Yesterday, WordPress let me know that I’d written and published my 1,000th post on the Scholarly Kitchen.

This blog is five years old, so that comes out to approximately 200 posts per year for me personally, or almost four per week. Let’s assume each post is about 1,000 words — a conservative estimate. That would mean I’ve banged out 1,000,000 words or more in the posts alone, not to mention the comments.

The other monkeys should be buying me a new typewriter ribbon by now.

A thousand posts and a million words are interesting thresholds, and point to the poles between which this blog exists. It is both an outlet and privilege, while simultaneously being an obligation and responsibility. It’s work, essentially. Even volunteer work is work. Every great volunteer at SSP knows this blend of enjoyment and duty.

Well, there’s nothing to do but press on, knowing that I’m somewhere in my second million of words, and my second thousand of posts.

In fact, this would be post 1,001. Well, there you have it.

Thank you, WordPress, for letting me know. But next time I surpass a number that makes my hands and eyes briefly feel the accumulated weight of all the exertions of the past five years, could you do me a favor and just not mention it?