Year in Review

   Hindsight is 20-20, or so it is said. Thinking about this past year at FITK, I wonder (often) if what I produce here is worth anything. This year saw me scale back on posting to three times a week, with Sharon Spotbottom (bless her inscrutable heart) visiting every Friday. But actually looking at and re-reading the posts done over the last 12 months is somewhat heartening.

   This has been a year which saw a broadening of my literary pursuits (Thanks to Rose, Niranjana, and Caroline); I must have covered more than a score of books- and read even more. Putting up the Laxness in Translation site and connecting with so many other Halldór Laxness fans really expanded my horizons as well (Rose~ the revolution is at hand!) My sidetrack into Faroese literature was triggered by a serendipitous discovery of Faroese Short Stories in an antique store in Galena Illinois. Following up on that book opened my eyes to a wonderful vein of literary ore, made even more precious by its scarcity. I hope to uncover even more "nuggets" next year.

   My Icelandic connections seem to be fading and this might be the start of a trend. While I have scarcely exhausted all the Icelandic culture available, there comes a point where the "low hanging fruit" is gone, and climbing higher does not insure commensurate rewards. I might get back there this year but it is just too soon to say.

   And then there are the actual Flippist "archives". Yes, they do exist, in tidy white boxes and folders. Artifacts, images, tapes, papers, negatives and slides. Meaningless in themselves, but often these things contain a story. The encouraging thing about creating a post from them is that there is almost no subject too obscure to attract at least a little interest. If a post makes a connection to just one person it is worthwhile. For example; A few years ago I wrote about a great aunt of mine, a person I had only met in childhood once or twice. This summer I received an email from a man who had been in her care for a few years when he was a child. He had lost all touch with her when he moved away, my post was one of the few links he had left to a person who was literally a second mother to him at a very trying time in his life. There are dozens of hits on my back posts every week; the "long tail" of internet searches is a reality.  That said, I have the nagging suspicion that one day Google will change its search algorithms and Flippism is the Key will be effectively shut out; it seems that a similar scenario is already in effect for YouTube.

   So, another year awaits. Sharon will be back and I'll be as random as ever (I subscribe to The Brownian Motion School of Blogging) but as with all things, I sense a change coming, both from within this blog and from external events. I don't know what that may entail, so I'll just say thanks to everyone who stopped by this year, and I hope you come back again next year.

   Your patronage is appreciated.