Working For The Weekend [refrain]

Realizing that today is Friday the 13th, I decided to look up the spelling of triskaidekaphobia before I posted today's thank-yous. I had to laugh when I read this sentence in the Wikepedia entry:

"Triskaidekaphobia may have also affected the Vikings."

If you've just joined me recently, and don't know why I'd find that funny — and, hey, I'm laughing at myself, 'cause, like I always say, if you can't laugh at yourself how can you expect other people to laugh at you? &mdash you can read The Viking Trilogy.

Back to the refrain: It's time again to open the mailbox and share some of the comments I've received from my readers over the last few weeks, and to thank you, Gentle Reader, for reading.

As a result of the tequila meme, and also as a result of my old buddy and sometime mentor Tim Bray mentioning me twice recently (here and here), I've acquired some new readers, many of whom have sent me email. I do not allow comments in the usual blog sense here, as I've explained before. But I welcome comments via email. I always reply, as you know if you've emailed me, and periodically I sing another chorus of Working For The Weekend. This time, I would like to say thank you...

...to Jim Bisso (a.k.a. Uncle Jazzbeau). Finally, a geek with a linguistics degree who answered my question about memes. He, too, knew the hamburger story. But the word I thought I had remembered is morpheme, not meme. So, "burger" is a morpheme. So is kempt — as in, unkempt without the "un." Jim directed me to this site, which I just love. A site about language games, postmodern and otherwise. Jim is probably only the third reader, after Tim T and Ingo, to read all the way through this story.

...to Mridul in Bangalore. You can call me plain old Sass. When, eventually, I do become a doctor of philosophy, I'll grandfather you in.

...to Evan, who detests personal blogs but reads mine. Not to pick nits, but may I gently direct your attention to the disclaimers in the margin. What you're reading here is fiction.

... to Bill Mill, who wrote to say, "I subscribed to you, even though all my other subscriptions are about technology or sports. Keep it up, I dig your style." Later, he wrote again, to tell me he had read Jack and Diane, and wanted me to know the music he heard in his head as he was reading it.

...to my mysterious fan in Sebastopol, California who, according to my blog log, has been here more than 80 times. In my wild fantasies, you're an editor at O'Reilly. I hope you'll email me and tell me about the Annual Apple Blossom Festival.

... to the unknown person whose I/P address showed in my blog log as NASA. I am not worthy.

...to this mysterious girl in New York, who added me to her blogroll.

...to Tequila Mockingbird's friends and readers who joined the tequila meme, and especially to Deep Blog, Tequila's friend, who emailed me to tell me she was not dead.

...to Tequila Mockingbird herself, for addressing head on in this entry what I didn't want to say in the meme, for fear of jinxing her: what happens to a blog when a blogger dies?

...to The Viking, who emailed me after reading this story, to say, "I have more nail polish than hair products, actually..." thus erradicating any remnants of the crush I had on him. Now, I want him to be my girlfriend.

And finally, for Norm, who drops me a line from time to time to keep me up to date on his stemware, and always signs off his email messages with a cheery, "Be seeing you!" I offer this picture of Rover:


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Click here to sing the next chorus of Working For The Weekend.