Thirteen years ago in July, I did the first of what (here at RAMH, anyhow) I categorized as a “whiskey river Friday” post. Back then, I imagined I’d be putting in several days’ worth of effort, every week, in making Running After My Hat a megaphone for cogent — albeit quirky — commentary about this, that, and the other thing, supported by dozens (if not hundreds) of loyal readers and commenters… In short, I imagined that blogging in general would go on like that, forever.
By 2011, I thought maybe I might be able, just possibly, to manage the trick. But “stuff” was happening in the wider world. By then, competitors to blogging (F*ceb**k et al.) had already established beachheads in the social-media battlefield, and various blogging friends had started to wander off, listless, distracted, and disheartened. Still, I’ve kept going after a fashion, especially with the weekly whiskey river Fridays series.
But that’s about to change.
Without going into details for now, by the end of June, 2021, The Missus and I will be here and there (hmm, maybe here or there, more precisely) around the continental US. Among the least of the disruptions to our routines: it will become almost impossible for me to prepare my Friday posts in the same manner I’ve always done them.
I do like doing them — particularly, I still love what whiskey river‘s anonymous presenter, er, presents, several times a week. So I’ll be continuing for the foreseeable future to post something in the manner of what I’ve been doing for thirteen years…
…starting this Friday, 21 May, 2021.
Thanks as ever to those of you who’ve continued to drop by!
________
P.S. “Don’t want to be a richer man / just gonna have to be a different man…!”
whiskey river says
Dear John,
I just want you to know that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed your whiskey river Fridays series. I started blogging twenty years ago in a highly male-dominated weblog world, full of insanely talented writers, poets, artists, journalists, researchers and entertainers. There were a few women bloggers around back then, also insanely talented, but I saw many of them give up due to stalkers and internet trolls and various other unsavory characters, so I chose anonymity for self-preservation. I appreciate your non judgemental acceptance. I also appreciate your perceptive, thoughtful, artistic research and connections interwoven into the Fridays series, and the many times over the years you’ve gently corrected mistakes I’ve made. You’ve been kind and generous to me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I hope you and The Missus have wonderful adventures in your travels here and there around the continental US, and maybe you’ll send an occasional postcard from here or there if you get the chance. Thank you for the past thirteen years!
whiskey
John says
Thank YOU so much — I blushed just reading the above. I hope you know I will continue to rely on What It Is You Do, to help me navigate around during the upcoming road trip — said trip being the longer-term metaphorical one as much as/more than the “real” geographical one. It’s meant so much to me, from well before Running After My Hat launched…
Took me a bit of hunting, but I just found what was I think my first whiskey river-inspired blog post. It was on a blog I used to run during the depths of the Bush2 years, called Where Left Is Right. Your post (dated Friday, July 8, 2005) was a quotation from the Dalai Lama’s ‘Little Book of Buddhism’:
Thank you for so many years of comfort and inspiration… and for the implicit introduction to so many other like-minded and -spirited blogs (old-style + Tumblr)!