A different new year

On October 5, 2004, I posted my first essay on Pillage Idiot, which I called "Jew in America." I actually planned it so my first post would be something serious, rather than "Uh, this is my blog, and I'm still trying to figure out why I'm writing." The first lines in my essay were: "The United States has been the most hospitable country for Jews in the entire two-thousand-year history of the Jewish diaspora. Any suggestion to the contrary is sheer lunacy." My essay was an expression of gratitude to this country on behalf of Jews, and it discussed why America was unique in its treatment of Jews. I ended by suggesting a prayer that Jews should say for having been made Americans.

It's been downhill at Pillage Idiot ever since.

Tonight, I noticed another blogger who's reached his anniversary today (please don't use the horrid word "blogiversary"), and we couldn't be more different. He's serious; he's cultivated the big bloggers; he's been successful. As for me, I'm an immature joker; I haven't done much in the way of cultivation; and I've been planning to shut down this blog for the past 9 or 10 months (though I guess it's kind of like smoking, which I've heard is very hard to quit).

So what this blog has become is mostly a place where I can point out strange or absurd things I've come across in the media, make fun of big events and the people who are involved in them, and generally act immature. What I like about the format is that when I make a joke or a wisecrack to others in person, I can tell immediately that they think it's not funny, whereas here in the blogworld, my readers, with a couple of exceptions, are too polite to tell me so. This is called reasonable doubt. And as long as I have reasonable doubt, I can keep going. (To be honest, in person I keep going even when people don't laugh; hope springs eternal.)

I haven't developed a huge readership or even a medium-sized one, but I appreciate every one of you who comes by. I'm going to continue to plan on shutting the place down, and if I'm as successful in doing that as I've been over the past year, I might just still be around next October.