Tag Archives: Unpacking the Aunty Em Ericann Blog

Unpacking the Writer ► A New Name; A New Look

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Aunty Em Ericann

When I was leaving Canada 9 years ago I told several people that my goal was to become a nationally known pundit under the nom de plume of Aunty Em Ericann. I did that.

For 8 years I became, for all intents and purposes, Aunty Em, entirely subsuming my identity under which I had already earned a writing reputation. It would have been far easier to have used my reputation as a writer, but somehow this writing project appealed to my warped sense of humour.

I have been a freelance journalist for the better part of 40 years. I got my start writing record reviews, eventually moving on to magazine work, investigative journalism, various words-for-hire projects. For ten years I worked as a Ventriloquist (News Writer) at Citytv. I have long joked that I have done every kind of writing there is, except greeting cards.  Not to blow my own horn, (if not me, who will?) but merely to explain what became a tangled mess in the end. However, as a professional writing project, the longest, greatest, funniest, most interesting, challenging and hardest I ever had was creating the Performance Art character of Aunty Em Ericann. Who knew she would eventually be hired to write for NewsHounds? When my editor agreed to let me keep the nom de plume, I was thrilled.

Johnny Dollar — aka Mark Koldys — plays with his organ.
Remember Mark, like ratings organ size doesn’t matter.

That all ended a year ago, an episode hilariously explored in the very first post on this blog: Johnny Dollar Has Proven Himself To Be A Very Dangerous Person. While he’s still dangerous, I was entirely mistaken: He’s barely a person. He’s a walking piece of shit who recently connected me to the terrorism in Boston. I no longer write for NewsHounds, but that hasn’t stopped him from smearing me.

Laughingly, Johnny Dollar seems to think I crossed some kind of line by publishing pictures of him with his family and he’s become incensed enough to expose his hypocrisy. Here’s the irony: Exposing my alternative lifestyle didn’t seem to cross any kind of moral line for Mark Koldys, but publishing his family pictures is despicable behaviour according to him. It’s refreshing to see he actually draws moral lines about some things, especially when he’s on the receiving end. But, I digress. This isn’t about THAT asshole, or his Flying Monkey Squad. Today’s a day of celebration.

Today is the One Year Anniversary of having that asshole expose my nom de plume and the day I created this blog. The original name of this blog was a reaction to not using my name for 8 long years. So desperate to finally get credit, I called it “Headly Westerfield’s.” To retain the continuity and help bring along my NewsHound readers I used the tagline “Aunty Em Ericann Blog.” However, it’s time to give it the blog a brand new look and a brand new name. Of course, it will still include all the words you’ve come to expect from me. Just in a totally different order for each blog post.

If I had no readers, I’d have 84,842 fewer reasons to write, because that’s how many views Not Now Silly has had since it launched a year ago. However, not to offend any of my faithful readers, I’d be writing even if you weren’t reading. I was a writer long before I had any readers more than 45 years ago.

However, credit where credit’s due: I’m quite fond of most of what has risen to the Top Ten, and that’s entirely because my readers have good taste.

Here’s the Top Ten Of All Time Not Now Silly blog posts (and the date published):

1). Musical Appreciation ► Brian Jones – Jul 3, 2012
2).  The Detroit Riots ► Unpacking My Detroit ► Part Five – Jul 22, 2012
3).  Day In History ► Josephine Baker Born – Jun 3, 2012
4).  Chow Mein and Bolling 5 ► Bully Boy Lies (Again) – Oct 4, 2012
5). Is Marc D. Sarnoff Corrupt Or The Most Corrupt Miami Politician? – Feb 6, 2013
6). Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News” – May 15, 2012
7). How Mitt Romney Didn’t Build That – Oct 17, 2012
8). Day In History ► May 31, 1921 ► When Whites Went Crazy In Tulsa – May 31, 2012
9). Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Two ► E.W.F. Stirrup House – Jul 11, 2012
10). Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► Barbara Walters ► Katehrine Hepburn ► Trees – Jun 1, 2012
  
So, onward and upward as we inaugerate Not Now Silly for the next 365 days. I’m glad you’re here to take the ride with me.

