This report, prepared by the people that run wordpress.com where WUWT is hosted, gives insight into how we did this past year and which of our commenters were the most prolific I’ve made it fully public for my readers to have a look.
One thing not listed in the report is our current views count, which is at: 170,336,879 views as of this writing
Our comments count: 1,162,212 Comments
Full report here:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/annual-report/
Awesome statistics! Congrats.
Keep up the good work Anthony. You’re a hero!
Tip jar duly visited…
Seems Asia is excluded from the world atlas in the Full Report……..
Congratulations WUWT – !!!
Impressive!
From the recent IPCC report, 166,155 views from a single post, and in total views from articles about the IPCC AR5, I wonder how many views WUWT got and how that compared with views of the IPCC report itself?
Perhaps they are not creating the type awareness they wanted after all.
Congratulations to Anthony and all the WUWTers! This is one awesome marketplace of ideas.
Congrats on the stats.
Does not surprise me. You got my attention as no other has!
You even got 6 visits from North Korea !
Congratulations Anthony; I hope you enjoy your blog as much as the readers do.
And Happy New Year!
Congratulations Anthony.
Thank you and all your regular contributors, such as Bob and Willis, and the moderators for all the hard work.
Have a healthy and prosperous (maybe the cheque from ‘big oil will come in next year..) 2014.
All the best from New Zealand.
January 27? Well done Ant, charles et al. AND a great big thank you to the KING; Steve Mac
Congratulations all round. Not just top of the climate heap, but staying top of the climate heap. (Even) more power to your elbow in 2014!
Reflection: how much more profitable it would be if you took that job running the much more modest MoMA …
In the words of Mr Spock “Fascinating”
I get so much from reading the posts here, information, a great laugh and informed debate. I have once or twice tried looking at sites for CAGW and found them to be a closed shop where contrary views are ignored or shouted down, which just makes me sad for them.
Have a great New Year party and I will be back in 2014.
James Bull
1,162,212 Comments. Awesome. All deep and insightful
David says:
You even got 6 visits from North Korea !
——
(Somewhere in North Korea) – ‘Get Off the Keyboard, you $%^ cat!’
——-
HAPPY NEW YEAR, Anthony!
and no regurgitation from post to post
In yor face Reel Climate
Great to see Willis’s old mates in the Solomons getting on line: 321 of them!!
Happy New Year to all at WUWT!!
PS: But no traffic from Antarctica!!!??? 🙂
Well deserved, Anthony. What makes your site so special is not that it is always right, but that it
allows discussion and the exchange of points in a way that is decent to tackle complex topics.
And of course good people with their unique perspective on manyfold issues like yourself and Willis. Keep up the great work! With the best wishes for 2014 for the WUWT team and your
families,
Matt from Germany
It would be interesting to see the stats from some of the …. er …. “competition”.
Congrats Anthony, guest bloggers and company!
This is my daily go to read on all things important in science and reality.
Anthony and moderators: again thank you for your efforts and keep going strong. The rotten and brittle ice of climate science is breaking apart under the warm wind of facts streaming from this blog. A happy 2014 to you and all contributors. May history tell that it was the year when the tide turned and the fraudsters were dragged out to sea to drown.
Congrats.
I wonder who was your single visitor from Chad?
Congrats. You do a fantastic job here. All the best in 2014.
Great to see WUWT averaging almost 12,000 visits per week from New Zealand. My fellow countrymen appear to have woken up to the scam the MSM is loath to expose..
Congratulations Antony!
But beware – ‘they’ are watching!
Nice work Anthony, many thanks. I’m not a scientist but enjoy reading all the posts on your site. I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to find the video you posted a few months ago of an early presentation you gave about weather stations etc and how you got involved in the AGW issue. Can you post it again please.
Best wishes for 2014 .Robin
Congratulations Anthony. Thank you for your service.
Nice!
May the new year be the best ever for everyone!
Well deserved praise. Happy New Year to you and your family including moderators and blog contributors.
