I get really tired of seeing what are supposed to be news articles on the internet that include the words terrifying, horrifying, shocking, or devastating in the headline. Just report the facts and eliminate the click-bait. We, the readers, will decide whether we are terrified, horrified, shocked, or devastated.
This is my 1,777th post, the second post in my thirteenth year of blogging. I hope to have many more posts and many more years of blogging. It would also please me no end to have more readers.
But even if that never happens, I am completely satisfied with us -- we few, we happy few, we band of brothers and sisters. Shakespeare didn't say "and sisters" but Shakespeare was stuck back there in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries and I am an enlightened 21st-century person.
Besides, and I haven't told you this previously, my middle name is Henry, so I have no compunction whatever about mangling some lines from Henry V.
As my mother used to say, "Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
She was always saying things like that. She was a regular Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.
She would say, "Faint heart ne'er won fair maid."
She would say, "Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds."
She would say, "A soft answer turneth away wrath."
She would say, "If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride."
It was very educational and even inspirational growing up around my mother.
My dad, on the other hand, would say, "Wish in one hand and spit in the other, and see what you get the most of." Sometimes he didn't say "spit" but the word he used rhymed with "spit".
How did I get on this subject? Oh, yes, thinking about how nice it would be to have more readers.
Today is also the 62nd anniversary of my mother's death, which probably explains why I am thinking about her.
I shall now bring this post to a close and hope that you won't be terrified, horrified, shocked, or devastated by it, although you may choose to be if you so desire.
See you next time, which will be my 1,778th post, the third post in my thirteenth year of blogging.
Until then, spread the word. If you spread it, they will come.
That stupendous, fastastic, terrific blog rhymeswithplague posts an amazing and incredible 1,777 times.
ReplyDeleteTasker Dunham, much oblighed, click-bait and all, for doing your part. If everyone does his or her or xis or xer or their part, the task will be easy. Of course, my numbers mean little in the overall scheme of things. Yorkshire Pudding must have 4,000 posts by now as he hardly ever goes a day without posting.
DeletePossibly more, and invariably good stuff. Another with astronomical numbers must be beetleypete on WordPress who posts about 2-5 times per DAY (often more than me per month). But let's not get too hung up. Blogging is a form of social media and we don't want to catch the same kind of popularity anxiety as teenagers and young people on facebook and instagram etc.
DeleteI thoroughly enjoy reading your blog .... though I don't comment as often as I should. You are refreshingly candid. Congrats on reaching an enormously high number of posts. (love the image of you and Mrs.)
ReplyDeleteHelen, thank you for commenting! There is no "should" in commenting. I see from your profile that you are in Bend, Oregon. My cousin Peggy Palmer and her husband George lived there for many years. He is now deceased and she has moved to Lacey, Washington. Could it be possible in a city your size that you might have known them?
DeleteIt sounds like your Mother had a lot of the old sayings. I grew up hearing many but I rarely hear them these days. I suppose it is up to us to pass some of these on now.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the press, news and internet blowing up everything out of proportion! Have they never heard the story of the little boy that cried wolf!
I don't have a blog (probably because I would not have ANY followers!) so I can't spread the word very well but I am looking forward to #1778!
Bonnie, hello, again! You are right about the old sayings being rarely heard these days. I thought of another one my mother used to say: "Pride goeth before a fall."
DeleteI'll try to keep the posts coming for a while longer because of readers like yourself.
I also dislike a headline that proclaim someone 'breaking their silence' about something. Usually it is someone simply giving a statement about the death or misfortune of a loved one. There was no big secret as implied by the headline.
ReplyDeleteEmma, I thought of another adjective to add to my list of turn-offs: heartbreaking.
DeleteThe phrases your mother used were heard regularly in our home too. From both parents.
ReplyDeleteSigh on the click bait headlines - and congratulations on your impressive number of posts.
Elephant's Child (Sue), my mother and father were born in 1906 and 1910, respectively. I suspect they were a bit older than your parents. Bonnie above says those phrases are rarely heard today and it's up to us to pass some of them on.
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ReplyDeleteSorry my tablet posted before I was done typing ;)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your 1777th post. Looking forward to many more. Sorry on the anniversary of your mom's passing. You must have been just a wee lad if she has been gone 60 years. I hadn't heard the lily saying before, but the others are familiar.
My mom had a few funny sayings too.
Sit on your fist and rare back on your thumb.
Or how about lettuce, turn up and pee.
My daddy would say doing something was like a cat eating a grindstone.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Gosh I miss them.
Kathy, I was 16 when my mother died and I am 78 today. Not quite a "wee lad" but young, nevertheless. The lily saying is from Shakespeare's Sonnet 94.
DeleteAboriginals I used to work with would say, "You pray for me and I'll pray for you. " So I hope you get more readers!
ReplyDeleteRed, thanks, Red! I associate aboriginals with Australia but I suppose Canada has them too, n'est-ce pas? We call them "native Americans" in my country.
DeleteI'm inclined to the view that most of my readers have come via blogs on which I have commented. I don't post anywhere near as often as I used to post. However I love Blogland and my blog friends and would miss it and them sorely if it and they disappeared.
ReplyDeleteGraham, you are probably right about readers coming from blogs on which we have commented. If I want friends, then, I must show myself to be friendly. I will work on leaving more comments on the blogs of others.
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