Talking to a regular reader yesterday, he complained that Babel-on-the-Bay is too dense, too parochial and too much of an insider thing. There was nothing else to do but prescribe purging with three rounded doses of Warren Kinsella blog and call in the morning.
But the reader may have a point.
“Dense” is somewhat understandable. There has been an occasional complaint over time that—when reading Babel-on-the-Bay—it is sometimes necessary to consult a dictionary. That is good. Dictionaries are there to be used and they should not be allowed to just gather dust. It is not the intent here to teach but when there is a perfect word for something, no apology should be necessary. And if you read on for a bit, the meaning will probably be quite clear.
“Parochial” is a problem. He had cottoned on to the idea that Babel might just be a stand-in name for Barrie, Ontario. The truth is that Babel is probably not mentioned as much as Toronto. A subject such as Mayor Rob Ford of Toronto or our old friend Mayor Hazel McCallion of Mississauga offer a cornucopia of story ideas for the political commentator. The mayor of Babel might be a nice guy but he seems to lack direction in politics.
“Insider” is the unkindest cut of all. While people in politics often want you to think of them as a friend, they might not be. Telling them when they are full of crap might even earn their animosity. Honesty is not always the best policy in the world of politics. Political commentaries that give an honest report on political machinations of the inept, tend to lose friends. It boils down to a simple choice. You can have lots of fair weather political friends or you can have fun writing about the idiocy of politics. Is that really any kind of choice?
It is a pleasure to report that Babel-on-the-Bay hit all time highs in readership over the past month and more than doubled its readers. The target has always been to be able to boast thousands of daily readers but that target remains somewhat elusive.
There is no question that the interest in the Ontario Liberal party leadership at the end of January contributed to the increase in Babel-on-the-Bay readers. It is also obvious that the leadership candidates and their teams were regular readers. They were quite responsive to some of the suggestions made in the blog.
While never too sure what readers in the Mid-East and Asia think of Babel-on-the-Bay, let’s hope they continue to enjoy what they read.
-30-
Copyright 2013 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]