A whole month of Things I Love
What of the future?
I have been doing these daily missives for slightly over a month now.
I have very much enjoyed having an (almost) daily creative output and an (almost) daily creative imperative: the chance to flex my verbal muscles beyond the usual “paragraph 67 is wholly lacking in particularity and is, in any event, for the avoidance of doubt (which doubt is, in any event, denied), ipso facto, ex hypothesi, denied, as alleged or at all, as it was in the beginning, world without end, amen” sort of stuff.
Fifty of you subscribe and thus receive the daily email. But I average something like 100 views a day which is nothing if not gratifying. Some posts were viewed nearly 500 times. It is particularly fun when you get in touch and tell me that you love the same things as me (or don’t, as the case may be).
Kevin Keegan-style, I would love it if those of you who don’t subscribe could do so, and if those of you who do could share posts. You don’t need to in any way sign up to Substack: you just need an email address.
My post on South Shields’s regal Town Hall has been the most popular in the course of the month:
That was keenly followed by my first substantive post, that on Gin Martinis:
North East related posts do best as a rule, with Vera and saveloy dips close on behind the Town Hall. Poor old Marcus Aurelius has done least well among the public - I’m sure he’ll take it stoically.
From now I think I will reduce the frequency of the posts from daily to, say, three times a week. Most people read them at the weekend, so I’ll likely do a midweek Saturday service, with a Sunday roundup maybe. I might, of course, entirely change my mind if the spirit moves me into posting something.
Also Nav and I are off to Japan at the beginning of April which will either mean no posts at all or a veritable bombardment if I can work out how to do posts from my phone alone.
As always, all my love,
G
Enjoying this and excited to see how it evolves. Enjoy Japan!