Blogs are an astounding phenomenon. It’s amazing how you can get caught up in some story like, say, the “hockey stick” and go back and read a bunch of past posts and comment threads on WUWT, Bishop Hill and Climate Audit and cross check them with blogs like Real Climate. It’s like a Neal Stephenson novel that you can participate in.
One of the most interesting statistics was the highest Commenters
1 Jimbo 2634 comments
2 Gail Combs 2092 comments
3 Janice Moore 1864 comments
Who would have thought that Gail & Janice were right up there, I know I have seen them often on the site, but it is still surprising and well done Jimbo.
I wonder how some of my visits this year showed up to WordPress? I know some of my access to the internet the first half of this year was by a satellite ISP and some by VPN. While I was physically in Kabul (416 connections) I think the satellite service provider gave the internet service connection via a Polish IP range (44,501 connections) and the VPN was gated out of the greater DC area (18,018,916 connections). A few of the Afghanistan connections could be via my smart phone. I’ve also connected while in the UAE (39,616 connections), Australia (2,767,586 connections) and Canada (3,123,398 connections) during 2013.
Thanks to you Mr. Watts and thanks to your team of moderators/bloggers for a superb site. Happy New Year to the WUWT crew, keep safe and all the best in 2014.
Congratulations, Anthony. Your blog is my first read every morning — used to be newspapers — and frequent times during the day for the many new additions. You, the other contributors (no superlatives needed for all), the magnificent commenters, and awesome gatekeepers soothe my soul, delight my mind, and assure me that the search for truths and knowledge continues to exist. The scientific method — hard won over the centuries from a Judeo-Christian-Enlightenment past — is honored and followed. There can be no greater praise.
Anthony, your courage, determination, and inventiveness made this happen. Happy New Year to you, your family, and the WUWT family. Health, more inventiveness, and happiness to all.
Oh deary me. One third of those comments was “Oooops I meant” LOL. 😉
Here is a good sign for the future, social websites are now the top 2 referrers which I doubt was the case 5 years ago. Keep Twitting and keep your 75,000 friends updated. 🙂
“The top referring sites in 2013 were:
facebook.com
twitter.com
climateaudit.org
climatedepot.com
climatedebatedaily.com”
Jimbo says:
December 31, 2013 at 7:47 am
“Oooops, He meant”
Keep Twerking and keep your 75,000 friends updated. 🙂
Congrats Anthony!
Awww, they don’t count the LENGTH of the comments, only the total number. So sadly, I didn’t make the top five. But I’ll bet I was close to the top (possibly behind Gail) in total characters typed.
Or maybe not. I’m pretty selective about the articles I comment on at all.
Still, impressive numbers. To get over 1,000,000 comments in a year, one has to maintain a hefty pace of some 3000+ comments a day, every day.
rgb
Gail Combs was top commenter last year. Jimbo has overtaken her.
Interesting that RichardSCourtney has disappeared. If anyone knows where he is it would be nice to let us know (at least let me know).
Robert Brown, I am sure you are nowhere near the top number of characters posted. You don’t comment on most posts.
But you are certainly near the top in comments that are most worth reading.
Well, according to the report, the number one story was the release of climategate 3.0. A lot of viewers seem to have been let down on that one. It should be kept in mind during all the kudos. It take balls to stay on top. GK
Anthony,
Your venue is a MSM.
John
Better pump up the PR in Chad. Only one reader. :0. Good work.
David says:
December 30, 2013 at 11:01 pm (Edit)
You even got 6 visits from North Korea !
Yes, and they were all to this post: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/03/27/earth-hour-in-north-korea-a-stunning-success/
Let’s hope none of them were executed for looking at it.
Robert Brown says:
December 31, 2013 at 8:24 am
And I bet your comments are at the top of the “most appreciated” category, if one appeared in the WordPress report. I know whenever I see one of your contributions I immediately dive in and study it. The time you take and the insight you bring to WUWT content are always welcome.
Happy New Year.
