Cross This Reader Off The List

Naaaah, She Just Won't Focus On My Blog

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There was an interesting comment here recently, from US-based Lin, who writes the evocative blog Lin's Creek Journal. She said she really enjoyed the irreverent headlines on this blog and said she could just picture Mr Authorblog and Mrs Authorblog brainstorming the best headlines of the day.

Er, maybe not. Here is a true confession, Lyn. Would you like to know how many times Mrs Authorblog has sat down at the computer to read my blog? Maybe 200 times? Or 100 times? Perhaps 10 times? Maybe twice a day?

Nope. Mrs Authorblog has NEVER read my blog - and that's the honest truth. A day or two after Lyn posted the jocular comment, there was an interesting postscript. Mrs Authorblog was talking to a colleague. The colleague, who has just ventured into the blogging world, mentioned that he had been checking out my blog. He very kindly said it was a shining example of what a many-faceted blog should be. And he asked Mrs Authorblog what she thought of it.

When she admitted she had never (no, not ever, not even once) looked at the blog, he was stunned. He was aghast when Mrs Authorblog admitted that she did not even know what the url was.

In their lunch break, he was still shaking his head at this anomoly. So he insisted she accompany him to a computer in their library. He showed her the blog and insisted she leave a comment.
But the story doesn't end there. A few hours after Mrs Authorblog returned home, she asked casually (a trifle too casually) if readers had left any comments on my blog that day. Ah, yeah, I said, there were lots of comments, as usual - and I had already replied to them all, as is my wont.

``But there’s one from `Anonymous’ that I’m going to delete because I think it’s spam-related,’’ I said, scratching my head.

``Really?’’ she replied.

``Yep,’’ was my (very) slow-witted response. ``And the funny thing is, the spammer signed off with your name.’’