Two years and 101 columns: Time flies when having fun

This is my 101st “Light of Day” column for The Gazette, an accomplishment, if I’m allowed to call it that, I would have celebrated last week had I known I reached such a milestone.
The only reason I realized I reached 100 was because it occurred to me, during a random thought, I’m coming up on two years of working here, and with 52 columns a year I thought I must be close to the big 100. I quick search of files on The Gazette’s network revealed I was at 101.
That’s 101 weeks of either poisoning the public with my mindless dribble, to some, or 101 weeks of hopefully making people laugh with my personal perspective on growing up, raising a family, relationships with a spouse and child, as well as the rest of the world, and my thoughts on pop culture.
I’ve raved about the fun things Portage County has to offer, and I’ve ranted about bad customer service. I’ve praised people and places I find interesting, and I’ve bemoaned bad behavior from people at movie theaters and my own son, who happens to be the No.-1 topic I usually write about, mainly because I know most people can relate to the topic of children.
Some weeks I struggle, finding a topic to write about at the last minute and hoping I can say enough interesting and humorous things about it to reach at least 600 words. Other weeks I whip them out in less than an hour, writing well over 1,000 words.
By nature I like to mock – my friends and I practically majored in the subject in college – but I try my best to be nice in this column, as I don’t want to upset anybody just because I have the desire to make others laugh at that person’s expense. But some weeks I can’t help myself, and sometimes my wife needs to tell me to “be nice,” causing me to edit myself. Sometimes the editor at The Gazette, Gene Kemmeter, will do that for me, although he will always consult me before making any changes.
I have no idea what I have planned for the next 100 columns. If I had to guess, there will probably be plenty more about my son as he starts school, my relationship with my wife as that’s always a fun topic, and my adventures through life – and maybe I’ll take a real vacation somewhere that will be much more interesting than Wisconsin Dells.
I’m sure I’ll also write about pop culture, as movies, music, books and television are my favorite subjects outside of family and friends. Expect my thoughts on “what if” situations involving robots sent from the future to change the future, and on my reasoning as to why Sonic Youth and The Replacements are two of the best bands of all-time most people have probably never heard.
Although I don’t hear from many people, good or bad, regarding my columns, the few times I have received feedback it has almost always been positive. Only once did someone complain – from a gentleman who took a column I wrote about global warming way too seriously, when in fact it was meant to be entirely tongue-in-cheek.
Although this is my 101st “Light of Day” column for The Gazette, I wrote quite a few for The Waushara Argus where I worked for 10 years previously to coming here. I did not write those columns on a consistent basis, though, as I was often censored there so not to offend advertisers.
For example, I once wrote about my love for online auctions, and because a real auctioneer was offended by a statement in the column I made about not liking real auctions, I was reprimanded by my editor. Frustrated because my editor did not understand the concept of “freedom of press,” and for the paper’s lack of ability to separate news from advertising, I only wrote my columns when I was inspired.
People I knew in Waushara County sometimes asked why I didn’t write the columns more often, because they enjoyed them. I never gave them the real answer, for fear of losing my job. I’m not afraid to tell the people of Portage County, though, because I’m comfortable enough pretty much saying anything, regardless of how it makes my family or me look.
And believe me, my wife is always telling me she can’t believe I wrote something about us in a column. She’s always asking if she can ever give her perspective on some of my ramblings. I probably will, sometime within the next 101 columns.