Lazy Sunday CLXXVIII: The Worst of 2022

Happy New Year, my portly friends!  2022 is in the books, and 2023 has dawned.  What fresh opportunities—or nightmares, gasp!—will it bring?  Whatever it is, The Portly Politico will be offering up flabby commentary about it, and God is in Control!

As I do every year, it’s time to look back at the worst posts of the recently expired year, 2022.  In years past I’ve made this post quite extensive, but due to a dearth of time—and due to feeling a tad under-the-weather as the new year dawns—I decided to stick to just three of the “worst” posts, though there are many more with single-digit views.

To explain the criteria—and what I mean by “worst”—here is yours portly from 31 December 2021 in “The Worst of 2021“:

Now, by “worst,” I don’t mean “the lowest quality” or “the most offensive.”  I wouldn’t be an impartial judge of the former (and my readers are generally too polite to tell me if my writing sucks), and I’ve toned down my rhetoric too much to be the latter (although, who knows with the delicate sensibilities of modern Westerners).

No, by “worst” I simply mean “the posts with the lowest views.”  In the old days, when I routinely had posts with single views, I’d just hoover up those and plop them into one big post.  Fortunately, the blog has grown to the point that I don’t have single-view posts anymore, but I still have some neglected posts.

For this list, I will ignore posts that were written in prior years, with the exception of TBT posts, as I often add substantial new commentary on such posts.  I will also ignore posts that merely informed readers that that day’s real post would be delayed, or has been posted (so classics like “SubscribeStar Saturday Post ‘The TJC Spring Jam’ is Posted!” and “Lazy Sunday is Coming” won’t be included).

At the end of 2021, I looked back at single-digit posts; in other words, those with fewer than ten views.  For 2022, I just looked at the three lowest, each with only five measly views.

So, without further ado, here are the three worst posts of 2022, with five (5) views each:

Here’s to a new year of blogging!  I’m excited to see what’s next for yours portly as TPP enters it’s fifth year of daily posts.  WHOA!  Let’s all work together to ensure that none of my posts suffer such negligence in 2023, eh?

Happy New Year!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXVII: Review of A Christmas Carol (1951)

“You there!  Yes, you, boy, reading this post in your underwear before a long day of festivities.  What day is it?”

“Why, it’s Christmas Day, sir!”

“Here—take this blog post and go buy the biggest goose in town.”

“But it doesn’t work like th—”

“Never mind—-it’s Christmas!”

And—scene.

Yes, it’s Christmas, probably the one day a year no one is reading any blog posts.  But The Portly Politico marches on, Christmas or no.

To celebrate, I thought I’d look back at the three recent reviews from Ponty, Audre Myers, and myself about A Christmas Carol (1951).  They’re pretty good:

Well, time to get dressed—it’s Christmas Day!

Merry Christmas!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXVI: 2022’s Top Three

It’s still two weeks to New Year’s Day, and while there’s plenty of time for some wayward posts to take off—or some new ones to exceed the three listed here—it’s the last Sunday of the year that isn’t Christmas.  As such, I decided to do the best (in terms of views) posts of 2022 today.

Before getting on to the posts, let me point out that they’re all quite different—and one of them is from our own Ponty/Always a Kid for Today—and the #1 most viewed post of the past year remains a mystery to me.  It’s a good post—I write in earnest humility—but for some reason it will randomly get dozens of views in a day sometimes.

I’m not complaining—I think it’s great!—but the mystery intrigues me.

Well, enough of that!  Here are 2022’s Top Three Posts:

  1. Driving the Georgia Backroads” (384 views) – I actually wrote this post in 2021, so I suppose it’s technically ineligible for this list… but I’ve already written the lengthy preamble about it and I’d rather not mess around with changing it (remember—it’s Lazy Sunday).  Regardless, it’s about driving the backroads to Athens, Georgia, and all the quaint little communities along the way.
  2. Monday Morning Movie Review, Guest Contributor Edition: The Purge (2013)” (176 views) – Once Ponty started writing movie reviews for the blog, his shameless whoring of the posts over at The Conservative Woman really brought in the traffic.  He’s also a great writer and reviewer, so that probably has something to do with it, too.
  3. Alone” (157 views) – True to human nature, we all love tales of woe and misery.  “Alone” was my magnum opus to heartbreak (actually, my magnum opus to heartbreak is my solo EP, Contest Winner EP).  I was at a low point, one from which I clawed myself, but I’m a bit back at square one.  Oops!

Happy Sunday—and Merry Christmas!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXV: Solo Cover EP, Part II

Christmas is a-comin’, and I’ve got music on my mind!  Here’s another installment of Open Mic Adventures tunes for your yuletide enjoyment:

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXIV: Solo Cover EP, Part I

It’s a musical time of year, with my school’s big, fun, and stressful Christmas concert coming up this Friday, 9 December 2022 (pray for me).  Naturally, I have music on the brain even more so than usual, so I thought I’d look back at some past installments of Open Mic Adventures, specifically the ones where I’m playing solo (no worries—I’ll do a retrospective of OMA‘s featuring duets with John eventually).

