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The room in which The Mumpsimus was born. Photo from February 2007.

Well, golly. Today marks eight years since I created this blog back in 2003. I didn't post anything beyond the definition of the word "mumpsimus" on that first day, but then things got going with a post about a story by James Patrick Kelly after a brief statement of purpose.

The statement of purpose ended by saying, "Who knows what will come of all this?"

What became of it was certainly more than I ever expected. The busiest time for the blog, in terms of posts and of visits from readers, were the first few years, particularly 2004 and 2005. There weren't a whole lot of other people doing what I was doing, and it felt like everybody who was writing blogs about books and literature of any sort knew and read each other (hence the creation of the Litblog Co-op). But the blogosphere expanded rapidly, and one day it seemed like there were 1,000 book blogs out there. And a lot of us stopped thinking of ourselves as fundamentally book bloggers, for various reasons. I still write a few reviews a year, but usually for places other than this blog, and though I've always written about film here (the 6th post on the site was about Brazil), I've grown more and more interested in writing about it as over the last few years I've been involved in making some movies and have started teaching film and media courses.

The blog wouldn't have survived if it couldn't change along with me, and it really has -- not just visually, as this Wayback Machine capture of the site in the fall of 2003 attests. It's always been a place where I've tested out ideas, basically presenting a first-draft face to the world, which wasn't scary until suddenly, when I got some links from well-trafficked sites in 2004, people were looking. A lot of those early posts seem embarrassingly awkward, naive, and wrongheaded now, but there are recent posts that are awkward, naive, and wrongheaded, too. That's the territory, the necessary risk for any endeavor like this.



2003 feels awfully distant, in many ways far more distant than 8 years. If I'd told my 27-year-old self, sitting at an iMac G3, struggling to learn enough HTML to make the blog work, that in 2011 he'd still be writing the blog, I don't know what he'd say. I think his immediate response would be, "Really? My life will be that much of a waste?"

But then I could say, "Actually, in 2011, even the White House has a blog. It's not quite as dorky an activity as it is today."

"Does somebody correct Bush's spelling for him? Or help him with compound sentences?"

"Nobody cares about spelling on the web. But the president in 2011 isn't Bush, and he's fairly articulate, probably more articulate than he is effective, really. Oh, and he's black. And his name's Barack Obama. Barack Hussein

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A big thank you to Anna and Hatchette Books Group for sponsoring the giveaway for Seven: The Number for Happiness, Love, and Success by Jacqueline Leo.

I actually signed up to review this book because my younger brother is convinced that 7 is his lucky number. He was born on the 7th of the month in 1977 and has a wonderfully pleasant temperament. It's because of him that I'd like to find out more about the number 7 and whether it does have any relationship to happiness, love and success.

If you're reading this, then you must share some of my curiosity.

About the Book, courtesy of the Publisher:
What is it about the number seven that has such a hold on us? Why are there seven deadly sins? Seven days of the week? Seven wonders of the world, seven colors of the spectrum, seven ages of man, and seven sister colleges? Why can we hold seven numbers or words in our working memory--but no more? Author Jackie Leo explores everything about this mystical, magical, useful, and fun number in her new book.

SEVEN REASONS YOU NEED THIS BOOK

1. SEVEN is a tool to improve the quality of your life. It is a way to define time, synthesize ideas, and keep your mind performing at top speed in an era of distractions.

2. SEVEN is culturally significant. It pops up everywhere, structuring our world in ways so fundamental, we notice them only when we pause to look. Across the ages and across cultures, the number has acquired a huge scientific, psychological, and religious significance.

3. SEVEN is intriguing. Why, out of hundreds of recipes in a cookbook, do people return to the same seven, over and over? Why, when asked to choose a number between one and ten, does such a large majority of people choose seven? Why does it take seven rounds of shuffling to obtain a fully mixed deck of cards?

4. SEVEN is influential. You'll learn how the number seven shapes our thinking, our choices, and even our relationships.

5. SEVEN is practical. Throughout this book are Top Seven lists covering the best ways to get someone's attention, to build your personal brand, and to put yourself in the path of prosperity and good luck.

