Best Quote I Heard All Day
I had a job interview at an insurance company once and the lady said, "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and I said, "Celebrating the fifth-year anniversary of you asking me this question."--Mitch Hedberg

Today is the 5th anniversary of this blog. Not of The Knitting Curmudgeon, which was a web entity that existed from 1998 until 2000 and then left the ether for a couple of years.

I never even thought about how long I would write this blog.

Going back to July 2002, who actually inspired me to start a blog? Dangerous Chunky. I know, most of you won't remember that blog. But I do. I don't even remember how I found it or how I discovered Blogger. But in the haze that was my mind that summer, I did.

Here it is, as it looked that August, a week after I began writing it.


Dark and dreary, as indeed I was at that time, although I don't think it shows particularly in the writing. I hadn't yet found my voice but I actually had four comments on August 2. Amazing. I'm sure three of them were from Loopy.

I wish I could see those comments now but at the time, I was using another commenting service, which shortly thereafter bit the dust, forcing me to switch to Haloscan.

In the five years that I have written this blog, I have made many friends. And a few enemies, who can bite me. I've had the opportunity to do one of the things I love to do the most--write. I have a readership that I respect. With the exception of a few trolls here and there.

There are two things that I've done pretty consistently throughout my life. Knit and write. Both at the age of 8. Which do I do better? I couldn't say.

Talking to Ted this past Sunday, I said to him, "I see the blog moving on, past pure snarkiness, and becoming more of a vehicle that contributes to the knowledge base." That's not to say that I'll stop being a skank. That ain't happening.

What it does mean is that I'd rather stimulate people, help them get their fiber acts together by being whatever inspiration I can be (and I dunno, that probably isn't all that), and continue to add what I can in the way of free assistance here. Perhaps it will be reinventing the wheel but some things have to be said over and over.

A complete diet of snarkiness becomes a one-trick pony. It's the snarkiness interwoven with solid content that makes me happy, as a writer.

I have been working on a special anniversary project but alas, work keeps getting in the way. Suffice it to say that it will be an interactive learning tool, the first of a few.

And no, it's not going to teach you how to make a fucking slip knot. Or how to knit. Fuck that shit.

Now, the question for you all to ponder: When did I first start using "rare and handy" as an endline and where did it come from? No prizes. Just wanna see who's on the ball. And is rare and handy.