Also a big thanks to Dr. Svalgaard for his participation with 1817 posts.
Congratulations. Not a scientist here, just a concerned citizen who barely survived chemistry in college. Every time someone quotes the “97% of scientists agree”, I send them here to hear what true scientists say, not political activists with a Ph.D. Read your blog almost daily, it is my favorite. I’ve learned so much and tried to share with as many as I can. Blessings…
Great work, Anthony. These are enviable stats for any blog – even better that it is climate-centric because it’s too important to leave this stuff to the alarmists.
Side note 1: Mosher should have gotten the nod for most unfinished thoughts.
Side note 2: Josh is the hands down winner of alarmist skewering cartoons
And, FWIW, #1,865…
Rest assured, dear, amazed, WUWT readers, I am fully aware that quantity is not quality. Jimbo’s and Gail’s (and Leif Svalgaard’s!) and MANY others who comment here have, indeed, far more to say that is worth reading. Lest you think this “accomplishment” puffed up my ego, my main reaction to my winning the bronze medal for number of comments was embarrassment. I am definitely, an “outlier,” lol. Many of my posts are a lot of zaniness or atta boy/atta girl (or videos, heh, heh).
And that’s okay — I like me! #(:)) No need to reassure me. And I don’t like talking on about myself here (barf), just did so in the hopes that it might smooth a few ruffled feathers if I wrote something about this matter. And just think, I’ve only been commenting since spring… . Watch out, Jimbo! (smile)
@Robert G. Brown — A little swallow may make fifty passes to every one of an American Bald Eagle’s… which is more powerful and accomplishes more? Your mind and those of the numerous other fine scientists on this site (Bart, Konrad, and many others come to mind) are as brilliant lighthouse beacons to my wee flashlight. Word Press counted the number of times I flicked it on and off. Meaningless trivia.
HURRAH FOR AN-TH-NY AND WATTS UP WITH THAT!
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!
Janice Moore says:
December 31, 2013 at 11:58 am
+++++++++
I noticed you on the list right away… I truly enjoy reading the technical feedback from smart non-science/engineering people. That you can separate the wheat from the chaff helps me understand what’s important for most people to care about.
Oh, Mario, thank you, so much. Coming from a scientist-engineer, that means a lot.
(hope you and your wife had a fun vacation… yes, you were missed….)
#(:))
****************************************************************
And, dedicated to you, and to all the WUWT Science Giants a video!
Go get ’em in 2014, keen-sighted eagle warriors for truth!
Janice: Often times, I cannot access the network to see some videos or images. It’s the way my laptop PC is setup from one of my employers.
That said, I wonder, is there a way to see a list of all of us comment makers and our level of activity? I wonder who is the top 20 or 50 and what the distribution looks like.
=================================================================
I guess the Ship of Fools got stuck before they got close enough to count as “Antarctica”.
Mario: I’m sorry you often miss the videos — bummer!
Try e mailing Word Press and asking them. No DOUBT, that information exists, whether they will provide it is another matter… . I hope you get the answer to your question. J.
@ Gunga Din (re: 1:14pm today) LOL, and Happy New Year, to you, O Parakletos par Excellence. The best is yet to come.
Janice: Watched it on my work station PC. Wonderful footage… and note to athletes, keep your eyes on target!
Congratulations Anthony, Guest Posters, Moderators, Commentators and readers!
WUWT is a jewel in the Web.
Happy New Year for all!
Happy New Year y’all!
Janice Moore, in complimenting Robert Brown I did not mean to relatively denigrate your contributions. The positivity and warmth you bring to the blog is most welcome. Sometimes the debate does get a little angry.
It helps to remember that the truth is a cause worth fighting for in its own right.
And you do have that clarity of vision. Please keep on going.
@ Mario — good!
@ Tom J — and to you, too, valiant, motorhead, artist (always — whether for pay, i.e., “professional,” or for the love of it, i.e., “amateur” — many of the latter are far better than the former!). I hope that your drawing and or painting still brings you and others much joy.
