Reader Comments

The audience for my blog and my songs is not large; mostly family and friends. Please know that I am grateful for every person who bothers to read or listen.   I am particularly grateful for the folks who take time to leave comments.  My web hosting service does not offer an easy way to acknowledge or respond to these comments.  But please know that I read them all, and many of them make me laugh.   All of them make me smile.

And hey:  this is the Internet, after all; and you never know who might stumble into your site!   A few years back I wrote a blog post about Louisville, Kentucky, a city I find completely charming.   The post ended with some photos of a 250-lb tortoise who was grazing at the edge of a large parking lot, in the middle of a sea of pavement.  I wondered in my blog how this creature, who moved at the speed of....well, a tortoise....could possibly have made it from wherever its home might have been to the edge of this parking lot.

Several months later, I got the answer, when a kind soul named Ben posted this comment:

Thank you, Ben, for taking the time to write!   And thanks, as well, to the folks who left this supportive post:

And this one:

I never dreamed that through my modest blog, I'd be able to support the community of English language learners in such a robust way.  Here's another:

My blog actually has a surprising number of international fans.

My Russian audience is particularly enthusiastic!   Barely a day passes without a comment on my website from that fine country.

I am always particularly touched by commenters who show concern for my well-being.   After a post about my move from Newton to Boston, one reader was apparently concerned about the convenience of drug stores in my new neighborhood.

Thanks so much for the suggestion, James -- that online Indian pharmacy sounds like a great option!   Actually, though, my new apartment is an easy walk from three different CVS stores, plus a Walgreens to boot; so I think I'm good for now.  But I'll be sure to keep this in mind for the future!

While we are on the topic of pharmaceuticals, I would like to acknowledge Davidbus for this thoughtful entry:

I do consider myself a feminist blogger; and for some time I have been meaning to write about the under-acknowledged trauma of female erectile dysfunction.   Thank you, Davidbus, for bringing this important issue to the fore.

After a post about my new apartment I received comments with helpful decorating tips:

And it is good to know there are ways to make new friends should life in the big city get a little lonely.

For any of us who are active on the Internet, online security is an issue that is never far from our minds.   So I am all sympathy with the kind soul who wrote in to share this concern:

I, too, would hate to lose my hard work to hackers!   I am so grateful that this well-intentioned reader provided a link on which I could click to easily share my ideas on the topic.  Because this is, after all, the Internet.  And you never know into whose site you might stumble.

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