Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Happy Birthday to Buffoonia!


I realized this morning that Bouphonia's first anniversary rolled around back on October 12th. It'd be easy enough to commemorate this millstone - I mean, milestone - by describing the astonishing changes I've wrought in the world over the last year. I could reel off the names of corrupt officials who are rotting in jail thanks to my efforts, and enumerate the social evils that I mitigated or exterminated through my judicious use of irony. I could mention some of the many heartsick wanderers in the burning sands of Deserta Americana, whose lives have been saved and sustained by this inexhaustible oasis of cultural and moral wisdom. I could even make known to you a few eminent persons for whom I am a tutelary spirit along the lines of the midget who inhabited Baron von Kempelen's chess-playing Turk.

But modesty is perhaps the most effulgent jewel in my soul's diadem, so I won't - nay, cannot - allow myself to go that route.

Nor can I explain the private agonies involved in the creation of each empty-headed, repetitive, and confused post on this site. Suffice it to say that like so many artistes, I'm now helped, now hindered by Saturn, whose burdensome gifts Giordano Bruno cataloged so studiously in his De Imaginum, Signorum, & Idearum Compositione:

Impediment, Intricacy, Chains, Detention, Separation, Enmeshing, Involvement, Meddling, Oppression, Surfeiting, Satiety, COncealment, Robing, Circumvention, Hindrance, Restriction, Getting even, Anguish, Bitter biting, disturbed Pallor, restless Bother, Tooth Biting; gnawing, ripping, braying, chewing, eating torturing, wearying, tormenting, destroying Cloud of Proposals; Bubble of Worries, Blaze of Doubly Boiled Anxieties.
Enough. I've already said too much! The spagyric art by which my leaden thoughts are transmuted into fool's gold must not be revealed, not even through the darkest of allegories.

Laborious gags aside, I do want to thank everyone who's tolerated my ramblings on this site. Blogging doesn't come naturally to me by any means, and there have been many times when it didn't seem worthwhile - or posssible - to keep it up. But now that I've elbowed my way into this wonderful community, I find it impossible to tear myself away, even if I don't necessarily feel worthy of membership.

Honestly, I owe all of you - friends and foes alike - a huge debt. Thanks to you, I've gained a much clearer sense of my strengths, and a much, much more realistic picture of my inadequacies. And needless to say, I've learned countless things of which I had not the faintest inkling a year ago (or even a month ago), and am a better and humbler person for it.

No gifts are necessary; what do you give the man who has everything, and appreciates nothing sufficiently? But please do drop in and say hello, especially if you're a lurker!

21 comments:

NYMary said...

Happy Birthday, Phila! Keep up the fabulous work!

echidne said...

Happy Birthday, Phila! I will give you some cyberspace kisses and hugs and the snakes send a vial of something they say will be good for at least two enemies if dosed carefully.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Phila, and here's to another year, perhaps more, of fine and finer posts.

JMS said...

shake it!

Thers said...

Hey, congratulations! I guess it's my blog's anniversary too (as I started mine mostly to post nhere and hence pester you). Feliz cumpleano.

Phila said...

Hey, congratulations! I guess it's my blog's anniversary too (as I started mine mostly to post nhere and hence pester you). Feliz cumpleano.

Great oaks from little acorns, etc!

GrrlScientist said...

Hoppy Blogday two ewe! And who are those nekkid chicks on your cake?

GrrlScientist

Phila said...

Hedwig,

My researchers, of course! Couldn't run the site without 'em.

Qualified applicants are always welcome.

Anonymous said...

Hey!
Praised you on the last thread, but you had left:
Phila - Have always admired yr. erudition, my good man.. Like to think that I'm REASONABLY well-read, but you always leaves us in the dust..
I always learn all kinds of interesting shit reading yr. posts, and those of Mr.Jeffers..
sail on,
Bill Buckner

Eli said...

Congratulations, Philadude!

I didn't even know it was your anniversary, and I posted something just for you.

You are hereby ordered to cease & desist from all whining and complaing about global warming, forthwith, and/or.

(I just banished Mr. Ylxsqpzb to his home dimension!)

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday! Many of us around this time--incl. The Shakes and Firedoglake! peace M

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! WhirledView's first is coming up soon--we'll expect to see you there!

CKR

Isabella di Pesto said...

Happy anniversary, Phila,

You've got a great blog. I especially love the nudibranches on Friday.

Thank you, and keep on.

Best regards,

Shaw Kenawe

Anonymous said...

Goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, Happy Anniversary Bouphonia, and we wish you many more.

The Friday nudibranchs kept me coming for that dry period, knowing that we'd eventually be once again delighted by posts with delicious turns of phrase, clever observations, and the subtly brutal (is there such a thing as subtly brutal? Why, yes there is!) critiques we've come to enjoy so much.

In a way I'd say let's not hear any angst about blogging from Phila, but on the other hand I would be so guaranteed of a marvelous deposition that I say, "Bring it on!"

Palimpsester said...

I don't like to brag, but all my friends say....

Without the Austen irony, this friend of your blog can say:

what a great blog! happy birthday!

Jacob said...

Thank you for what you do.

I am one who draws sustenance from your oasis of wisdom and eloquence.

isabelita said...

Happy anniversary! I came to you via the Dharma Bums. You were one of a few interestingly named sites on their list, and was I ever thrilled to see nudibranchs! I have been appreciating your posts concerning ID - Idiotic Design - and shall continue to do so.
Again - Cheers!

Anonymous said...

you're a vocabulary show off.

it's what i like about you.

congrats dude. keep doin' it.

Anonymous said...

I'm tempted to respond to your characteristically recondite missive with an equally abstruse commentary on the felicity your posts bring to me in these grim and unpropitious days, but the truth is that no one else can do the voodoo that you do so well.

And besides -- I just sold my thesaurus for some nude pictures of Harriet Miers.

Congratulations, and keep up the great work -- as long as it continues to make you happy.

Phila said...

no one else can do the voodoo that you do so well.

Well, I think Dickens, George Herriman, and S.J. Perelman do it quite a bit better; I'm really just a skilled mimic. But thanks for the kind words!

Cervantes said...

Well, I'm not totally a lurker, but probably more of one than I should be. In the words of Harriet Miers, you are really cool, man. Eloquent, that's the word I'm looking for. It's not about changing the world single-handed, it's about telling the truth as you see it and if it really is the truth, people will notice. I have.