A Million and Counting

A remarkable event happened over the weekend. While few may have noticed, I did. On Saturday evening, around 6:30 CST, this blog, THE WIFELY PERSON SPEAKS, logged its one millionth visitor. Honestly, I have no idea why. I'm guessing some of those hits are bots, but my stats guy tells me not all that many are. He assures me, based on the patterns and the traffic and the randomness of what people seem to be reading, I have a lot of readers out there. I used to be thrilled if on any given day I had 10 hits. Then 20. Then 50. Then I settled in at 100 hits a day meant I was "making my numbers."

There was the teacher in Ukraine who used The WP to teach English, and the emails from the kids were adorable. But all that stopped when Ukraine went to war. All my emails to them bounced. I was, in so many ways, heartbroken. Sometimes, I could tell when the firewall went down in places like China or Iran because you could watch the stats from those countries spin....until they stopped. A Chinese reader who had left China once wrote to tell me how they used me as a test for getting through to bloggers in the west, and that he and his friends loved me. I was a real American....whatever that means. Personally, I think it means I was innocuous enough not to upset any censors. I have steady readers in strange places....Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Malta. I hear from them every so often, and have, over the last 16 years, actually corresponded regularly with a few. 

Then, during COVID, the numbers began to spiral upward. I could see where the hits were coming from, sorta, and I just sat back and watched. I was mesmerized by the number of countries that had readers who found their way to me. Comments gave way to emails, and most of my direct communication happened that way. [You know who you are...and I'm sure you're guffawing out there.]

Unless a comment was total spam...like the plumber from Thailand who offered to come to Minnesota to fix HVAC units....or personally threatening, I published just about every comment. Occasionally, one came through that was clearly not for publication and wherever possible, I answered them directly. 

Of course, there were the haters, too. Not much you can do about them because they are trapped in their bubble and unable to cope with anything outside their sphere. As Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to say...quite often, actually, 

You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

And so I will leave you with that thought. I am celebrating my dubious celebrity by giving myself the night off. I do want to thank everyone who has slogged through my endless ramblings, and be assured, if you write, I will answer.  I truly appreciate you, gentle readers, and will endeavor to keep you all reasonably entertained. 

See you all back here next week. Same Bat-time. Same Bat-channel.  

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Remember, most of the political ads you will see on TV going forward

are utter bull-hockey.

They are paid for by people who want to believe you are sheeple. 

Fool them.

Learn about the candidates and vote accordingly.