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 "That's fine, Trixie. Just take it slowly. Remember, if Murry Frymer can do it, then anybody can be a blogger!" |
 "Yes, it's true. I was a nobody until I took up blogging and became a comical political pundit like Murry." |
 until I saw him blogging and figured I could do it, too. Now look at me!" |
So you mow lawns?
Professional Blogger
of TheColumnists.com
We’re in the midst of a wonderful time for writers. It’s called the blogging revolution, or at least that is what I call it. (I note my computer puts a wavy red line under the word “blogging”, so unfamiliar is it to the likes of Apple and Microsoft, or whoever it is that is in charge of wavy red lines.)
Blogging is new, fresh and the biggest thing in creative literature. This site, as I am sure you all know, is a pioneer in blogging. We didn’t come up with the word, but the idea was still in its infancy (or youth) when we joined the party.
As for me, I have been and remain somewhat bewildered by the concept. Obviously it owes its success to the computer. Now everyone can sit down in front of their screen, as I am doing now, and write. Or draw. Or whatever you can put on the screen. Even video.
As an old-time newspaperman, I have watched it all with amazement. I broke into the journalism business a woefully long time ago for the Cleveland Press. They made me a copyboy cleaning paste-pots, but in nine quick months I was a reporter. I earned $37 a week. (It had been $35 but a lengthy Newspaper Guild strike gave me that big increase.)
Wow, I thought, as I took the check home. Thirty-seven bucks for writing! I loved writing and now, thanks be to God, I was actually getting paid to do it. How great was that!
Now, a few years later, I blog for TheColumnists.com. My pay for this article is …nothing. And I can write as many as I want and the web site is willing to accept. All for nothing.
What a fantastic development for journalists! I understand that there are over a million bloggers out there, all enjoying the pleasure I am enjoying now. The numbers keep growing. I realize that if a real-life newspaper picks up your blog, they may pay you money. The Cleveland Press was a real life newspaper but like a lot of those species, it died when people discovered television which, at first at least, cost them nothing. Now people can read most newspapers on line and the number of papers going the way of the Cleveland Press will no doubt increase.
At the moment, blogging has caught on with journalists and writers most. It could spread. For example, I would think that maybe plumbers and carpenters will join the excitement. Then you could go on line and sign up one of those journeymen who would work for you for…nothing. I haven’t yet met the carpenter who has warmed to the idea, maybe because the ego gratification that writers get from blogging has not gotten through to their hard heads. I am sure they are studying the process.
I told the guy who mows my lawn about it, but he looked at me as if I was putting him on. I said: Why not mow my lawn for nothing and then maybe other people in the neighborhood will use your services? If you’re really good, you could grow into other neighborhoods.”
So far, he has not bought into the idea, but he is not a writer and not terribly bright.
I suggested my pizza man open a Blogger Pizza place. No luck. I’ll wait for the fad to reach his ears and ovens.
I wonder now if I might have studied blogging in college, rather than the rapidly-dying journalism. I wonder if we shall soon see schools of blogging at famous universities.
I have no doubt it will come. In fact, I understand the Bush administration, with one eye on the economy, is hoping that blogging becomes a growth industry in many fields. People would continue to work for big firms but no one, except the guys running the firms, would get paid.
Every night now before bed, I thank the Lord I’m a writer. And, I guess, so do millions of other bloggers, though they are writing so much they may not have time for prayer.
By the way, prayer may be the original form of blogging. You don’t get paid, but if God likes your prayer and buys it, it may pay off big.
©2007 by Murry Frymer. The Murry Frymer caricature is ©2000 by Jim Hummel. The cartoons are from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA. This column first posted Nov. 5, 2007.
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