Tredecennial

The dictionary says that "tredecennial" is a "rare nonce word." Further research reveals that a "nonce word" is a word "created for a single occasion to solve an immediate problem of communication."

Now that we have that cleared up, we can rejoice in today's being the thirteenth anniversary of the founding of Confused Ideas from the Northwest Corner.

Little did I realize on that fateful day in March 2007, when I decided to try my hand dabbling at blog writing, just as an experiment, that thirteen years later I would be looking back on that day with smug satisfaction.  Or that rather than posting maybe an occasional thought now and then, I would have become so obsessive a blogger as to have posted by today's date 1,244 little essays of varying value and interest.

But enough of historical self-congratulation.  How was this past year?

Quantitatively, excellent.  Calendar year 2019 was my most prolific year in all of recorded history, as the Orange One would say -- if he knew the word "prolific."  A record 112 posts, compared with 2018's 110 and 2008's 109.

By far, the most popular post of the year, in term of hits, was September's discussion of Wagner's Tannhäuser Overture.   Other popular topics were an essay on the joys of hiking, a review of the Broadway hit "Dear Evan Hansen," a photo essay of the trip to New York City during which I saw the Broadway hit, and my tribute to the joys of train travel.

Were those my best blog posts?  I'd say not, although we wade deeply into the quagmire of subjectivity.  Rather than so wade, trying to choose my "best," I'll give you a list of nine posts that I personally and subjectively liked better than most.  They tend heavily toward book reviews, or at least discussions of books and authors.  I probably am biased, and  permit my biases to choose posts that deal with subjects I like best.  But I have at least tried to focus more on whether the post is well-written and leaves the reader happy and better educated than before he picked it up.

My nine "best," therefore, in no particular order:

1.  Review of The Bell, by Iris Murdoch.
2.  Review of Venice Observed, by Mary McCarthy.
3.  Review of The Last Grain Race, by Eric Newby.
4.  Discussion of my visit to Challis, Idaho.  "Her Own Private Idaho."
5.  Discussion of my travel to Florence, Italy.  "Florence Then and Now."
6.  Season of Advent.  "Advent."
7.  Discussion of first ascent of El Capitan. "Scaling El Cap."
8.  Magic of childhood imagination.  "Looking Back."
9.  Discussion of an author and her works.  "Ursula K. Le Guin."

There you have it.  I will brook no argument.  And thus we dive into my fourteenth year of writing the Northwest Corner.