It be takin’ a majer hollerday fer me ta notice tha’ we no be havin’ any event countdown on yon sidebarrr. I be addressin’ that oversight afterrr tha’ weekend. Arr!

Whether you grind your own squirrels or just pick up a couple pounds at the local butcher shop, don’t forget to celebrate the day!

Due to an administrative error, some votes in the current poll were misdirected to adjacent candidates. There really should be a Florida joke here, but none of them turned out funny. I will use my own voting powers over the next few days to restore the votes that were lost when I fixed things. It’s not like there were that many. In the meantime, you, the faithful electorate are encouraged to continue in the best ballot-stuffing tradition.

As long as I’m doing one of these programming note thingies, I may as well mention the new section over there in the sidebar. It turns out these days that actual strangers and folks we don’t know happen by, and I figured a little orientation might help them get a feel for the place. Plus, a friend and fellow writer recently mentioned that I should brag more, after he read “Serpent”. He said a lot of nice things about that story. So, I’m bragging more, or at least giving people a shot at reading my stuff, as long as it’s out there.

And Hey golly! That’s what the poll is about! I could have sworn I wrote some funny things for Piker Press, but the five candidates in the poll were the best I could come up with. One of those ought to go in the favorites list, just to give perusers a change of pace. But which one? You be the judge!

Ahoy, maties! I only be havin’ a moment ‘fore I weigh anchor and set sail to rendez-vous with Little John and the rest of his scurvy crew, but it would be ill indeed to let this day pass without a resounding “Arrr!”

Our beloved May twoth holiday, SOS day, is also known as “The first twoth where nobody had a really good name.” SOS day is so named because SOS naturally follows Mayday.

So, in order to celebrate the fifth twoth of the year, let us all imagine we have been stranded on a deserted island for the day. It is a friendly island, and while your transceiver peeps out . . . - - - . . . you have a chance to save your own soul. Come on! The sun is warm, the breeze is, uh… breezy, and the azure water in the lagoon is bathtub-warm. Put your feet up and relax. Did I mention that this island has a refrigerator and a bookstore? And what tropical island would be complete without a blender?

Tell us about your SOS day!

I didn’t notice when episode 600 went on the air a few days back, and really, there’s no reason to get so excited about that. There is another milestone on the horizon, one that is, in my opinion, monumental.

Before too much longer, someone will post the 5,000th comment here at Muddled Ramblings and Half-Baked Ideas.

The number speaks for itself, but that’s not going to stop me from rambling on for a bit about it anyway. Five thousand comments doesn’t happen on very many blogs, I bet. Here I am very proud that the comments have become an extra layer of interaction and communication. There is a whole discourse going on there, influenced but in no way bound by the topics of the episodes. It makes this place lively and rewarding even when I’m not.

There are regulars and others just passing through, those who lurk and those who post often. There are personalities who exist nowhere but in the comments here; we even have an avatar of the collective. People have exchanged travel plans here, announced life changes, and in general added to the feeling that this is not MY site, but OUR site; the place where Squirrely Joe can hang with Funkmaster G-Force, and Keith can suggest ways to find women from my past.

So, while I’m proud of this site, and a little surprised at what it has become, the credit is not mine alone. Not even close.

Take a moment, why don’t you, and vote on what the prize should be for comment 5000. I’m a little hesitant about offering a prize – I imagine Jerk McSweede posting two hundred messages reading “Did I win yet?” – but we’ll see what happens. Just… play nice.