(and, please forgive my careless reading of your post about the career situation — tried to apologize on the “Yes, We Have No Bananas” thread, but, sigh, you were long gone…)
I’m just here to bump up the stats.
Oh, alright! Anthony, contributors, mods and commenters and lurkers… thank you all for making WUWT the best place on the web for information, insight, debate and laughter.
Where else you gonna find all that?
Congratulations to Anthony and the team at WUWT.
Thank you and the regular contributors, like Bob and Willis, and the moderators for all their hard work. It is the Great Debate that we tune in to read every day.
You all deserve that ‘Fat Cheque’ from ‘Big Oil’ and a Great New Year in 2014.
Dear M. Courtney,
Thank you, so much. I didn’t read your post that way, but, I might have. How kind and insightfully thoughtful of you to tell me that. My remarks above were mainly due to my imagining what others might think of my little “award”. Thank you for encouraging me!
Janice
P.S. Many of us, no doubt, have noticed your father’s sad absence. I think we all know why and have refrained from saying anything believing our remarks to have no possibility of being helpful. (I hope that it is not a health issue.) He has strongly held views with which many on WUWT disagree and, it being a matter of vital importance, hard things are inevitably going to be said whenever he espouses that view. I am sorry that he chose to leave, but, if that is what he needs to do to have peace and joy in his life, he was wise to do so. Please tell him, if it would not infuriate him, that he is missed and that many of us (I am highly confident that I can say that with accuracy) wish him all the best in the years to come. No, we won’t apologize, for we would be hypocrites to do so, for we will argue just as vehemently for our position now, as then. But, on a personal level, many of us, I feel certain, are sorry that he is no longer here and wish him well. It still being the Christmas season, please wish him a “Merry Christmas” from me.
Janice, thank you. But I will not encourage my father to re-engage here again. The debate has moved on from attribution studies of climate sensitivity (despite the latest Guardian headline) and is now all about the relative costs of mitigation or adaptation. The politics has caught up with the implication of the failure at Copenhagen.
On that account the answers will be regional. And a British Socialist is going to be an ill-fitting colleague with a Texan Republican. Even if the policy strategies that are agreed are eventually the same.
He may have disappeared for other reasons though. He hasn’t spoken by phone email or text (or anything) for about a month. Not even at Christmas or on my Birthday. Frankly, I’m a bit worried.
If I find him I will wish him Merry Christmas from you as well as from me.
@M. Courtney, I am sorry to hear that. Something is troubling him, that is certain. I’ll be praying (for you both). And, a belated “Happy Birthday” to you. Take care. J.
Most folks thought 2013 wasn’t a very good year according to Pew polling. About ⅔ didn’t like it.
Here is an interesting news quiz. Compare yourself to the average American re: knowledge of current events:
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/the-news-iq-quiz
[I got 1 wrong: the stock market chart question. A few lucky guesses helped.]
The map shows Africa is not too worried about global warming.
Incidentally, most links to WUWT I try to post as Comments in my local newspaper (Le Devoir, Montreal) end up being rejected for no apparent reason. This paper has a stong pro-AGW bias and a journalist dedicated to promote the cause.
Emphatically agree.
We’re doing our part to advance the wisdom and understanding of mankind.
Yeah, it’s been a pretty good year. Guess I’ll hang around for another. 🙂
Wind turbines are going to be a big distraction for a while here in New Hampshire. Nothing we can’t handle beyond “sacrificing” the towns of Rumney and Groton.
Besides, gotta keep up with Akademik Shokalskiy affair!
Smokey said, Here is an interesting news quiz. Compare yourself to the average American re: knowledge of current events:
Missed the very first one then got all the rest right.
It’s New Years Eve, you can get drunk to forget 2013. Working your butt off while your wages languished…
So there will be no other time better than this to start your own political party. The WUWT Party, uh… the WUWTea party? It’s wide open, another chance like this won’t come for 100 years…
So, Janice talks a lot?
