The problem with blogs is that they started out as web journals, and then were contorted into faux-news flashes… and that won’t do when you want to share essays with others as it is difficult to get your friends to check out what you have to say, when you only have something to say ever x months where x is the next digit in the computation of pi….
That is why I thought that if one used the blog format to host multiple writers of similar bent (but not necessarily similar interests) one would create a sort of reading room whre one’s friends would find something stimulating to read on a regular basis (i. e. promote individual laziness!)

I have tried to do that with Pardon Me, and am taking this opportunity to poke those who have been expert in their laziness, while thanking those who have despite same, been productive. There are those who I have asked to contribute who still do not take me seriously, and those who truly are too busy to exploit the “pause that refreshes”. But there are (or will be) an eclectic assortment: people of varying age and disposition, but all rather more interested in pondering than puking (and excuse me if I resort to that graphic approach to what I think of much of what passes for comment on the innertubz).

As I have told my students since having first read Wampole’s essay (one of the better pieces I have seen in “The Stone”), I am firmly on “Team Michel”. Essayez-vous! Give it a try! Go for a spin. And I think this applies to the essayist, as well as their reader (“their” in this instance is still foreign to my ear, but I will persevere, for a bit).  Wrestle about with it for a bit; two out of three falls or whatever metaphor you find amenable.  It is not so much about the weight of the words as about their lightness.

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Wampole, Christy. “The Essayification of Everything.” The Stone, May 26, 2013. Accessed April 15, 2017. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/26/the-essayification-of-everything/.