Three years and many puns ago
Roughly three years ago I started blogging (July 24, 2002) with my first blog Atheist to a Theist with the Chesterton quote "if something's worth doing, it's worth doing badly." My original intent was mainly to comment on the news of the day and as a fairly recent convert to exercise my faith in the discussion on the Church and politics. I had no intent on doing any sort of humor which just goes to show how little I know myself. An article on Catholic blogging by Tim Drake in the National Catholic Register was where I had first heard of Catholic blogging. I recognized Mark Shea's name in the article and so Googled it to find his blog. What I found had me hooked instantly and I explored the links in his sidebar to find other Catholic blogs. At that time there were considerably less Catholic blogs, probably between 50 and 100. Mark's and Amy's blogs were then as now the preeminent Catholic blogs, though it was Kathy Shaidle who started the first Catholic blog well over five years ago. Of course Mark has been on a writing sabbatical, but since he recently finished his book hopefully we will see him return soon. Like many bloggers I started by commenting in other's comment boxes and made the jump to starting my own blog because of the limitations of commenting and the vanity of having my thoughts in one place.
I remember when I use to receive 5 to 10 hits a day and was pretty happy that anybody was reading what I had to say. Now three years later with 3000 plus posts, 10,000 plus comments, and close to 600,000 total hits I am still pretty happy that anybody is still reading what I have to say. I never had any intentions in life to write anything. Of course I also never had any intentions to one day become a Catholic. I am a Catholic and I write though I don't consider myself to be a Catholic writer. I am humbled when those who can actually write link to my posts, though I know it is because of my parody and punditry and not because of my writing skills (of which I consider to be akin to grammatical speed bumps.) I have no problem when people correcting my grammatical errors in the comment boxes. Open source editing is fine with me since I need all the help I can get. I just hope it has improved a little bit over the last three years. I have no delusions of producing the great American novel and am pretty happy to tickle a funny bone once in a while or say something worth while however feebly the words are chosen.
So once again thanks to my readers and those bloggers who link to me. Some of the better comedy pieces I have produced were suggested to me by other bloggers or readers. On in particular I would like to remember is Michelle of "And Then!" A blog now sadly gone for over a year and she had many fine suggestions for me. Yearly I also always mention Victor Lams who is a major inspiration to me and who has been blogging for over four years. He is the blogger I also would most wish would come into a financial windfall. When Victor was unemployed for a bit of time after his company went down the tubes in an Enron like scandal his free time produced some of the most creative and funny posts ever seen. From Puppet blogging to his Lamstoons it was a sad day from a selfish prospective when he was once again gainfully employed.
I have put together a "best of" page to cover some of my more comedic posts over the last three years.
Known as 
Congratulations on three years of blogging! I know I'm certainly happy you started because yours is a "must read" blog every day.
Thank you, Jeff. Congratulations on three years. I too visit often and enjoy the humour.
Don't forget, if you use Firefox or Mozilla, you can use a spell checker called Spellbound. Then you can easily catch errors like "jsut" for "just" in your paragraph on grammar.
Phew, at first I thought you were going to state that you were quitting blogging! Thank goodness it was not true.
Happy 3 years and I hope you continue to grace us with this webpage for many more days.
Jeff, you make your points, whether by parody or serious thoughts, very well. Carry on, Sailor!
Happy blogiversary, Jeff, and thanks for the kind mention. It's good to be remembered. :) I visit your blog often, and it continues to brighten my day.
Blog on!
Congratulations on your blogging anniversary!!! I would like to say, however, that I was scared when I first read your post, having awful flashbacks of that awful day when Fr. Sibley announced his blog retirement.
Anyway, congratulations, and may your blog (and yourself of course) live many more happy years!
This week Our Sunday Visitor has an extensive article about blogs, and yours is mentioned in it.
Best wishes, Jeff, a bloggy good fellow.
congrats! I visit every day, and love how you combine genuinely funny stuff with apt "Why didn't I think of that?" observations. Whereas I just b**ch all day...
Wishing you many, many more.
Thanks for doing your blog. You make the blogosphere a lot more fun and lighthearted.
God bless, Maureen Martin
Jeff, you are the second funniest blogger in cyberspace after Scrappleface.
Happy Blogiversary:
http://tinyurl.com/4fjrz
Congratulations on three years of blogging. I read you everyday. I enjoy your parodies, keep up the good work.
Thank you Jeff for bringing us the best of the best Catholic giggles around. Blessings to you, and many more years of blogging chuckles. :o)
I recommend your site to every Catholic I know (well, the one's with a good sense of humor, anyway!) and I have enjoyed it soooooo much. Your attitude toward liturgical music has me searching my hymnals at Church and giggling during mass. That isn't so good, I suppose, but you have inspired me to join the Liturgy Committee in my Church and maybe make a few alterations in the type of music that are a little more appropriate. You help me so much with your blogging by giving me a great view of things and helping me to not be so serious all of the time when I get ticked at liturgical abuses.
THANK YOU!!!!!
Jeff,
Happy Blogiversary! May you have many more!
Kudos on your three year anniversary! Best wishes for another 3 years of blogging (and hopefully more in addition to that).
Good luck with those 'grammatical speed bumps,' too! I love that phrase!!!
My wife is a fan of the sugar substitute Splenda, so now when I visit your blog I think of it as "SplendaOfTruth.com/curtjester". Not too big a stretch since the truth is often sweet.
Congratulations, Jeff.
Yours was one of the first blogs I happened upon and it was the first I bookmarked. Thank you for the good humor.
I just spent a few pleasant minutes revisiting the "Kerry Medal Toss" (empty symbolism is the key). I hope for many more years of such silliness.
Thanks for the laughs and the insight.
Still working on those Liturgical Noise-Cancelling Headphones....
Hey, where's the Howard Dean, "pull my finger" with the red eye enhancer??!! My kids got hours of giggles over that one!!
and
Happy Anniversary and best wishes for many more!
Congratulations, you crazy guy. :-)
Congratulations on three years. I love this blog and I send all my Catholic friends that have a sense of humor here. I love the humor. Whenever I am dismayed at the goings on in some of the parishes I have been to, I think to myself "This may one day be a Curt Jester parody, and I saw it here first." It makes me feel much better and very much less inclined to get angry. And thanks for the links to other blogsites. I have read a lot of great stuff thanks to you.
May God bless you with many more years and much more success...
Lily
Top notch, this site. And three years is at least twenty-one in blog years (or something like that). In any case, an impressive feat.
You are an inspiration to me.
Congratulations and keep it coming! :) I'm glad I have cool blogs like yours to waste my time at. ;) I'm also quite honored that a giant in the Catholic blogosphere such as yourself visits my humble little blog. Perhaps in time I'll learn a trick or two from you. ;)