January 14, 2013

Happy 9th...

... my super brilliant and trusting wife, and thanks for authorizing me to co-blog if only to push the Amazon Associates program. It's fun to see what anonymous readers shop for — from the mundane of toilet paper to the extravagance of high-end cameras, computers, and power tools. And it's very satisfying to track the earnings as a percentage of sales and view it as people's indirect and abiding appreciation of the blog.

When I started reading your blog in 2004, comments were not part of the experience. That was okay — I would occasionally send you a comment in a short email — from just… a guy… in Ohio… who reads and enjoys your blog and wants to encourage you to keep it up. I had dropped many of my subscriptions to newspapers and magazines because I'd begun to get everything I wanted off the internet.

So instead, I'd occasionally send you $10 through PayPal.  As encouragement.  And appreciation. I appreciated the quirky, ribald, and sometimes complex humor, the freewheeling way you would select topics and themes, your artist's eye, and your frequently unique perspectives on issues and insights into events.

Your bloggy writing style continually invites readers into your fascinating mind to join you in the process which you dive into with such self-confidence, grace, honesty, care, and verve — every day —constant as the loyalty of a good Labrador Retriever. It's infectious.

No Amazon link/push/shill/pimp tonight.

Congratulations to you and your readers on 9 great years. Here's to the next 9!

18 comments:

Chip S. said...

Get a chat room, you two.

F said...

Yes, congratulations. Very enjoyable. You too, Meade!

kentuckyliz said...

Very sweet!

TMink said...

Meade my man, you are addition by, well, addition.

Damn, it started good, but got lost in the short middle. Kind of like "Allow myself . . . to introduce myself."

But you get my point.

Cheers!

Trey

Ann Althouse said...

Hi, Meadesy!

traditionalguy said...

Meade is a good writer of his emotions and thoughts too. I am impressed.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Meade, my husband gripes about guys like you raising the bar for husbands everywhere.

{ psst...keep it up : ) }


grackle said...

This has become my favorite blog. I like it that Ann knows her stuff about law and the courts(and other things as well), that she has no formula, no one approach to a subject. I think this encourages interesting comments. She's definitely an independent voice in the heavily PC-dominated chorus of present-day academia. I don't mind at all making an occasional buy through the Amazon link. An easy payback for all the hours of fun I've had here. I am pleased and relieved that she has married a nice person. Meade, you lucky hound dog, count your blessings. I'll be reading your posts with interest.

Anonymous said...

Lucky bastard...

edutcher said...

Meadesy?

I knew it.

Good for you, sir. God gave each of you a hand to reach out to each other.

Paco Wové said...

My spouse gave me the keys to her blog a few years ago. Was that ever a mistake... drove that sucker into the ground.

Astro said...

Here's where a simple 'Like' button would come in handy.

Anonymous said...

I'll repeat what I've said before:

intellectual honesty.

98% of those who fancy themselves "the press" don't have it.

Ann's got it.

That's what keeps me here.

Tank said...

Cool.

Congrats.

Seeing Red said...

Late to the party as usual but Congrats!

VekTor said...

You know, I've seen Ann mention a number of times the notion of using the affiliate link to do Amazon shopping.

I had no idea that if I chose to do so, you and she would get to see a list of what I was shopping for.

Frankly, that creeps me right the hell out, and makes me want to be 100% certain never to use such a feature.

I'm fine with the notion of providing some incremental support to the blog via something like an affiliate program, but not at the cost of knowing that someone is out there committing shopper voyeurism on me.

That's wrong on way too many levels.

Ann Althouse said...

vector, we just see the list of things bought, not who bought them.

Basta! said...

Up until about a year ago I never read any blogs, I didn't understand why anyone would.

But now I follow a few, including this one, pretty much daily. I really appreciate the variety of topics, the lack of dogmatism, and Althouse's slant on things.

I was going to buy something through your Amazon portal, but they recently cut a deal with Deval Patrick to add Mass. sales tax, PLUS they promised to collude with him in pressuring the feds to implement a nation-wide internet sales tax, all of which pissed me off enough that I fired off very nasty letters and stopped using Amazon. SO, I just sent you a straight-up donation, though you won't know it's me, coz my credit card doesn't say Basta! But that's OK.