An anniversary came and went this week, unnoticed among the server woes and the various bitch-slaps I traded with McClatchy’s top news guy. But it was an important day, and worth mentioning.

That fellow up there in the corner, pounding away on his typewriter with those absurdly oversized fingers? He turned one year old on Wednesday. I don’t know what one blog year equals in human years, but I’m feeling all grown up.

The first entry, which you can find here, was posted on April 16, 2007. Here’s how it started:

It’s Day One, my first-ever post. I’m a blogger now, so it seems appropriate to honor tradition by wearing pajamas and eating Cheetos as I write these introductory words. That’s all it takes, apparently. I joined the ranks of citizen journalists just this morning, and I already feel a gnawing resentment against the Mainstream Media. Weird thing is, it’s only been 48 hours since I was a member of the Mainstream Media.

Woo-hoo! I’m on my way, baby. Fulmination and invective, be my guides.

Since then, there have been 245 other entries. Once a few days off here and there are accounted for, that works out to a new post every weekday morning. While I often link to other sites, that’s neither my primary objective nor the best reason to visit here. Instead, my aim is to provide two minutes’ worth of good reading every morning. (That’s basically, the same aim I had for 30 years in the newspaper business. The only difference now is that trees don’t have to die.)

There was a learning curve to all this, as you may have noticed. For instance, it took me until the end of that first week just to figure out how to put a headline atop each entry. If you go into the archive, you’ll see that the first four posts are blank at the top. Further improvements are coming.

Ironically, it turns out this site shares a birthday with the News & Observer’s Under the Dome blog, which likewise sprung to life on that fateful April day last year. I think that makes me the evil, wayward twin.

It’s a role I was born to.

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