A special big Aunty Em shout out to Keg who designed the new Not Now Silly banner. Thank you so much. I love it.

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Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► A Writer’s Rant

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Having been a professional writer for my entire adult life, I have come to the conclusion that Bill Gates ruined my trade.

Writing has always been something I did for as long as I can remember. If I wasn’t being paid to write, I was writing something for which one day I hoped to be paid. If neither, I was journaling, trying to capture smoke with my pen and ink hieroglyphics that often only I could decipher.

It was back at Sheridan College in the early ’70s that I got my first taste of writing to a deadline. I also learned how to publish on deadline, when I became the editor of “A” Student Magazine, working with an entire staff of writers and graphic designers to get issues out on time.

I was taking Media Arts and always assumed I would go into tee vee, or movies. Writing for the college paper was just for fun. So was being a DJ at Radio Sheridan, the ‘underground’ radio station that myself and several others had built from scratch a few years before. When I graduated, I became the first full-time paid manager for Radio Sheridan, which had been floundering after a series of part-time, student volunteer Station Managers almost drove the station into the ground.

Writing about music. What could be more fun?

During this period I started my first freelance writing/editing career. [There have been several.] First came ZoundZ Magazine, a small Rock and Roll handout placed at record store cash registers all over Toronto. Marty Herzog was my business partner and managing editor for a couple of years, for a couple of publications, as far back as “A” Student Magazine. ZoundZ [the second “z” was backwards] led to being asked to edit Cheap Thrills by Concert Productions International. It had promised a publication as part of its Cheap Thrills membership, a VIP line for ordering concert tickets. However a Cheap Thrills publication had never been produced and they were getting flack.

I was 100% against the idea. I loved the idea of having our own publication, without adult supervision. ZoundZ was starting generate income. We were being forced to consider more pages and a larger print run to justify the advertising we were getting from some of the “majors.” However, I didn’t have the headaches Marty did. He had been fronting all the money to have ZoundZ published. Aside from this, he did all the running around to printers and vendors, and sold all the advertising. Marty decided to ‘sell out’ to Michael Cohl and CPI (which really only solved his money headache) and I went along for the ride. [See my previous post on Ivor Wynne Stadium] For the first time in our loose partnership I was suddenly an employee. When Marty started ordering up good reviews of certain records because that’s what he promised the record company, I took a hike. My opinion was never for sale. I went back to freelancing. Marty went on to work for the record company to which he promised good reviews.

Over the years I have done every kind of writing there is, except the greeting card. I’ve crafted Hollywood puff pieces and gritty Rock and Roll profiles; written for Canadian music trade papers and various record companies; created artist bios, as well as reviewed concerts and records; practiced investigative and political journalism; did an entire decade as a tee vee news writer, where I called myself a ventriliquist; and, using the nom de plume Travis Bickel, wrote a regular column for Taxi News, while I drove cab and continued to sharpen my free lance Word-0-Matic Machine.

One of the supreme ironies is that I also wrote the first column in Canada which explored the nascent World Wide Web, still being called The Information Superhighway. I sucessfully pitched the editor of “We Computes,” a publication about hardware, the idea of monthly consumer-style column on those funny “http” things that had started to crop up everywhere you looked. At first Eric was baffled because even he didn’t know what an URL was and what it did. However, in the end, he took a monthly column for a couple of years, until a guide for navigating the World Wide Web seemed superfluous.

This is the same period when Bill Gates was turning the Information Superhighway into a point-and-click dealie. In the days of 300 baud modems and BBSs, one needed to know EXACTLY what to type on the C: prompt to get the computer to do anything whatsoever. Before Bill Gates made it easy, one needed to know programs like PINE and understand how to navigate USENET. Then came the mouse and GUIs and everything changed.