Who knew…
ducks
Ducking might be wise, I could try to block for you Alan, ah reckon. It would be excellent practice, oh gosh… I’m marrying a ditto head.
I did notice one, just one, from Chad, three cheers for that person.
Congratulations Janice as you add a huge amount to this site, as my few interactions with you have certainly been uplifting. And also congrats and thanks to Gail and Dirk and Lsvalgaard.
Oops. Forgot Jimbo!
WP must be counting every top-level domain as a country, since they show responses from about 32 more countries than there actually are in the world.
BernardP says:
December 31, 2013 at 4:39 pm
The map shows Africa is not too worried about global warming.
————————————————————————————–
It is to be expected that the most hits on an English-language blog would come from rich, English-speaking countries.
Nevertheless, I am proud that Australia has the highest per-capita rate.
Alan Robertson……..! Yup. That’s right! #(:))
LOL, and that is ALL that statistic says (about me). Yeah, I like to talk (and anyone reading this read can see proof of that fact, heh, heh), but, I was a little dismayed to see that I talk THAT much. LOL, I’m just taking a break here from my New Year’s Eve tradition of reading my journal of thoughts/prayers answered for the year and in June, I was thanking God that “Luther Wu” was okay. Oh, man, I really thought… ! Glad YOU were okay. God must have had a little chuckle over those prayers.
Eric Simpson! I wish you posted way more often. I LOVE your fun sense of humor! (as I’ve told you before) Thank you, so much, for the encouragement. Much appreciated.
Happy New Year, to you both,
Janice
“…reading this thread…” — oh, brother and, while I’m at it, I must tell you that it took me an amazingly long time to figure out why you wrote “ducks.” lol, I came up with a couple of other meanings, then, — boink! — oh, yeah! Well, it’s good you did, because I took off my high heeled shoe and THREW it at you and I rarely miss…. heh, heh, heh (yeah, yeah, lots of practice what with my obnoxious mouth — just KIDDING).
[As always, should any shoe be caught, thrown at or held against you, the mods will disavow any knowledge of her actions…. Mod]
lol, well, Happy New Year, Mod!
(thank you, again, for all your work in behalf of the truth!)
#(:))
Janice: Is someone calling someone a quack? Huh?
Robert Brown says: : Awww, they don’t count the LENGTH of the comments….
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7 says:
And I bet your comments are at the top of the “most appreciated” category, if one appeared in the WordPress report.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I will second that Alan. I often copy Dr. Brown’s comments to a file (with the URL) so I do not lose them. Then if I need I can send someone off to look at them.
….
Thanks to Anthony and everyone else. I have learned a lot since I came to WUWT. I have read more peer-reviewed lit per week in the last years than I ever did when working as a chemist.
M Courtney says: @ December 31, 2013 at 3:58 pm
…… Not even at Christmas or on my Birthday. Frankly, I’m a bit worried.
If I find him I will wish him Merry Christmas from you as well as from me.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Mr. Courtney, Please add my well wishes too. As a yankee ‘capitalist’ I miss my favorite British Socialist.
Mod, please fish out my comment in response to Alan Watt, Climate Denialist Level 7 on Dr. Robert Brown.
[Reply: Sorry, Gail, there is nothing in the spam folder. ~ mod.]
Just in case it was booted into the ether never to be seen again, I too very much appreciate anything Dr. Brown posts here at WUWT. His comments are “Keepers” and that can not be said enough.
Thankyou again Dr. Brown.
dbstealey says:
December 31, 2013 at 4:14 pm
Most folks thought 2013 wasn’t a very good year according to Pew polling. About ⅔ didn’t like it.
Here is an interesting news quiz. Compare yourself to the average American re: knowledge of current events:
http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/the-news-iq-quiz
[I got 1 wrong: the stock market chart question. A few lucky guesses helped.]
++++++++++++++
I got one wrong. I thought 40% of congress were woman. I got my sex right, though, even though I live in CA.
dbstealey says:
December 31, 2013 at 4:14 pm
Most folks thought 2013 wasn’t a very good year according to Pew polling. About ⅔ didn’t like it.
