Birthday

Two years ago:

"If you're going to be this uptight and worried about it, you're not going to be a very happy blogger. Just say 'This is my new blog; I’m trying it out. Thanks to my son and daughter. I hope it works out.'"

Orange Crate Art is two years old today. I will say thanks once again to Rachel and Ben for showing me that I could learn a little HTML. And I will say thanks to Elaine, who listens to posts in the making. I'm grateful, always, to Van Dyke Parks, whose beautiful song gave me "a place to start" and who was gracious and enthusiastic about my use of his title. (If you've never heard "Orange Crate Art," you can find it here and here.)

And thanks, always, to everyone who's read or commented or e-mailed, ever.

Total posts: 570.

Most visited post: How to e-mail a professor.

Most visits in a day: 2,477 (June 23, 2006), most of them going to Cool laptop, a post on using bakeware to cool a laptop.

Most unexpected side effect: Being asked by the Wall Street Journal to comment on the new Proust translation. (See this post for an explanation.)

Longest post: Letters from Aldo, excerpts from a dear friend's letters. I'm happy that this post has more comments than any other: it's a strange and wonderful thing to see people gathered together and remembering someone in this medium.

Link » A place to start, first post, September 15, 2004

Link » You say it's your birthday, blog post, September 15, 2005