Suddenly HTML ruled and everybody and their brother thought they were a writer, which totally devalued the craft. Everywhere I go (on the innertubes) from the smallest sites to the largest, I see poorly written and poorly edited web sites. Most of these are making money hand-over-fist (whatever the hell that cliche means). Meanwhile, I’ve barely figured out how to monetize this web site. [I continue to be open to suggestions.] If I were being paid by the hour for these words, I’d starve. The irony is that I should have seen this coming and found a way to cash in. 

That’s why every once in a while I write one of these Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog posts, which my regular readers recognize as my way of urging them to click on one of the adverts. They know it doesn’t cost a cent, but will put a few — and I do mean few — cents in my pocket. Go ahead. It won’t hurt at all.

Now, don’t you feel better? Meanwhile, let’s break down the Top Ten Posts for the last 30 days, pulling back the curtain:

A moment on this blog frozen in time.

My post on the Detroit Riots has exploded. While it’s #1 for the month at 488 hits, it’s managed to climb to #3 on the All Time Top Posts with 916 views. That means most of the growth came in the past month for reasons that totally elude me. I’m grateful, because it’s one of the posts I’m most proud of.

The next 3 posts are all interrelated. I’ve been researching Coconut Grove, more specifically E.W.F. Stirrup, for several years now. The #2 post contains the latest research and celebrates Coconut Grove’s birthday. During my research into West Grove, someone in the neighbourhood alerted me to a controversy that was already being called Trolleygate. An Introduction to Trolleygate and The Trolleygate Dog and Pony Show are my first two investigative pieces on Trolleygate, a scandal that’s sure to keep on giving.

The rest of the Top Ten is filled with Fox News Snark, but sneaking into the pack at #7 is my post on Josephine Baker, another one I’m proud of. It also seems to be a favourite of my readers because it clocks in as #2 on the All Time Top Posts list with, 1,235 clicks.

So, there you have it. If you got this far, you owe me. Click on an advert or you’ll never be able to look at yourself in the mirror without feeling a pang of guilt. Seriously.

Fun With Pictures ► Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog

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Vulcan mind-meld — you’re doing it wrong.
Caption Contest winner: ET

To pick up where I left off in my Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog series, dear readers . . .

In the wake of Johnny Dollar exposing my nom de plume and sex life — and while still mightily pissed off — I created a facebook page called The Johnny Dollar Depreciation Society and invited some people to join. Only 15 people ever did and I promptly forgot all about it. That is, until recently. The other day I added a few more pics of Johnny Dollar that people had sent me over the last few months, as I continue to research my book.

This morning I received the following private message from a █████ ██████, who claims to be the brother to the aforementioned walking pile of human excrement Mark Koldys. Why anyone would admit to that is beyond me, but he did. Now I need to caution everybody that anyone can claim to be █████ ██████. Furthermore, any █████ ██████ can claim to be a brother to one of the biggest assholes on the planet, just like I claimed to be Aunty Em Ericann for 7 fun years. Just like anyone can claim to be Morty Shatz, Ngu AliceSamatha, or Oy Humidity, all recent facebook contacts that I suspect of being Dollarites who are catfishing me.

You see, dear reader, that’s one of my problems these days. Johnny Dollar has made me extremely paranoid about every new out-of-the-woodwork-interweb-contact, including professed brothers of supreme assholes. And, that’s a terrible position for a journalist to be in.

Anyway, I digress. This particular ‘Brother █████’ wrote to The Johnny Dollar Depreciation Society, which is me:

Hello. I was hoping you would consider a request. Your site is most interesting however I do hope that your intended focus is not the dead parent of Johnny D or his brother (myself a lifelong Democrat..Kerry, Gore, Obama). You may feel free to tangle with him to your hearts content. I have asked Facebook to request you remove just the family pictures. I am hoping you will do so. I have no dog in this fight. However remember an old saying… If you kick the dog you own the bite… if you tickle the dog you own the delight.
I appreciate your understanding.