6. SEVEN is fun. You'll encounter surprising facts, intriguing puzzles, and hilarious anecdotes.

7. SEVEN is wise. You'll hear stories about the meaning of seven from Mehmet Oz, Sally Quinn, Liz Smith, Christina Ricci, and many others.
Artfully designed and full of enough insights to keep you engaged in conversation at the water cooler for years, SEVEN will provoke, enlighten, and amuse.

About the Author, courtesy of the Publisher:
Media guru Jacqueline Leo has held a number of high-level positions in publishing and television. She founded and launched Child magazine in 1986, and went on to be editor in chief of Family Circle magazine and editorial director of the New York Times Women's Magazine Group, where she launched Fitness magazine. She was senior producer and editorial director of Good Morning America, editorial director for Consumer Reports, and vice president and editor in chief of Reader's Digest. She is currently director of digital operations for the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. She lives in New York City.

CONTEST DETAILS

To enter, please tell us why you'd like this book.

Rules:
1. Please include your email address, so that I can contact you if you win. No email address, no entry.
2. For an extra entry, sign up to be a follower. If you're already a follower, let me know and you'll get the extra entry as well.
3. For another extra entry, subscribe via googlereader or blogger or by email and let me know that you do.
4. For another entry, blog about this giveaway and send me the link.
5. Leave a separate comment for each entry or you'll only be entered once.

The contest is limited to US and Canada only. No P.O. boxes. The contest ends at 7pm on November 27, 2009. Thank you so much, Anna and Hatchette Book Group for sponsoring this giveaway!

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Long-time Mumpsimus readers will remember a young man named Alan DeNiro, subject of an interview in 2004, and a young woman named Juliet Ulman, subject of an interview I conducted for Fantasy magazine in 2006. Recent readers will remember that, in 2008, the elves of Mumpsimus Mansion expressed excitement that a young woman named Colleen Lindsay moved from the world of publicity to the world of agenting, and one of her first clients was the above-named Mr. DeNiro.

Well, our plan for world domination is coming together. Super-writer DeNiro has, via the talents of super-agent Lindsay, joined forces with super-editor Ulman! The elves are jumping up and down with joy, expressing great congratulations to Alan for selling his novel Total Oblivion, More or Less to Juliet at Bantam via Colleen.

Numerologists will note that the various important events (interview 1, interview 2, joy for Colleen) occurred in even-numbered years. What do we have planned for 2010? Wait and see, my children, wait and see....

(Or we could just blame everything on this movie.)

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NOTE TO SELF: JUST WHO IS NAUGHTY AND NICE, ANYWAY?


Every year Canada Post gets into the holiday spirit by acting as an intermediary between children and the North Pole in its annual "Write to Santa." To this end kids are encouraged to mail their letters to Santa at "SANTA CLAUS, NORTH POLE, HOH OHO, CANADA" The service in both English and French, has been offered going on 26 years and is overseen by 11,000 Canada Post employees known affectionately as Postal Elves. More than a million children send letters to the jolly, old, elf and receive a reply but some received an unexpected response. Make that shocked response.

Seems that somebody - likely not "the" Santa - has been dropping letters in the mail box over the last couple of days to kids living in Ottawa, Ontario, but not the nice kind. In fact some of them contained filthy messages, much to the consternation of parents'. For its part Canada Post is understandably shocked and along with the Ottawa police, have been attempting to trace down the baaaaaad Santa.

One young recipient aged 2 years received a P.S. to her letter that read: "This letter is too long, you dumb shit." Definitely not Santa-like content. Her 10 year old brother, meanwhile, had the add-on message: "Your mom is s****d**** and your dad is gay."

Lucky their mother read the letter before she handed it to her children.

Meanwhile, yesterday Canada Post shut down its Write to Santa program across the city in a joint effort with the police to track down Santa's un-helper.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071214.wsantletters1214/BNStory/National/home

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