My Day Out As a Big Blogger

Most days, Kittywampus is fairly sleepy (as befits its patron cat), but yesterday traffic on my blog just exploded. You might have thunk it was my post on erotica for women that drew a crowd, but no … it was my half ranty, half wonky post on health care. WordPress put it on their front page and it got well over a thousand hits within 24 hours. This is not a daily occurrence at The Kitty.

Interestingly, lots of the hits came from outside the U.S. Apparently the world is watching to see if we can do health care reform right.

I also got more comments on that post than on any other to date. They came disproportionately from men. Since when did dudes have a lock on wonkery? Wonkish women of the world, stand up! From a hands-on perspective, as the first-line nurse to children and aging parents, most women know more about health issues than men do. Even those of us who aren’t versed in economic policy have something to contribute. (Except for this: If you’re one of the 54% of Americans who don’t know that Medicare is a government program? Please stay comfortably seated.)

Though it was fun to play at being a big blogger for a day, I’m glad to get back to a sleepier pace. Somehow I have to finish my syllabi before September 9, but yesterday I spent the whole day watching my stats, responding to comments, and appreciating how much time goes into just basic moderation of lengthy threads. Obviously, an actual big blogger wouldn’t respond to all the comments. I also kicked out the troll who’d taken up residence here the week before. That was fun, too. I should do it more often, now that I’ve tasted troll blood. It’s sweeter than you might think. On the whole, though, attendees of town hall meetings could learn a lot from my commenters, who stayed quite civil despite their irreconcilable views.

If I’d know that this little post would get any serious attention, I might have set aside my annoyance at my relatively trivial current gripe and instead told some of the battle stories from when my husband became seriously ill. That was exactly five years ago yesterday. I’m too superstitious to write about it on its anniversary, and anyway it’s still painful. (How does one mark such an anniversary – the day when someone became paralyzed and nearly died, but didn’t? The day that heralded a cancer diagnosis? The day that upended a whole family’s life and left it forever after on a slant? Gifts and champagne don’t quite match the occasion. So I just hugged him hard and said, I’m glad you’re still here.)

So I probably would have stuck with the same themes, but I would’ve edited more carefully and worked out a real argument at the end, instead of relying so much on Robert Reich (wonderful as he is). I might have watched my pottymouth. I would’ve been a little less ranty (though that was the post’s original purpose, after all!).

And if I had a chance to rework the post, I would have definitely included LOLcats. Here’s one for the Blue Dog Democrats:

Blue Kitteh Democrat from I Can Has Cheezburger?

Here’s one for Obama’s deluded approach to starting negotiations by offering up the public option:

From ICHC

This seems about right for the less-evil Republicans:

From ICHC

And finally, this seems perfect for those Repubs propagating the “death panel” meme (I’m looking at you, Mrs. Palin) and carrying Obama=Hitler signs and wielding loaded guns and calling for blood to water the tree of liberty:

From ICHC