++++++++++
– in 2014, it is now one year less that we will have of our current president! That was the best thing about ending 2013. 2013 marked another year we drove our debt into a hole so deep that we won’t be able to start getting it filled within my lifetime.
Janice Moore says:
December 31, 2013 at 10:39 pm
“…reading this thread…” — oh, brother and, while I’m at it, I must tell you that it took me an amazingly long time to figure out why you wrote “ducks.” lol, I came up with a couple of other meanings, then, — boink! — oh, yeah! Well, it’s good you did, because I took off my high heeled shoe and THREW it at you and I rarely miss…. heh, heh, heh (yeah, yeah, lots of practice what with my obnoxious mouth — just KIDDING).
[As always, should any shoe be caught, thrown at or held against you, the mods will disavow any knowledge of her actions…. Mod]
__________________________
That “boink” must’ve been that shoe ricocheting off my head and makin’ like a boomerang.
Happy New Year Janice! (and all WUWT readers and other people of good sense, everywhere.)
I also got one wrong, the first. I thought those states were hotbeds of potheads instead of …
—
Hm. Jimbo posts here about 7+ times a day, and Leif about 5+. Busy!
Nice climate around here.With my head in the clouds and my feet in an ocean of knowledge. I am looking forward to a Happy New Year with WUWT.
Thanks for a year of interesting information.
[Snip. Off topic. ~mod.]
I got 4 wrong – which puts me in the top quarter of survey respondents, remarkably.
I got wrong the FL senator, % women in congress, the swinging US Supreme Court Justice and identifying the blonde woman.
My only defence is that I follow UK news a lot more closely. Because I am an Englishman who did a lot better on this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/features/10540265/news-quiz-2013-kate-middleton-duchess-of-cambridge-prince-george-horse-meat.html
Happy New Year to this venue.
As I embark here on another year of trying to add to my understnanding of the Earth-Atmosphere System, these words from a poem come to mind:
John
Janice, my comments are driven by my anger at these con artists. Sometimes I do a lot of work rebutting their claims because I think that I should not stand idly by and see evil done and do nothing. The number of comments is meaningless really, it’s what one says. One comment has been known to have a paper withdrawn on Climate Audit.
May the force be with you in 2014. Keep up the good work, we are fighting against a brazen fraud.
Jimbo says:
January 1, 2014 at 4:05 pm
Janice Moore says:
December 31, 2013 at 11:58 am
“Janice, my comments are driven by my anger at these con artists. Sometimes I do a lot of work rebutting their claims because I think that I should not stand idly by and see evil done and do nothing…”
+++++++++
Jimbo: This quoted part of your post says a lot. I sometimes am told that I should be careful that people don’t hear what I am saying as it may offend others. Other times I’m told I get really close to being in a fight, and therefore it’s aggressive behavior.
I am consciously often not politically correct for the purpose of breaking memes and lending awareness of truth and how to seek it. The way I see it is this; If people, (who vote to take away other people’s prosperity and use it to force behavior that they think is best for others), feel hurtful or uncomfortable with what I am discussing –I say good. Good, because many, many people’s lives are hurt as a direct consequence of their actions and they should face that fact that their actions are without huge negative consequence. Everything from the US national debt to energy policy is the way it is because people fail to take part in seeking truth and really knowing what’s going on. Instead they are led as a flock of sheltered and dangerous sheep.
Whether it’s butting into a violent lover’s altercation in public (to prevent further physical harm to the women) as people idly watch it happen, or attempt to provide a basis for truth to people who ignorantly push the world into an abyss, I feel like I cannot and do not stand by and just observe. I’ve always been able to prevent actually being in a fight, by the way. I am not a tough guy.
WUWT is perhaps the ultimate forum for which to seek the naked and sometimes hurtful truth. And I LOVE feeling like I have a handle or at least a path towards what is true. Without knowing truth, our actions are really reactions that are controlled by others. WUWT reduces the number of ignorant and useful idiots.
