Number 1827

When my son helped me set up my daily Blog five years ago today, we made spur of the moment decisions. First I named it after my wildly unpopular novel even though the market had dried up after eight years of bullying friends into buying multiple copies. I was shocked when the baseball term Suicide Squeeze inadvertently attracted followers with dark postings about suicide, depression, and mental illness. Many did not embrace my flippant, light hearted ramblings. Other sports terms like “Touchdown” and “Knockout” are not saddled with such negativity. Even Airball is better than Suicide Squeeze. The “Often Misunderstood” subtitle had the double meaning of describing me and the controversy over my alleged misuse of the term “suicide squeeze” in my novel. Today, I would name my Blog after a rear auto bumper sticker that begins: “If You Can Read This.” I would make the subtitle: “You Are Aiming Too Low.” To test the system, I dashed off an 80 word first post which holds up if my hypothetical publisher includes it in the compendium of Geoff’s Greatest 50 Blogs. My original plan for 100 Greatest Blogs was wounded when a daughter-in-law suggested I go for ten. After killing the messenger, I decided ten put too much pressure on them to be brilliant. So I have compromised on 50. One Blogger liked my first post, my son commented, and Anonymous made two comments. Years later, I learned how to access more stats and discovered the post received 29 views. So most viewers were kind enough not to mention their dislike comment. That was my most viewed post of 2016 (I went as low as one view). In 2017, I improved at Blogging but my daily readership cratered by about 60%. So I have no advice for new Bloggers!

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