Here are three of my favorite solo covers:

Happy Sunday—and Happy Listening!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXIII: Thanksgiving Week Posts

Gobble, gobble, dear readers!  Thanksgiving Week is coming to an end, but we can still look back at the food and fun of the expired week.  Here’s one last, longing, wistful look back at the unlimited freedom of this glorious week:

  • Thanksgiving Week!” – The original post celebrating this week, I wrote about the slow erosion of any real work getting done during the week, and wondered if we might see the day when schools would get an entire week off for Thanksgiving.  That turned out to be a prophetic musing.
  • Memorable Monday: Thanksgiving Week!” – 2020 still saw a two-day work “week,” but it’s also the first year I embraced the spirit of gluttonous laziness that I now associate with the week of Thanksgiving, a time of merriment and frivolity.
  • Retro Tuesday: Thanksgiving Week!” – In 2021, it finally happened—the El Dorado of Thanksgiving Breaks was upon us, with an entire week off.  As I had predicted, families were taking advantage of the week off to skip town even earlier, with some students leaving out Wednesday—a full eight days before Thanksgiving itself.  Yikes!  Give a week, take a mile—or two.
  • Memorable Monday^2: Thanksgiving Week!” – Now in 2022, we’re all growing more accustomed to the novelty of a full week of Thanksgiving merriment.  I didn’t notice nearly as many early truants this year, so maybe folks are tempering their expectations and realizing that one full week is plenty of time to get to wherever you need to be on Thanksgiving.  I mean, with this much time, you can get to Australia and back!

Here’s hoping those food comas are wearing off and you’re ready to get back to the grind.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXII: Myersvision, Part I

Good ol’ Audre Myers—if it weren’t for her and Ponty, I’d have to actually write something now and then!

Audre e-mailed me about a month ago asking if she could could contribute reviews of television (i.e., Netflix) series, not just films.  Naturally, I agreed—enthusiastically!

Since then, she’s been churning out these little gems on the regular, and there are more on the way.  I dubbed the series Myersvision, and this Sunday we’re looking back at the first three installments:

  • Myersvision: The Final Table” – A high-end, international cooking competition with chefs and judges at the peak of their craft?  Sounds like something I’d watch while eating a bowl of Spaghetti-Os.
  • Myersvision: Baking Impossible” – Continuing along the food themed, Audre’s second submission was a baking show that combines baking and engineering.  Might we be driving on gumdrop roads soon enough?
  • Myersvision: Blown Away” – This show sounds like it’s something The History Channel would air, but way classier—and glassier—hey-oh!

Happy Sunday—and Happy Viewing!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXXI: Veterans Day Posts

Way back in 2018—doesn’t that feel like a different world (and didn’t 2018 feel like a different world than even 2016)?—I gave a short talk to the Florence County (South Carolina) Republican Party about the Great War and Veterans Day, what was once called “Armistice Day.”  Not being one to let content go to waste, I published a transcript of the talk on 13 November 2018 to this blog, and I’ve reblogged it every year since on 11 November.

It’s probably a bit too “inside baseball,” but when I reblog these old posts, I’ll sometimes layer in the commentary from the past reblogged versions, too.  Readers will notice I do this with TBT posts, which over the years can become “TBT^2,” “TBT^4,” and so on.

For whatever reason, I only did this Talmudic commentary-on-commentary once with this post, back in 2020.  I suppose when Veterans Day falls on a Thursday again, I’ll reblog “TBT: Veterans’ Day 2018, Commemoration of the Great War, and Poppies” as a “TBT^2” post.

But I digress.  Here are all of the Veterans Day posts going back to 2018:

There you have it, folks.  Thanks to everyone who has served, and a huge thanks for those who have given their lives in the line of duty.  No mere blog post can do justice to the depth of your devotion.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXX: Cozy Time

It’s still hot and humid here in South Carolina, but we’re tantalizingly close to the cozy season—the “hygge,” as our Danish friends call it.  In anticipation of autumnal coziness to come, I decided to look back some of the coziest posts TPP has to offer:

Here’s to a warm cup of coffee on a crisp autumnal day—tarantulas optional.

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments:

Lazy Sunday CLXIX: Even More Halloween Hijinks: The Musical

Happy All Hallows’ Eve Eve!  It’s the day before Halloween, one of my favorite holidays of the year.

Naturally, I needed to highlight some spooky posts, but I did many of those back in “Lazy Sunday LXXXIV – Halloween Hijinks” and “Lazy Sunday CXXXVII – More Halloween Hijinks.”  So I decided to go with some Halloween posts with a more musical flair:

Happy Halloween!

—TPP

Other Lazy Sunday Installments: