Happy Groundhog Day!
January 2022 has ended and that launches us squarely into the year. We just had our first blizzard and more snow is on the way. The Covid-19 seven-day positivity rate has dropped to 7.43%, which is waaaay down from 23% in early January. Dare we anticipate continuing improvement on the way to spring?
On the sad side, Susanne stepped back from her regular blog posts to pursue other interests. I already miss her Monday musings on a wide variety of topics. I could always depend on Susanne to submit a post on time and really, really liked her positivity. Happily, she will still contribute to The Next Phase Blog when the spirit strikes her. We already enjoyed one of her posts in January and look forward to more.
Popular Boston Posts
Last month I wrote more posts about Boston, its architecture and history, than any other topic and was rewarded with a lot of page views. I can never tell when a blog post will go sort-of-viral, although I know that the Boston posts are popular.
Photo courtesy of Ben Edwards
Still, it amazes me when one I think won’t get much traction—and I’m thinking of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Building here—gets viewed widely by people who remember working there fondly. Turns out that a lot of the company’s employees met their spouses in that building. Who knew?
That all added up to 10,330 page views for the month—an all-time high. Also, I checked my Twitter followers yesterday and discovered that Boston’s Mayor, Michelle Wu, is following me. That boosted my ego just a tad.
Paying to Publish
The roundup of January 2022 posts covered fewer topics than usual, which reflects Suze’s reduced presence. I would love to find a new guest blogger to supplement the ones I write. Anyone interested?
Every day I receive multiple emails from people offering to pay me to put their blog posts up. Sounds like a good deal, right?
While I have done that a couple of times, it can be very frustrating. First, they say they are okay with the price, then they try to negotiate down to a fraction of that amount. At that point, I ghost them. Frankly, $5 just isn’t worth the time I put into editing and formatting these posts.
Sometimes they send me copy that just doesn’t meet my standards. The last one I tried submitted copy filled with passive verbs. Search-Engine Optimization HATES passive verbs. So do I, actually. Plus, I won’t consider any topic that involves gambling, sex, or weed. Rock ‘n roll is fine, though.
Roundup of January 2022 Posts
Animals
Boston and History
- The New England Mutual Life Insurance Building
- Navigating Boston’s Architecture
- Redeveloping the Hurley Building
- Ray Donovan Returns to Boston
- The Bronze Teddy Bear Stays Put
Business and Technology
Entertainment
Food and Cooking
February Begins
Now we start the second month of the year. As of yesterday, I’m a year older than I was before. Part of me doesn’t feel great about that but another part recognizes and appreciates that I have outlived a lot of my contemporaries. Also, I’m older than an unfortunately growing roster of too-young celebrities and anti-vaxxers will ever be. Any day I’m upright, mobile and above ground is a great day. Onward and upward.
