I figured I'd finally get on the blogger bandwagon. I'm a little behind the times on this but better late than never. I just have to say, the Internet and Web are the greatest things since sliced bread. It's probably too risky to drop yet another cliché, but just to demonstrate my last point, I found out through a simple Google search that the phrase "better late than never" is attributed to English dramatist John Heywood in a work titled Proverbes. Without the net, it would have taken so long to find that out, I wouldn't have bothered. Geez, students these days have it made in the shade.

Anyway I used to have fun sounding off about any number of issues, mostly by writing letters to newspaper editors. It started with the Toronto Sun, whom I took to task for prominently featuring a daily columnist named Paul Rimstead (1935-1987) who wrote nothing but inane, irrelevant claptrap. (Actually, I was extremely jealous that a person I figured had no talent whatsoever could make it and I couldn't). That newspaper is one of only two publications I've seen where a reply to a letter writer is inserted by the editor and is often personally insulting especially if the opinions expressed run counter to editorial policy. Indeed, when a woman visiting from the UK made a disparaging remark about Toronto, the reply was "have a nice flight back on your broom." The only other place I've seen letter writers treated like this is in Mad Magazine. Knowing the editors at the Toronto Sun like I do, I wouldn't be at all surprised if that's where they got the idea from.

My batting average for letters printed vs letters sent was quite high, well over .900 and I was given the dubious honour of the Toronto Sun's "Letter of the Day" 10 times. I told them I intended to retire after an even dozen. Strangely enough, the Toronto Sun never printed another letter of mine. I had a high acceptance rate at the Toronto Star as well as the Ottawa newspapers when I lived there 1993-1998. I think the reason I became persona non grata at the Toronto Sun is because I love to rattle right-wingers' cages. I happened to pick up a discarded National Post after the June 2004 Federal election and those columnists made the guys at the Toronto Sun sound like commie pinkos.

Then there's a Toronto radio station with the call letters CFRB, AM 1010. I remember a broadcast in the early 60s when the announcer asked his manager in a shaky voice what was the number 1 hit. "They're not," I mused, "going to play a Beatles song?" The station was far too square to do that. True to form, they played Hello Dolly by Louis Armstrong which was actually number five on the charts. The station is still around, square and conservative as ever, but the format is now 24-hour talk shows with call-ins. Constant right-wing diatribe extolling ultra conservative politics and social ideology. Callers who agree are praised to the skies while dissenters are insulted and cut off. I made up my mind I would never be one of the losers who calls in to this station. And though I'd probably never get a letter past the blacklist at the Toronto Sun, I just won't bother. Never give a redneck the last word, I figure.

Now there's this thing called blogging. You can say your piece without some paper's editorial hack discarding yor letter, or editing it so heavily your arguments are weakened. No one at the other end of the phone to hang up just because he or she disagrees with you. I like it!

The only consideration is - who sees what you're expressing? Newspapers and radio stations still have wide circulation, but that could change. Newsgroups are another forum, but spammers can be a problem and some groups are not as friendly as others. You have to choose the proper group to post in because if you're off topic, you'll be flamed. And if you write anything the least bit provocative, you'll get called a "troll."

So away I go. Not everything is politics, though. There's movies, restaurants, books, TV shows, travel experiences; the list is endless. This could be kind of fun.