Too Many Posts

A reader emailed me to say:

Dear Jack,

I enjoy reading your blog and have a suggestion to make. You are so prolific that some of your best posts are lost in the midst of the multitude you put up for us to read. Maybe you should slow down and let some stand on their own for a little bit longer.

Keep up the good work,

Yitz

Dear Yitz,

Thank you for your kind words, I do appreciate them. That should sound familiar, it is a standard Jack's Shack response, but heartfelt. I understand what you are saying and have thought about this a lot.

My words are my children, each post is special to me and each post has some kind of meaning. And I would certainly agree that some of my posts are superior to the others. This is where my real values as a parent and my values as a writer diverge, I love my children equally, but not my posts.

The deal here is that we are venturing into an area of subjectivity in which it is going to be hard to find a consensus on the best or better posts. More importantly, I am writing for me first and for you secondly. It is a bit of a conundrum, because part of me really wants to build a huge readership, be offered a book deal and suddenly be given the opportunity to make this my full time job.

But I would be fooling myself if I wrote for others first and not for me. Some of these posts are painful, they hurt and I do not like to read them again. I spit them out to vent and would not want to hold on to them.

So the question is, what can I do to give my "greatest hits" their due. In theory I could start a spreadsheet and collect the titles/URLS of each, but that is a project that I have yet to undertake. Maybe we'll see that in the future.

Beyond that I am still a young blogger. A Greatest Hits album should come when I have burned through all of my cash, been to rehab a couple of times, worn out my welcome to the public and am ready and in need of a quick fix through a reunion tour.

-Jack

4 comments:

Michael said...

Reading through this post I couldn't help thinking that you are really Phil Hendrie.

Funny stuff.

Take Care
Michael

Jack Steiner said...

Hi Michael,

I know Phil indirectly. We used to work in the same building and took our lunch during the same time. We would order food from Rubin's Red Hot
http://www.la.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/cgpportal.woa/wa/path?urlpath=%2Fdining%2Famericansteakhousesseafood%2Frubinsredhot%2F817

If you don't want to deal with the link here is a brief description:

Rubin's Red Hot

This spot was founded by studio exec Norm Rubin, a native Chicagoan who was having a hard time finding an authentic Chicago dog in L.A. What makes this establishment truly unique is the fact that its sidewalk tables lie beneath a massive steel support salvaged from an abandoned El-Train station in Chi-Town. The signature Big Red is an all-beef frank on an onion-poppyseed bun, dressed with mustard, relish, red onions, tomatoes, pepperoncini and a pickle. The surprisingly extensive menu also includes a spicy Polish dog loaded with sauerkraut, a somewhat wimpy turkey dog, spicy hot wings, ribs, even fajitas. For a side dish, go for the cheddar cheese fries. --Gayot.com

A Simple Jew said...

I found this post to be very interesting and plan to post my thoughts on this issue tomorrow.

Jack Steiner said...

I look forward to reading them.

Still Driving Traffic

Still one of the most popular posts on the blog.