At the end of last year, I decided to publish on Facebook my own little end-of-year wrap-up with a Top 20 Countdown of the most popular Circular Journey blog posts. I'm happy that I did because I realized something for the very first time: The top 3 posts have vastly higher readership numbers than the other 17.
It intrigued me not a little and I decided to get Ms. Wonder's opinion. She has a remarkable brain and I thought it would be good to hear her thoughts. When she came downstairs for breakfast, after her morning workout, I made her coffee, to sweeten her up a bit, and then popped the question.
"Good morning, Wonder. May I ask you something?"
"Sure," she said.
"I noticed something recently about the Circular Journey blog posts and I'd like to run it up your flagpole."
"First I think you should consider rephrasing that sentence before you use it on someone else."
"I'll take it under advisement," I said. "My question is about the three most popular blog posts on Circular Journey. I noticed recently that they have far higher numbers of readers than all the other posts and, since I'd like to increase the readership, I decided to look into what's so special about those three."
"Interesting," she said.
"Good," I said. "So what I've learned so far is that those three posts all include something about Cocker Spaniels."
"Cocker Spaniels?"
"That's right, and I'm wondering if I should include Cocker Spaniels in all my future posts."
"I think you need to look a little deeper," she said.
"Alright," I said. "How about this? The top two posts include, in addition to the dog, something about Napoleon and Catherine the Great."
"Are you serious?"
"Certainly," I said. "I'd never waste your time with frivolity if that's the word. You can read it for yourself. Just go to the front page of the blog and search for Right is Might. You'll soon see what I'm talking about."
"I'd suggest putting a little more thought into the thing," she said. "In fact, I think you need to reconsider the content of your articles if you've written something about Kate, Nappy, and Cocker Spaniels in the same blog post."
"But you don't have all the pertinent facts. You see when I mention Napoleon, my French readership jumps and when I mention Catherine the Russian visitors increase significantly. I'm considering writing more about all three."
"Do it if it makes you happy but don't let your hopes soar too high; you may crash like Icarus."
"I'm afraid I haven't made his acquaintance. A business associate of yours?"
"Never mind," she said.
"If you have another minute, I'd like to ask you about another something that I discovered recently. Are you aware that the number of fiction books on the shelves at Barnes and Noble differs markedly by the first letter of the last name? For example, more books are written by people whose name begins with an 'M' and the least number of books by people with a name beginning with a 'J'."
"So?"
"Well, I was thinking that maybe I should consider using a penname beginning with the letter 'M'."
"Do you have any aspirin?" she said.
I took that to mean that she had other things on her mind so I found the aspirin for her and decided to think of a subject for today's blog post. This is that.