M Courtney,
How dare you embarass me — an American, who knows that the US is the center of the known Universe — with that evil UK quiz?? Really: “Where did Ingrid Loyau-Kennet and Gemini and Amanda Donnelly-Martin demonstrate astonishing courage…” &etc.
When I started, I thought I was doing well getting 2 out of the first 3 answers. But I went downhill from there, before crashing and burning in complete ignorance.
However, you did a really excellent job in the US quiz. Only 4 wrong makes you smarter than 97% of all Guardian readers! [And smarter than 99.7% of typical Skeptical Science readers – but which isn’t really saying all that much, sorry].
You must have had great teachers, M. Speaking of which, it is a pleasant surprise seeing your father posting again. I was beginning to get concerned. Very glad to see him back.
And, Happy New Year to you both! May 2014 be better for everyone.
@ Jimbo — You finally spoke to me (after all those times I’ve tried to “talk” to you)! Cool. Thanks for the encouragement. And, uh, may God (smile) be with you as you continue to be one of the finest warriors on the WUWT frontline for truth. Go, Jimbo!
*****************************
MARIO LENTO! Bravissimo! You should run for office (you have the charisma and the intelligence AND are super-well-informed). Good — for — you to speak up for the weak (AND to try to educate the ignorant). Your description of your behavior was the norm for the average American male until about 35 years ago by which time the cultural norm had shifted (in some ways, for the better, but, in some ways, much worse). Your wife may be a little nervous about what other people might think (or about your safety!), but, no doubt she is very proud of you for your speaking out loudly for the truth and for your gallantry.
You go, Mario!
And, GO, NUCLEAR — THE SMART POWER. (just a little P.R. for you, there #(:))
Awh – Janice. 🙂
I had my last close encounter in Jamaica on my recent vacation. We went to a resort with another close couple. John and I hung out at the piano bar after our wive’s went to bed. We usually sat right new to the Piano player and drank, sang and got outright silly. The player was a local Jamaican, with local accent and all – but he could play virtually any American song from the 60s through this decade –even songs that should never be played on a piano. Think Jamaican version of “Hotel California” with piano accompaniment. He just got through playing a few Bob Marley songs (which actually sounded pretty authentic even with this non guitar stringed instrument), and started in on more American song requests from a group of Canadians on the other side of the bar.
Well – that’s when a Russian visitor squeezed into me (I was pressed against the end of the bar), so I could not really get out of his way. He started commanding (in broken English) that the piano man stop playing American songs. “This is Jamaica and Jamaican heritage not the American sh_t. I let him make his point. He continued on making a scene verbally attacking the piano man. The piano man was visibly shaken. I finally had to tell him to back off, and have respect outside of his own country. I cannot write the obscenities he used – but I made a stand which lasted a few minutes before I become vocally forceful. At that point, I told him he needed to clean himself (he had a very heavy odor of one who hadn’t bathed and did not know what deodorant was). He, backed off a little but was still sizing me up. My friend was being more reasonable and started playing good cop, but I could not stand the smell. After a couple of minutes, a very large Canadian man inserted himself and told the Russian to get out. His girlfriend seeing how this would end pulled on him to leave.
After the Russian left, people throughout the night thanked me for taking a stand. Others said they had my back. I thought this time, might really end up badly… but thank God there are some people willing to do what’s right.
@ Mario — WOW. What a night! Thanks for sharing that. It is great to know that there are people like you in the world, willing to take a stand. Whew! I’ll bet your wives were glad they found about it afterward. What a stinking JERK that guy was. Yes, indeed, (smile), I thank God for you.
Thanks dbstealey. It is nice to see my father back but I’m sure his aggressive nature wont be welcomed by all.
And actually, I am a Guardian reader too. The reason I could do the American end of year quiz is that I read both the left and right wing press here in the UK.
Also, I know where the Pyramids are.