Projo Subterranean Homepage News

Photo by Joe Landry
I'd like to thank my big fuzzy sweater for allowing me to blog at 3 a.m. in winter.

The very first Subterranean Homepage News blog entry, on a handmade html page, published March 20, 2002. In blog years, it's a grandmother now.

The nickname of this blog -- and its URL -- became "shenews" by accident. I was trying to shorten "Subterranean Homepage News" when I named its folder on the server. SHNEWS looks funny, and sounds like schnooze, so it became "shenews." I've always resisted suggestions to change its name to shenews, fearing it sounded like "women's news" rather than the hodgepodge of things that interest me -- news, tech, culture, string theory, music, art, nature, football, gardening, food, design, politics, humor...

I don't need much sleep any more, so a lot of blogging gets tucked into the wee hours when the world is quiet and ideas come easy and unfurl smoothly. The daytime newsroom is full of interruptions and the jostling of other people's thoughts .

I did not foresee that this blog would turn me into a Movable Type developer. I taught myself its Template Tag language so I could make my ideas about what blogs could be, and as my ideas got more complex over the years, so did the software and the nature of what I needed to learn. A new version of Movable Type was released yesterday, one that integrates more fully with the rest of the Web. Another steep learning curve is just ahead for me.

Some people, such as Bill Marsland, have written to say they've been reading since the beginning. His head is now stuffed with the same odd information as mine. That's not quite Mr. Spock's Vulcan mind meld, but close. I write with you in mind, rejecting far more than I publish -- I explore a lot of dead ends on the Web that don't seem worth taking up your time.

Thanks are overdue to a series of newsroom bosses who've supported -- or at least tolerated -- this very non-standard news blog for so long.

A lot of the quirky sites from 2002 are gone, but Bus Plunge, my favorite from even before Day One, is still up (though not at the same link).

Slow night on the news desk: Every desk editor who's ever cruised the international wires knows this story. A bus, usually in India or Pakistan, overcrowded with pilgrims, chickens and mangoes, misses a mountain curve and plunges into a gorge, killing dozens. Sometimes the driver is drunk, the bus is always overloaded, and it always plunges. It never topples, teeters or merely falls. It plunges. Go there: BusPlunge.org.

With that, shenews has come full circle. Me and Bus Plunge, still around. Thank you for spending some of your precious attention here.

Happy birthday, shenews. And Happy Spring to all of us.

 Tags  blog blog birthday blogiversary Movable Type shenews

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5 Comments

Jef Nickerson said:

Here's to 7 more!

Link | March 20, 2009 11:29 AM
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John Gall said:

Happy Birthday and Congratulations!
You're still the number one entry under "Blogs" on my favorites list and I'm sure that won't change any time soon.
Thank you, again, for all your work.
I look forward to much more enjoyment reading your posts and exploring links that you post.

Link | March 20, 2009 1:21 PM
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pat said:

Congratulations!

Thank you very much for all your writing and searching to expand our world and enrich our awareness of what's going on.

Thanks to your fuzzy sweater also.

Love the photo by Joe with bright lights and orange walls.

I am also glad to have a chance to read your very first entry and pleased to see that you wrote about "Uncle Ben Treuhaft." Yes, my daughter is married to the grandson of Decca, "The Jessica Mitford".

Happy blogging and Happy Spring to you.

Link | March 20, 2009 5:43 PM
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bro said:

I'm still waiting for the explanation of string theory for the layman, poofinschnitzel.

Happy Birthday Blog!

Link | March 20, 2009 11:23 PM
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Sheila Lennon said:

Aw, my big brother left his first comment today. And revealed our dad's pet name for me. He also took the family out to dinner, so the blog had a birthday party at Mainelli's.

Jef, thanks for the link, and for bouncing smart ideas when our paths cross in town.

Pat, the orange walls and cream trim are the exact colors of a pumpkin, inside and out. I hope that makes you smile.

John Gall, who else is on your list? I want to read them too.

It was kind of you all to come by and type.

Link | March 21, 2009 12:27 AM
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