Anniversary buchukchulukes

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the Varieties. Happy returns! It has been an interesting year, to be sure. Perhaps the biggest thrill has been the many generous compliments from bloggers I myself admire; but every comment in the box, even a pedantic correction, quickens my pulse. Chris Miller, one of my favourite sparring-partners, once wrote of me that

Bring him a box of fortune cookies, and he will take you on an amazing trip through the English dictionary and down the major roads (as well as the twisted cul-de-sacs) of European literature—and that’s why his blog is so much fun. You just never know where he’s going to take you.

Not only have I not forgotten this remark, but it has become a tacit manifesto of sorts for me. Since then I have made no attempt to stay on-topic in what I write, seeking instead the unpredictable digression. And you know, it's a more exciting way to write—I see the trait in some of my best peers. It is no surprise that Chris is referring to one of my earliest pieces, On the Antiquity of Fortune Cookies, which is still my own favourite, along with that most personal piece on the wells of London, Chalybea. Other posts have been much more popular. Easily the most viewed—found for the most part from prurient Googlesearches, somewhat predictably—was my rumination on enforced transvestism, though I suppose thrill-hunters may have been dismayed by the rather academic context of my remarks. Kiss-words in Latin got a great many hits too, so perhaps I have helped to bust that myth, just a little. More delights included Slate.com picking up my Apocalypto review, not a great piece, but no matter. Possibly the surprise of my blogging year was the discovery of a considerable Brazilian readership. Bem-vindo, amigos! But in celebration of year one, I have updated my very first post, and one appropriate to origins, on the Chicken and Egg—still rude in execution, but in some ways a template for what would come—with a bit about Plutarch, my new love.

Now, truly, I am glad I have not yet capitulated, as I have wanted to on occasion.

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With all this in mind, it is good to see my own friends going strong. Chris is the flat-out winner of the Varieties Award for Blog Prolixity for his fascinating post on Lorado Taft on sculpture, thrashing Gawain with a whopping 8,889 words. Gawain boy has done good too, though—take for instance his classic recent speculation about beauty. He promises more pieces on taste for me to lock horns with soon. My sharp archaeological comrade Raminagrobis continues to frustrate me by not writing enough: still, I can relate to everything he does write. Languagehat, meanwhile, continues to be the ultimate problem-solver, as well as producing the snide fare we all enjoy—really, he could pen this stuff in his sleep, but it's no less fun. John of Blog Meridian scribbles with an infectious enthusiasm, and with no less infectious a feeling for place, and his latest post is a charmingly ramshackle agglomeration of ideas, full of hints. Hank Heatly breaks from painting place—in this John is his true comrade—to dissert on ancient timekeeping. (Have you read this, Hank?) Simon Holloway, finally, who brings out the philosemite in me, charms me with his Biblical geekdom, and would charm my wife with his Lord of the Rings geekdom.

My best new discovery is Imaginative Universal, especially as its proprietor, the mysterious Herr Ziffer, or Ashley as he signs himself elsewhere, has stopped writing about programming, and has started instead on phenomenology, occultism, jargon and other offbeat philosophical topics. It's serious stuff, but has none of the smugness and predictability that usually plagues blog-philosophy. Ziff has the rare talent of finding uses for abstract philosophy in discussing modern culture. This is how to do it, Kugelmass.