...it's not dark yet, but it's gettin' there...
I treasure all the correspondence I've had with y'all over the last four years, and I really mean it. I know not all readers participate in the comments section and it's nice to get e-mails from those whom we bloggers affectionately call "lurkers." You're like Nixon's "silent majority." I know you're there, and I'm glad.
I often suspect there are some famous lurkers who occasionally cruise my blog. At the beginning, before his Townhall re-design, Hugh Hewitt had me on his blogroll. That was an honor which I knew I did not deserve, but which gave me a lot of pride while it lasted. Anyways, even if Professor Hewitt didn't read me regularly, I'm pretty sure Duane did, which still qualifies as a "brush-with-fame" in my book.
Another big name who came here once, after reading my most infamous blog entry, was New York Post columnist John Podhoretz. He wrote me a very short e-mail that said simply "You crack me up." That was way cool.
Casca once told me he thinks Laura Ingraham reads me, but I'm not yet convinced. Michelle Malkin routinely ignores me, and has never deigned to put me on her blogroll (which for the life of me I can't understand, since that freak Schlussel is on there), but that's okay. I love Malkin anyway.
And to this day, I suspect that Wonkette stole one of my rubrics.
But of all the lurkers and quasi-lurkers that have come here to read my nonsense, there is one whose email makes me most proud.
To set the scene. It's the afternoon of November 2nd, 2004. Faulty (and I believe fraudulent) exit polls have just been leaked and posted by Drudge, which show John Kerry leading George W. Bush in several must-win states. For weeks, the MSM has been predicting a Kerry victory. Now it seems true and conservatives are panicked. It looks like that jackass is going to be president.
In that atmosphere, I wrote this post.
A week later I got the following e-mail:
you and hugh hewitt are the only two who helped keep my anxiety in check during pre election days. i'm embarrassed at my lack of confidence. the urge to find drudge and bitch slap him still burns in me. thenks for the encouraging words. . . . there's enough smart pretty cynical woman pundits, your writing is honest and funny w/out trying to sound clever or too sarcastic. keep it nice and realThat's the best e-mail I've ever gotten. I'm so gratified that I could have contributed in some small way on that fateful day, when we all needed to keep our wits about us. Despite the post election disappointments, and there have been many, I'm still proud of that post and happy that we all showed up and won.
best,
Mike
So as I prepare to join the ranks of lurkers in about 24 days, may I say to all the lurkers at this blog, thank you for visiting!
Love reading your blog. It's a blast.
I listen to Laura Ingraham, love Michelle Malkin, but to call Debbie S. a freak. I dunno. Good luck to you.
I thought messages from PayPal giving you money would have been your favorite email.
Posted by: Jake on Apr. 26, 2007Just tell us you'll conider re-upping post 7/26/07.
Then we can all rest easy, except the liberals, of course, who never rest easy because of the vast right wing conspiracy.
Posted by: shelly on Apr. 26, 2007Woo-Hoo! Party at Straw's
basement (actually his mom's)! Rowdier than ever!
[Sorry RR, that buttstain photo was so ugly, I had to change it or I was going to barf. annika]
Posted by: Radical Redneck on Apr. 27, 2007there is one whose email makes me most proud.
NOT one of mine? :-(
Posted by: Radical Redneck on Apr. 27, 2007I was still in law school when John Kennedy was elected President, and although a Republican, I was moved to go work for RFK in the AG's office in D.C
Shelly, You are much older than I thought. But very, very cool.
I went to Law School myself. Figured out real soon practicing wasn't for me. When asked to brief a case, those Nazi bastard professors would NEVER accept a used condom (to explain my lack of time) in liu (sp) of a real brief!
They must have been (were) fags (or dykes).
Posted by: Radical Redneck on Apr. 27, 2007Hey, RR, I understand. I had a torts professor who didn't understand an extra week absence at spring break. The girl I was seeing went to Cal and they were on different schedule from USC. You could still water ski at the Salton Sea in those days, and between the skiing and the nights, I couldn't pull myself away.
I tried to tell him that she was worth it for the grief he gave me, but he saw no humor in that at all.
