ITEMS WITH THE MOST PAGE VIEWS AND MY FAVORITES - IV

An eclectic blog (November, 2009, through December, 2014) with sections on Biography, Commentary (General, Economics and Investing), Fiction, Health Care, Oil and Gas, Politics, Photographs, and Poetry (Children's Poems, General, Health, and Space Poems) and (new) Poems By Others: http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/07/reunite-gondwanaland-2009-june-2011.html  As of the end of 2014, the blog contains 419 items.

In the new Poems By Others Section, Ogden Nash's poem Fossils garnered by far the most page views overall:  423 with 72 of these added in the past year [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/01/fossils-by-ogden-nash-poem.html] as the blog bears down on 25,000 page views.  No posts in 2014 obtained as many as 200 pages views.  The year 2013 saw two pieces that moved into 200 page views category: My Maternal Grandmother (Biographical) with 220 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/10/my-maternal-grandmother-biographical.html] and Working Underground: My Rational Self and My Emotional Self with 210 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2013/01/working-underground-my-rational-self.html]. Previous items with more than 200 hits are: You Are So Lucky (Biographical) with 266 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2009/11/you-are-so-lucky.html] and Muammar Qaddafi And Me (Biographical) with 223 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/12/muammar-qaddafi-and-me-biographical.html]. The former was no doubt popular because of the Great Japanese Earthquake of 2011 and deals with my first three days in Japan in 1965. The latter was popular because of the overthrow of the Libyan dictator Qaddafi.

There are 13 others with 100 to 199 page views, one of which is biographical, a new one, The Tea Cup Seismograph on August 12, 2014 (145 page views) [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-tea-cup-seismograph-biographical.html], and The Break Even Price Of Fracking Oil on October 8, 2014 (193 page views) [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/10/break-even-price-of-fracking-oil.html].

Each piece I have written is like a child and I love them all, but it is common that some children are loved more than others. My personal favorite continues to be the Effectiveness Of Taxes from May 7, 2010 with 116 page views (up from 62) [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/05/effectiveness-of-taxes.html] followed by Basics of Bureaucracy from July 26, 2011 with 129 page views (up from 127) [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/07/basics-of-bureaucracy.html].  Important new additions to this small list of personal favorites is Is The Atmosphere An Infinite Sewer? from February 11, 2014 with 47 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/02/is-atmosphere-infinite-sewer.html] and The Plight Of American Workers from May 22, 2014 with 22 page views [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2014/05/plight-of-american-workers.html]. In the first one, I point out why decreasing taxes on individuals is an inefficient way to stimulate the economy. I liked this so much that I refer to it in three other pieces. In the second one, that was written many years ago, I give some real rules of dealing with bureaucrats in a humorous fashion.  In the first new one on the atmosphere I also conclude that global warming is indeed occurring and that the atmosphere is not the infinite sewer that many believe.  In the second new one on American Workers, it is explained why the Golden Age of the American worker may be over.  It deserved 10 times the attention it got.

Let me give two Honorable Mentions. I wouldn't say this is a favorite of mine, but it can be important to some, i.e. Preferred Stock Investing from November 27, 2011 with 194 page views (picked up 7 more hits in 2014) [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2011/11/preferred-stock-investing.html]. I have invested for about 60 years, but never got involved in preferred stocks until the last decade. I would also like to mention one poem Upon the Second Anniversary Of Apollo 11 from January 9, 2010 with only 12 page views, the first landing on the Moon [http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2010/01/upon-second-anniversary-of-apollo-11.html]. Normally a couplet or more just pops into my mind and I construct a poem around it (An example is So How About An Asteroid from July 20, 2011 with 76 page views) that contains my favorite couplet: Who could possibly be annoyed/About the study of an asteroid. The Second Anniversary of Apollo Eleven, however, was little noticed which I thought was too bad as this was the first time I sat down to compose a poem from scratch.

MY MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER (Biographical)

My maternal grandmother came to live with us in her late 60s, as I recall.  She had fallen earlier in her life and broke her leg which wasn’t set properly.  The result was that she had a leg with edema, very swollen, and could walk only VERRY SLOOWLY.  On many Sundays after church, we used to go to a cafeteria called the Quality Tea Rooms in St. Paul, Minnesota, where I grew up.  I loved to go to the cafeteria because of their chicken pie that was famous.  Somehow it became my duty, trial is a better word, to accompany my grandmother through the line and help her.  For a small boy it was real agony as we inched along.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Though she was a trial for my mother, my maternal grandmother was total love to my older brother and me.  She never did any discipline and was a refuge from the cruel outside world.  I would go to her room at night, and she would peel a Delicious apple or an orange, and we would listen on her radio to Amos and Andy or Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons, or other such programs.  Once a month, she would slip me a quarter.  I never wondered where she got the money.  Years later I learned that my mother first slipped her the money.  I could tell her my problems, and she would always find some explanation that eased the pain of it all.  For example, once I told her I thought I was crazy.  She replied that as long as I thought that, I must not be because crazy people don’t know that they are crazy.  I was well into my 30s when I read a book my niece gave me called I Never Promised You A Rose Garden and found out that was not so.

Well, sometimes we would get together in the mornings and drink coffee.  Mine was heavily laced with milk.  I told her once that I couldn’t drink coffee with her anymore.  She asked why.  I said because my parents were afraid it would stunt my growth.  She said, “It never affected me.”  I was maybe 15 years old before I realized she was only something like four foot eleven.