One Five Zero Zero

Legendary writer-editor Pete Hamill once said "When I go three days without writing, my body aches with anxiety; my mood is irritable. My night dreams grow wild with unconscious invention." Let me say this plainly: I am not him, I sleep just fine. I can easily go three days, a week, even a month without putting words on a page. I could take a bike ride. I could bake a cake or make dinner. I could play with my computer or practice guitar. I could take a nap. I could do lots of things, and do them without a second thought that they are drawing me away from the keyboard. But on this occasion, when the number that's at the top of my masthead is 1500, I do feel a kinship with Mr. Hamill.

One Five Zero Zero. A nice round number, in certain circles it stands on its own: a tax form (Pennsylvania Inheritance), a truck (Ram Pickup) or an address in Washington DC (the US Treasury Department). Even the mathematically challenged can factor it easily (15 X 100). But in this instance it represents a milestone signaling the current run of this column. Come rain or shine, work or vacation, sickness or health, I've done my level best to pump them out as regularly as weekly clockwork. At 52 instances a year, it means I'm about to enter the 30th year of the continual musing I've been doing in this space for the past 10,523 days, give or take a few hours. 

Hamill also said that "writers are rememberers," but I look at it a slightly different way. My inspiration (which is a term that gives it way more gravitas than it deserves) comes more from observation, from things that cause me to stop and go "Huh?" I look at them, tilt my head like Nipper the dog, and wonder if someone else (such as you) might find it as interesting as me. The task I set before myself each week is to learn about that thing and relate it in a way that hopefully causes you to tilt your head as well. Yes, I do need to remember these tidbits, but it's more about writing them down so I don't forget to tackle them, as opposed to plumbing the depths of my memories. Hamill again: "Getting out any weekly magazine requires many hours of reading, choosing, discarding, and thinking beyond the obvious." Substitute "column" for "magazine" and that's my weekly lift.

If you go to the beach you see people of all persuasions. Some people dive into the waves every time, some just curl up their toes on the edge of the surf, still others have no intention of ever going near the water. And so it is with this space: visitors run the gamut from loyalists to driveby readers. Some dive to the bottom every week, some sample every couple of outings, some just read the top line and move on. Whatever your predilection, I'm happy you have stopped by at some point for however long it suits you.

And so, depending on your cohort, you may or may not have been here late last year for #1461 and "Too Much Is Not Enough" as we looked at binge watching. Or deep in the depths of pandemic in 2020 when #1273 talked about Zoom habits in "Green (Screen) Is The New Black." Or way back in 2011 when I waxed rhapsodically over a sandwich made for me in #806's "In Praise of Lyndon." Other ruminations were on biometrics (#1473 "Is that Your Face?"), RV conventions (#969 "Not So Secret Society") or how life eclipses fiction (#711 "You Can't Make This Stuff Up"). Not to worry: if you have FOMO, the mood strikes you or you have nothing better to do with your life, oodles are available online where you can catch up on those you missed. 

Next week we will get back to making fun of the foolish. Maybe we'll try to better understand apostrophes, talk about folding chairs and, politics aside, the best ways to calm cats. But for now I will note on this rest stop what I have said at other similar mileposts: if you'll keep reading, I'll keep writing. I'll try and keep my eyes and ears open for something that might interest us both, use all 26 letters where possible, and bring a smile to your face whenever I can. 

One last thing, before we continue, and it is perhaps the most important: know how grateful I am for your attention and time, both of which are in short supply and high demand. As any reader of this space knows, I like to travel, and it's a lot more fun to look out the window when you have someone with which to share the journey. So thanks for taking the ride with me. And now? Break's over, time to get back on the road.

-END-

Marc Wollin of Bedford plans to keep this effort going, if you'll have it. His column appears weekly via email and online http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/ and https://marcwollin.substack.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.