I'll say this for the Kennedys; they all understood missing work for sex. Washinton D.C., in those days, was a vitual buffet for a guy; the ratio was about nine single women to every single male.
Posted by: shelly on Apr. 27, 2007This place has been a blast, but for the record, Annika quit blogging? I just don't see it. It would be like the alcoholic turning from the bottle. Oh it happens, but just with the quitters. She'll be guzzling in the basement in no time.
Posted by: Casca on Apr. 27, 2007"I thought messages from PayPal giving you money would have been your favorite email."
Wait a minute. There's a PayPal tip jar on this site? Where?! Tribute must be paid!!!
Anyway, I first "discovered" and turned to blogs in the summer of '04 after I got fed up with all of my Che* T-shirt wearing peers flooding the forums with their Leftist bullshit. Finally, I could chill with my ideological peeps without the deluge of pre-teen Moore-ian sophistry. Blogs helped soothe my anxiety during that election.
*(He's dead, motherfuck3rs! D-E-A-D!!)
I have never had a Paypal button on this site. Holding one's hand out for money seems so uncouth. Instead, I held my hand out for fabulous gifts off my Amazon wish list.
Posted by: annika on Apr. 27, 2007Annika, please tell me you will still post occasionally over at 6MB. I have stains all over my keyboard from coffee sprays after reading some of your posts.
Never commented much here, but I love your stuff.
Posted by: Billy on Apr. 27, 2007Well, keep the Amazon list here when you "retire", and you could still update it. I'll try to contribute sometime in the near future.
Soon, I'll move out of my parents' basement. Figuratively speaking, of course.
On the 19th of May, I finally graduate.
*crosses fingers*
Posted by: reagan80 on Apr. 27, 2007-Soon, I'll move out of my parents' basement. Figuratively speaking, of course.
That either means you aren't moving out of your parents basement or you were never in there to begin with. Which is it?
I'm probably your most consistent left-wing fan, Annika; I started reading you in the fall of 1993 when you were "annikagyrl" and I was "hugoboy".
It's been a blast, sister.
Posted by: Hugo Schwyzer on Apr. 27, 2007Hey Raygun,
Now that you are getting out of HS and your parents basement what do you think you're gonna do with your life? Wanna come to Brooklyn and let me teach you a trade?
Posted by: Strawman on Apr. 27, 2007Spanky:
Geezus, what is with you? First, you guys were asking about whether I'm "in the closet" or not. Now, this? No, my parents don't even have a fucking basement. They don't even live within a hundred miles of my current residence. It was merely an attempt at self-deprecation, and nothing more.
Straw:
Have you already forgotten where I was enrolled, before Mother Nature decided to try turning the place into Atlantis? Thanks for the offer, but I'm not a big fan of snowbelt states. Warmer climates also cause fewer headaches for those employed in the engineering and construction industry, anyway.
Well excuse me. I forgot that most trailers don't have basements. Next time you try self-defecating, film it and post it on Youtube. I hear Will is into watching scat vids.
I keed. I keed. Lighten up, Ray.
P.S. But the part about Will having a scat fetish is true.
Posted by: Spanky on Apr. 27, 2007Reagan, come to San Diego my boy. California is a land of incredible opportunity. Even if it is run by leftists.
Posted by: Casca on Apr. 29, 2007I'll have to think about it, Casca. If I move to San Diego, it would make pilgrimages to Simi Valley easier for me, since it is only about 150 miles away from there. I'd also like to help put that state back in the "Red" column.
Unfortunately, such a move will have to wait for at least a couple years. I need to beef up my resume and ensure my own fiscal solvency before heading to greener pastures out West.
One of the things that horrify me about residing in California are the restrictions against AR-15 owners. I'll need an arsenal of them, if there is ever a Mexican insurrection or another riot. Afterall, I would want to go out like the Omega Man.
Posted by: reagan80 on Apr. 30, 2007Wanna come to Brooklyn and let me teach you a trade?
If Reagan wanted to learn how to wear a sandwich board
he could do so online. Now if it was sucking on the gubmint teat, maybe your kind
could teach him.
Jizzbag.