What a polite message and that’s no snark. I’m assuming this so-called █████ ██████ is referring to this picture:

Unlike how I posted this pic on facebook, the innocent faces are blacked out.
Mark Koldys is on the far right with the pens in his pocket and the snazzy plaid pants.

My very public reply:

█████: Thank you for your polite message. It’s just a shame you didn’t come to me first before you alerted facebook.

However, how can I refuse such a polite request? I removed the picture from The Johnny Dollar Depreciation Society as soon as I received your request. As you say, my intended focus is not your deseased father ████ [pictured at left] or yourself [middle]. Unfortunately, facebook was unaware I had already removed the COVER picture, so it removed a new COVER picture that (I assume) you would not have disproved of. Oh well.

Mark Koldys at some nuptials

Having said all that, your alleged brother deserves whatever public humiliation which can be brought down upon him. In his effort to defend Fox “News” against the indefensible, your brother has “gone over the line” on so many occasions. No one cares that he defends Fox “News.” Different strokes, and all that. It’s that his modus operandi is lies, misdirection and personal attacks. He is, dare I say it, the very type of person that’s hurting ‘Merka.

Mark Koldys proved he will stoop to ANY low when he viciously attacked NewsHound writer Aunty Em Ericann (me!) and exposed the fact that I was using that as my Performance Artist Nom De Plume™, even though hundreds of people already knew and it was not that big a secret. While I always
expected that to happen eventually, I never expected there would be an asshole creepy enough to expose details of my sex life at the same time.
Enter and sign in please, Mark Koldys, aka Johnny Dollar.

Just so you know, █████, because I think you should have all the facts, the details of my sex life were later removed from his blog, now leaving it up to
everyone’s imagination what it might be. He even threatened to put it back because I complained about that. Johnny Dollar — Mark Koldys — has never apologized for what he did to me and
even defended it on several occasions. He only removed the details, he
made abundantly clear, because it offended the precious sensibilities of
one of his sycophants, not because he had any crisis of confidence.

IRONY ALERT: Mark Koldys decrying the exact
tactics he employs against every NewsHound writer.

Furthermore, he did this knowing full-well that I was about to attend a large family reunion in the Detroit area. That you claim to be his family and are feeling some slight discomfort about a pic on facebook is kind of cute. I had to explain this brouhaha to HUNDREDS of people, including family and friends. Every once in a while, 9 months later, it still pops up and I have to explain all over again.

How much of your own sex life have you been forced to share with how many people?

“Some people say” I was merely collateral damage in the 8-year war Johnny Dollar has waged against the NewsHounds web site. If you feel wounded remember you’re just another casualty of your alleged brother’s dirty business.

Before I sign off █████, I’m hoping the following anecdote will make you laugh as much as it did “some people” who dislike Johnny Dollar:

On the same day I posted the pic that you asked me to remove from facebook, a friend taught me how to use Google Images to search a particular image for similar images. Just for shits and giggles I plugged your brother’s picture into the search engine. I admit I was really just being a jerk, but it seemed like a fun exercise at the time. Unfortunately it found no matches. However, as a secondary function, Google returns “Visually similar images.” I took a screen cap, because that also amused me. Then I shared it with some people who dislike Johnny Dollar, for no other reason than I knew it would amuse all of us.

That’s when one of them pointed out that on the bottom row, in the very middle, is Josef Mengele, Adolph Hitler’s Angel of Death.

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Josef Mengele

I haven’t stopped laughing since and keep wondering how many other mass murderers are among those 27 mugshots.

Once again, █████, I appreciate your good manners, something your alleged brother clearly never learned. I have no quarrel with you. Feel free to friend me on facebook, subscribe to my Twitter feed, or follow my blog. And, why not join The Johnny Dollar Depreciation Society while you’re at it. You’d be welcome.

