Thursday, February 12, 2009

Not another Canary

Today's Link
I Know Right

Saying for the Day
Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition. ~Mignon McLaughlin,
The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966


Picture of the Day
Our Front Yard

I pulled the blog entry I had scheduled for today.
I wrote it on Tuesday and scheduled it by the wonder of Blogger to be published today.
It would have been a great blog.
It was interesting.
It was thought provoking.
It had humor.
It contained deep philosophical thought.
It used all three of Quilly’s obsolete words properly.
It appealed to the
volgivagant bloggers among us.
But it also appealed to the
isangelous bloggers .
In short it was a near perfect blog.
But yesterday I gave it the Canary Test.
Those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning know all about the Canary Test. But for those who you who didn’t start that far back let me explain.
A long time ago, when I first started blogging , I wrote the Great Canary Fiasco entry.
It , too, was almost perfect except , of course, I didn’t know Quilly and there were no obsolete words provided. But I had polished it and perfected it and I loved it.
It produced more comments than any blog I have ever written, almost one hundred. The problem is they were almost all negative. They were not nice.
One little old lady, grandmother of five, used words little old ladies shouldn’t even know. The few good comments were even worse. They congratulated me for stickin it to those canary loving ……
It was a complete and utter disaster. How was I supposed to know there were so many canary lovers out there?
So I did the only decent thing I deleted the entry but I stored one encrypted copy in a hidden file on my computer and someday when blogland is ready I will publish it again.
Because of it I lost readers. People asked me not to comment on their blogs. They wanted me to just shrivel up and go away.
So we devised the Canary Test.
I would read the entry to Betty before I published it .
If she smiled and looked thoughtful I knew it as Pulitzer Prize category.
If she laughed out loud it was award winning.
If she seemed unmoved it was just another average blog. I write a lot of those.
But if she frowned it probably shouldn’t be published.
If she frowned and mumbled then I probably should destroy all traces of it.
So I ran the blog by her and she frowned and mumbled and the mumbling sounded like not another Canary.
So I just couldn’t risk it. I don’t want to drive anybody away.
I don’t want to appeal only to those
cynicocratical bloggers who would run everything.
It is such a well written entry all about blog awards that I just can’t destroy it so I have encrypted it and stored it with the Canary Blog.
Someday the world will be ready.
Someday.

News from Pigeon Falls
The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Yesterday Tommy UK asked his mother if she could remember when he got that rock. She said she couldn’t but she did remember when he used to take it for walks and talk to it. But then he put it away and forgot about it. His mother and father decided it was just a phase he was going through at the time. Now Tommy really feels the need to talk to somebody. He couldn’t understand why he had forgotten the rock or why he suddenly took it out and used it to help Herman. It was so confusing.
He knew he couldn’t talk to his parents. How do you tell your mom and dad that you have this rock that you can use to help people fight demons. They would send him off to a psychiatrist. But he really needs somebody to talk to. If only he wasn’t fighting with Tammy.
Pastor Joan had her physical on Monday. She is in great physical shape. But there was one surprise. She is pregnant. She and her husband are so happy. They spent all of last night planning how to make the guest bedroom into the baby’s room. They have so wanted a child.
Somewhere Oops is smiling.

Wrap UP
It was a rather gloomy day and the temperature is going down again. Just when I though Spring was coming Winter may return. I continued trying to organize my computer today. So many loose files. So many programs I forgot I even had. In the afternoon we went to the basement. Betty plastered and I began looking over the railroad cars we have. There are far too many and so we will try to sell some. The rule now is if we aren't using it and don't plan on using it sell it. I also visited some of the links. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA
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14 Comments:

Blogger Sue said...

Canary test? I don't think many of my post would pass. I'm not too worried about losing readers, I'm not sure I have any.

Have a great day!! Spring is near or at least in sight.

3:10 AM  
Blogger Nessa said...

Congrats to you for using all of Quilly's words, even if you had to shelve your original post and congrats to Pastor Joan.

4:29 AM  
Blogger Lazy Daisy said...

Sounds like your Betty is the perfect person to evaluate your posts. I love your description of the levels of acceptability. I love that you call it the canary test...I may have to steal that?

Hooray for Pastor Joan and her husband. I'm smiling along with Oops.

5:37 AM  
Blogger Finding Pam said...

Once again, inspired writing! Thank goodness you have quality control and some wonderful stop gap measures in place(Mrs. Betty).

Where did Tommy get that rock? The rock must represent David and Goliath. I am so happy for Pastor Joan and her husband.

6:16 AM  
Blogger Finding Pam said...

Oh no! You have changed my color to a boring beige on your favorite blogs. I am scared to ask what your rating system is for my blog? Care to elaborate? You changed from a numerical system to a color coded system. Am I in trouble? Hope not.

6:21 AM  
Blogger Melli said...

If that post was about blog awards and Betty frowned and mumbled, I bet I would agree with EVERY word of it! But... maybe not. My guess here is... Betty Knows Best!

I LOVE Oops! THANK you Oops! I'm smiling too!

6:41 AM  
Blogger Akelamalu said...

I'm intrigued now, post it! :)

12:19 PM  
Blogger Bill ~ {The Old Fart} said...

Someday Dr John we will be able to read these "Hidden" "Archived" blog entries and wonder why they were not published sooner.

12:42 PM  
Blogger QUASAR9 said...

so when will your encrypted files
be opened next?

1:30 PM  
Blogger Lori's Minute said...

I just hope Betty wasn't frowning and mumbling "Why does he always talk to me when I am trying to do something??????"

1:33 PM  
Blogger Thom - - Dr. John said...

I say let the canary out of the cage!

This was one of the beswt posts about not writing a post I've never read. . . or something like that.

7:54 PM  
Blogger Gattina said...

Hahaha ! good you hide it ! my cats love canaries ! and I can't guarantee for a decent vocabulary in comments. Good that you have Betty ! What should a man do without woman ?

10:05 PM  
Blogger Voegtli said...

It is a petty that I don't get to read that "Canary" blog post. I am sure, I would have found something positive to comment.

10:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds to me like you subject your blogs to the Betty test! Betty knows best!

You did a wonderful job using my words and I wouldn't be in the least surprised if you didn't, single-handedly, rescue them from obscurity.

2:00 AM  

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