in a blog would be an easy transition, Jill predicted.  New movies come out every week, so there would never be a shortage of things to write about.  Ditto for other topics about which --again, on an unsolicited basis -- I would opine to my family via e-mail.  Topics like etiquette, personal finance, current events, grammar and sports were frequent fodder.  Transitioning from e-mailing to blogging would simply involve an extra step or two of effort.  And one of the beauties of a free lance blog is that you can write on any subject you wish.

 

One of my favorite magazine titles is Mental Floss, which in a way describes my second reason.  Writing allegedly keeps the brain cells functioning to a higher degree than many other hobbies or pastimes I might have pursued such as golfing, bird watching or gardening.  (Notice how I picked three activities which I don't do!  No insult intended to you duffers, ornithologists or weed pickers out there.)  I have found that it's much more challenging to get an idea across using the written word than verbalizing, not that the latter is necessarily always easy.  Maybe if I wasn't so bad at doing crossword puzzles, drawing or playing bridge I would have bypassed blogging.  But I have long been attracted to writing and even seriously considered majoring in journalism, notwithstanding my unfortunate exploits as a journalism student in high school.  (See my August 25, 2012 post, Chrome Dome & The Cub Reporter.)  My desire to attend Notre Dame, which in 1965 did not offer a journalism degree, trumped my choice of major.  Otherwise I was thinking of applying to Missouri or Northwestern, renowned for their journalism programs.  I didn't take that path, and the rest is history. Now, after twenty-six years of practicing law for a living, here I am practicing writing for free.  

 

The permanency of a blog is personally appealing, and that leads me to the third reason, viz., my beautiful grandchildren, Rosie, Winnie, another baby girl who will make her appearance within the next two or three weeks, and any others who presently are mere twinkles in their parents' eyes.  My paternal grandparents died before I was born.  I do remember the Pook's parents, both of whom were born in Italy, but only a few isolated encounters with them remain fresh in my mind.  After the day comes when I am in that big writing lab in the sky, I would like to leave behind something about me for the grand kiddies to see.  If they ever, in a bored moment, ask their parents, "What was the Old Buckaroo like?" the reply might be a suggestion to read a QC post or two.  In my non-technological mind, blog posts have a better chance of being read in the future than, say, e-mails which could dissolve into cyber space (either accidentally or by design), or cards and letters which could become lost.

 

So, those are the reasons I started this blog, and arguably they're legitimate reasons to continue.  But it has not all been sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, to borrow a phrase from the recently departed Leslie Gore.  One of the subjects I originally intended to cover was traveling, and yet many trips have come and gone without my having written about them.  My high school reunion in North Dakota, circling Lake Superior, and this winter's road trip to Florida are just three recent examples of undocumented excursions.  When the US celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show two years ago, I was going to chime in; never got around to it.  Ditto for new albums I bought but did not appraise.  There is a post about the Marquis in the recesses of my brain which hasn't transformed into a post.  I am disappointed in myself for the procrastination.  Thank you, Sisters Of Mercy, for the life-long guilt trip!  I can blame the time I've spent watching the football bowls and playoffs and the NCAA basketball tournament as the culprits, but another time consuming temptation will rear its head soon thereafter.  (Did I mention the Twins' season opener is April 4?)  In short, it is a lack of self discipline which prevents me from writing about some experiences and observations that I'd like to memorialize.  I guess, with respect to traveling, that's why we have cameras.

 

You might wonder why I referenced the tree falling question at the top of this post.  One thing I've learned as a blogger: I cannot have it both ways.  A quick internet check this morning revealed that the Huffington Post blog has 112 million followers.  I have twelve.  No, not twelve million; TWELVE period.  Actually that number is exaggerated, since one of those twelve is I.  Yes, I signed up to be a follower of my own blog!  My kids have offered to provide a link on their Facebook pages to the QC, but I declined.  Word-of-mouth is okay, but I am not interested in a written advertisement.  Having said that, it is kind of unfulfilling to write stuff that few people read.  Even some of "the other eleven" have asked me if I've seen a movie about which I'd written a week before.  Maybe instead of blogging I should alternatively keep a diary.

 

I do not find the Google Blogspot site to be a particularly user-friendly host for my posts.  Slight revisions to drafts, such as simply adding or deleting a comma, require having to re-separate the paragraphs all the way through the post.  That is a nerve wracking waste of time.  I have been told by a few people that they gave up in their attempts either to become a blog follower or to leave a comment because the Blogspot site threw up too many roadblocks.  I have earnestly thought about stopping the QC at two hundred fifty posts and then, if and when the mood strikes, starting a different blog by switching to another site.  (I even have a name for the new blog picked out.)  The word "closure" is overused, but there is at least some gratification in bringing closure to an undertaking which has gone on for almost four and a-half years.  In order to make the switch out of Blogspot I either need a magic wand -- Presto, done! -- or someone to hold my hand through the process.

 

Here is what I've decided.  After I publish my two hundred fiftieth post, I am going to continue for the immediate future with the QC.  In the meantime, I am going to attempt to find a more acceptable site to host a new blog.  Depending on my luck or lack thereof, I might stick with the QC, start a new blog, or start a new replacement hobby.  Am I too old a codger to take up backpacking?

 

Finally, a word about post # 250, which I plan to publish Monday, the day after Easter.  I chose Easter Monday due to the religious theme of the post.  I first drafted and posted it on Notre Dame Nation under my non de plume, East Of Midnight, on March 8, 2009.  During that week, a hot topic on that site had been the grotto on the Notre Dame campus, and what it meant to the men and women on the board.  I weighed for a few days whether to contribute to the discussion, and finally decided to do so. Of all the posts I've published on NDN, that generated the most positive responses, so I will offer it here for your consideration.  I employed the term "DCE," a football reference commonly used on NDN.  It is shorthand for "depth chart engineering."  Thanks for reading my stuff.