With all my love,
Aunty Headly

Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► New Year’s Resolutions

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Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, other than a promise to myself to get through the upcoming year. Even that is out of my ultimate control, because the Flying Spaghetti Monster manifests itself into all our destinies.

However, we can take a look backward at 2012 without offending the FSM’s sensibilities. Two-thousand and twelve was the year I transitioned from Aunty Em Ericann back to Headly Westerfield. In a nutshell (because I still get email asking about it), here’s how that happened:

  • Woke up one day to discover that the walking piece of human excrement Mark Koldys, also known as Johnny Dollar, revealed my nom de plume of Aunty Em Ericann, along with details of my sex life. No, really! I couldn’t believe it either;
  • To Johnny Dollar’s eternal dismay, the outing of my nom de plume accidentally confirmed every other aspect of Aunty Em’s biography that J$ had placed in doubt, including whether I had ever worked at Citytv;
  • Left NewsHounds of my own volition when I had a disagreement with the editor on whether NewsHounds should retaliate for the above;
  • Started the Aunty Em Ericann Blog with the post disallowed at NewsHounds.

The Aunty Em Ericann Blog picks up from Aunty Em’s Place, the blog I launched when I first created the meta-character of Aunty Em Ericann. When I created her and her biography I had no idea I would one day be using the pen name to write news. However, at some point in time, I was approached by the editor at NewsHounds, where I was already commenting on threads, whether I wanted to write for the blog. I thought that was an honour because I was already a fan of NewsHounds and the movie Outfoxed.

If you don’t know Outfoxed, here’s the trailer:
[Psst! The whole thing can be found online, but that’s between me, you and the doorpost, okay?]

While I agreed to write for NewsHounds, I demanded to continue to write under the name Aunty Em Ericann, even though I revealed to her my real identity. She agreed. I think she was happily surprised that I actually worked as a tee vee news writer at Citytv for a decade. However, at the same time, she must have thought I was crazy because I had some very wacky ideas for Aunty Em’s posts. Aunty Em was always meant to be a meta-character, who would comment as much on the pop culture of the day as on Fox “News.” My editor quickly disabused me of this notion with her judicious editing. Eventually I fell into line and no longer had to be edited and could post directly to the NewsHounds blog.

Being unmasked as Aunty Em has been both freeing and a constricting. On one hand I no longer have to keep my posts to Fox “News” and they don’t have to rise to the same level of accuracy. On the other hand: There was always some protection from the Reich Wing Nut Jobs, who (I fear) all own guns. Speaking of enemies: Since leaving NewsHounds and launching the Aunty Em Ericann Blog, I’ve made more enemies at Fox “News” than I ever had at NH.

That’s because I can’t leave Fox “News” alone as a source of merriment.

Happy New Year!!!

Unpacking the Aunty Em Ericann Blog

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Welcome to my occasional entry of Unpacking the Aunty Em Ericann Blog, where I ask my readers to pay attention to the man behind the curtain, who used to be “Aunty Em Ericann,” the woman behind the curtain.

Before I left Canada, 7 years ago, I told several people (who may now be too embarrassed to admit to knowing me) that I was going to become a nationally-known pundit in ‘Merka under the nom de plume “Aunty Em Ericann.” To that end I created the meta-character named Aunty Em Ericann, who eventually came to write at NewsHounds. The back story for Aunty Em was deceptively simple. Here’s her biographical profile:

Emily Ericann. That’s my real name. Well it was, before I went back to my maiden name after the divorce. My ex and I were dating for 2 months before we realized that if we got married my name could be pronounced “american” (Em Ericann). After it all went bad, I realized that’s the only real reason we got married. Ironically, I am a former American. However, I lived in Canada three and a half decades and became a Canadian citizen along the way. And yet, I recently returned to The Land of My Birth to take care of my aged father. Shocked by the before and after differences in America, I will use this forum to speak out. 

Some members of the Miklós Rózsa Society. Miklós
Rózsa is in the center. The sack of shit who hides
behind the name of Johnny Dollar is on the far left.

