Heck Of A Guy

Today’s Newsletter-post includes a brief Society item, a report on upcoming posts, and a brief explanation of anticipated blog contributions by individuals other than DrHGuy.

Look Who Dropped By

It’s always nice to have visitors - as long as they know how to comport themselves. I thought the name on the comment about Another Leonard Cohen Look-alike Nominee, the post disputing Wonkette’s claim that a tableau featuring Dennie Kucinich in what that blog termed a “hot-lady sandwich” was a virtual match for Leonard Cohen on the cover of his Death of a Ladies Man album, looked familiar. Sure enough - the Ken Layne who left the comment was the same Ken Layne who was made Managing Editor of Wonkette just a few days ago.¹

In fact, that Ken Layne also turns out to be the same Ken Layne who wrote the Kucinich-Cohen separated at birth post that I challenged in my blog entry, which might seem just the tiniest bit sarcastic if read from a certain perspective. For example, my observation, “If this is, as Wonkette declares it, “Dennis Kucinich in a hot-lady sandwich,” the order must have been for “one hot-lady sandwich, hold the Kucinich,” might seem to some hypervigilant sorts to tread precariously close to ridicule and to demand payback of some sort. Happily, Mr Layne is made of classier stuff, taking time to read the entire post and scribble a altogether respectful comment. Heck of a Guy wishes him good fortune in his work at Wonkette.

Future Posts About Anjani, Allan Truax, Broomcorn, Dishwasher Cookery, McHenry County, Julie, Mom, Books, Movies, Patient Compliance, …

To those who have emailed me to ask when the next post on any of these (and still other) topics can be expected, the answer is an honest but admittedly unsatisfying “I dunno - next week maybe.” My two-point blogging jeremiad follows:

1. Heck of a Guy Blog is a gratifying but nonessential and non-revenue producing activity to which I attend when I can, typically fitting it in between rescuing the offspring from their obligatory self-imposed catastrophes, shopping for groceries, explaining to the newspaper delivery person why receiving two identical Wednesday papers is not the equivalent of receiving one paper on Wednesday and another on Friday, paying bills, scheduling the guy to fix the furnace/air conditioner/refrigerator/sound system/etc., rescheduling the guy to fix the furnace/air conditioner/refrigerator/sound system/etc. when he doesn’t show up, transporting myself or one of Da Boyz to appointments with doctors, dentists, and assorted other professionals, and completing the myriad of other tasks that fill my day - and the days of 98% of other North American adults. Yesterday, for example, no less than four hours were invested in an unsuccessful attempt to change Mesomorph’s² dental insurance. Heck, I still have Christmas gifts to buy. I also have a new business project that requires precisely 14% more time than whatever number of hours I allot to it.

2. Blogging itself takes time. There are, of course, posts that write themselves or at least require only one draft, a quick spellcheck, and a poked Publish button to be online-ready. None of those, unfortunately, are to be found at the Heck of a Guy Blog, which features painstakingly constructed, multiply revised posts almost always accompanied by imagery that has itself been selected after considering a variety of options, produced or adapted by trial and error, and often reconfigured a dozen times before reaching its final form.

   Moreover, at least a couple of posts each week require learning how to operate, frequently from scratch, a new software program, gizmo, WordPress add-on, graphic editor, or doohickey to complete.

For what it’s worth, I do have Anjani and Allan Truax posts that appear within a revision or two of a final draft and publication. I also, however, have competing interests in writing posts on Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Lincoln’s presidency I’m currently reading, a stellar DVD of Otis Redding’s performances that I watched last week, some efficiency-enhancing new features offered by internet search engines, a couple of A.E. Housman poems, the college basketball season, TV’s fascination with Orange County, Jacobsen’s influence on interior design, and still others. I have at least nine Leonard Cohen pieces in various stages of preparation³ and many more ideas not yet put on paper.

Other Post Contributors

My attempts to convince others to contribute posts (rather than ideas for posts) have been, with the notable exception of Lord of Leisure and his Lord of Leisure Photo Gallery, unrequited. And, it appears that the next phenomenal landscape photos from my Kansas City colleague will not be forthcoming until he undertakes another of his expeditions to a destination exhibiting a spectacular aspect of nature.

On the other hand, Lady Lawanda has completed most of a draft of a post on a teaching project she described to me in the course of a an otherwise typical conversation. Trust me that I have never described a teaching project as “fascinating” - until now. I think you’ll as impressed and taken with this as I am.

_________________________________


Footnotes

1. Ken Layne was permanent guest editor from August 2006 to November 2006 when he was made West Coast bureau editor before leaving in October 2007.↩
2. Mesomorph is my younger son, who is currently 18↩
3. A comparison of his dramatically different performances of the same song, a Joni Mitchell song that seems to directly reference Leonard Cohen although no one seems to have noticed, my contribution to the towering stack of articles dealing with the false dichotomy of his music’s dark, somber qualities Vs its humor, three things about Leonard Cohen that everybody knows but for which there is almost no evidence, a consideration of the professional interplay between him and Jennifer Warnes, some (mostly superficial) similarities of the women with whom he established significant, ongoing romantic relationships, some (rather more significant) unique qualities of the women with whom he established significant, ongoing romantic relationships, the central role integrity plays in his music, and the importance of his relationships with certain accomplished older men↩

Bookmark It

Hide Sites