I got away with the nom de plume for a number of years before the two-legged piece of excrement named Johnny Dollar decided it was his mission in life to expose Aunty Em’s identity, along with my sex life. That story is outlined in Johnny Dollar Has Proven Himself To Be A Very Dangerous Person, the very first post on this blog.

However, my long-time readers already know that story. If they’ve been paying attention they also know that my Unpacking Aunty Em Ericann Blog series is merely an excuse to find clever ways to remind them to click on some of the advertising, so I can keep the Aunty Em Ericann Blog rolling. It won’t cost you anything, but will add a few pennies (and I do mean few) to my coffers, helping to support this enterprise.

I’m looking at YOU!

Meanwhile, one statistic I can access through the Blogger platform is
what search terms people have used to find their way to the Aunty Em Ericann Blog. Take a look at this chart for this week:

Top Ten search terms delivering readers to the “Aunty Em Ericann” blog this week. They all make sense except #8.

I don’t know what disturbs me the most: That this week one of the search terms that people used to arrive here was “boy staked to the ground”; that three separate people used the search term “boy staked to the ground”; or that, somehow, “boy staked to the ground” brings people to my blog, even though I’ve tried it without any luck. While I’m thinking about it, I’m not so sure of Arawak People being on this blog either.

From time to time I also like to review what my Top Ten posts are. I can see which ones are highly-rated at any given moment in time, or by the day, by the week, by the month, and of all time since the Aunty Em Ericann Blog launched.

My Top Ten most popular posts of All Time

My Top Ten Posts of All Time™ in handy clickable hypertext:

 

Click on one of the links above to read one of my Top Ten blog entries, or just go exploring from the front page. There’s guaranteed to be a story or two you like, or maybe something that merely pisses you off. However, just keep in mind that it would be a small favour to me for you to click on one of the adverts . . . or two . . . on the Aunty Em Ericann Blog.

Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► Shit Just Got Real

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Pictures in the public domain stitched together by author

From time to time I like to unpeel the onion and reveal a bit of what it takes to put this blog together. I call the series “Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog,” Aunty Em being my nom de plume when I was writing at NewsHounds.

However, as I have explained to my faithful readers, this series has always been nothing more than an excuse to find clever ways to beg my readers to click on an advert or two (in the right-hand column) while they are here. When someone clicks on an advert, I get a few pennies . . . and I do mean “a few.” Finding clever ways to get my readers to click on the adverts has become more crucial than ever. Yesterday I learned two things simultaneously:

  1. Blogger has a limit for FREE data storage;
  2. I had JUST reached that upper limit.

I felt as if someone had just said to me, “Psst! Hey kid! The first one’s free! Now it’ll cost you.”

Faced with this dilemma there was only one practical thing to do: So that I can continue to bring to my vast reading audience all its favourite series, I’ll start to pay the monthly fee for the data storage.

All your favourites are here: Unpacking Coconut Grove, Unpacking My Detroit, Another Magical Tee Vee Moment, The Fox “News” Spin Cycle, Judge Not, Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be, Fox “News” Snark, Music Reviews, Chow Mein and Bolling, and my other various looks at various topics, as varied as Watergate right up to Today in History.

Think of this series like a PBS Pledge Break: If you want to see your favourite EmTV series to continue, call the number at the bottom of your . . . Wait!!! What??? There’s no number? Then click on several ads while you’re here and keep this blog in data storage.

Pretty please with sugar on top?

You can also connect with me at facebook and Twitter. The more the merrier.

Unpacking the Aunty Em Erican Blog At Six Months

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My All Time Top Ten. Click to enlarge.

Light the candles and break out the noise-makers!!! The Aunty Em Ericann Blog celebrates Six Months of Existence this week. And to think it all started with Johnny Dollar Has Proven Himself To Be A Very Dangerous Person on April 19, 2012.

It’s been a wild six months for both my readers and myself. In that time I have written 180 posts and published tens of thousands of words. I’ve made new friends and, just as importantly, made several new enemies. However, what have I learned in that time? Among other things, I’ve learned that posts on Brian Jones are hugely popular. My highest-rated post is the July 3, 2012 post on Brian Jones. As of this writing it has had 1991 hits, which is more than twice as many as my 2nd highest-rated post on Josephine Baker, while exactly a month older has only 863 hits. That’s also more than 3 times my Number Three most popular post detailing my HIGH-LARRY-US bun fight with the Fox “News” correspondent James Rosen, which has only 619 hits.

James Rosen, self-proclaimed Beatles
expert and historical revisionist

For the longest time the Rosen post was my most popular. It was sad to see it slide to Number Three because it was my first post about Fox “News” (aside from all my writing at NewsHounds). Its popularity gave me the impetus to launch several wildly popular series on my blog, including The Fox News Spin Cycle and Chow Mein and Bolling. Just this week I spun off a new series called Judge Not, exploring the Libertarian mind (such as it is) of Judge Andrew Napolitano, the Fox “News” Senior Judicial Analyst.

The Number Four Post in my All Time Top Ten is a sleeper that crept up on me. It also happens to be about Fox News. I was shocked when the so-called “news” channel (in the guise of Bill “Loofah Lad” O’Reilly) felt the need to attack Randy Newman for his “I’m Dreaming” song. Since being published on September 22, 2012 it’s already wracked up 471 hits in just a month, which might make it my fastest growing post in popularity. It will be interesting to see how it does over the long haul.

The E.W.F. Stirrup House

My Number Five All Time Post is the one that I wish was really my Number One, because it’s an issue near and dear to my heart. If you’ve not been following my Unpacking Coconut Grove series, please take a look. I am trying to save the historic 120-year old E.W.F. Stirrup House from Demolition by Neglect. A 120-year old house doesn’t sound like much, but compared to everything else in Florida, that’s ancient. The house is not only architecturally important, but culturally important as well. It marks the zenith of the Bahamian community in Coconut Grove which helped build and serve the rest of the community. It was built by one of Florida’s first Black millionaires who . . . Well, please go read it for yourself. Suffice to say that E.W.F. Stirrup was a man way ahead of his time. His important legacy will be lost when his house no longer stands.

However, as much as I am interested in looking back, I am just as interested in the current Top Ten Posts of the Week. Here’s how that breaks down.

I want to thank all my readers who drop in to read what I have to say. While you’re at my blog, please take the time to click on one of the adverts. It will cost you nothing, but it adds a few (and I do mean few) pennies to my account and helps support the time and energy it takes to maintain the Aunty Em Ericann Blog. Thanking you in advance.

Unpacking the Aunty Em Ericann Blog Again

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Every once in a while I like to pull back the curtain and show my readers what it looks like under the hood here at the Aunty Em Ericann Blog. However, and this is the important part, it’s really just an excuse for me to beg my readers to click on the ads. That’s the only way this blog generates any money for me and I work on it so very hard. Click on an advert. Clicking on an advert will cost you nothing, but it will put a few pennies into my pocket . . . and I do mean “few.”

All-time Top Ten posts.
Click to enlarge
All-time Top Ten search terms. Click to enlarge

I started this blog on April 19, 2012. Since then the blog has had 35,352 page views (as of this writing), which averages out to approximately 7,070 page views per month. That’s not bad for a newish blog. At left is a list of the all-time Top Ten Posts. It’s clear even at a small resolution that the Number One post is ahead by a wide margin: 1,493 to 610 for the Number Two post. I find that stunning for a bunch of reasons, main among them is that I’ve not promoted the Number One post; people have found it through the Googalizer, as evidenced by the next graph. At the time of this writing 526 people have found the Number One page in a search, as opposed to 293 who searched and found the Number Two post on the blog.

For the record: The Top Ten posts on the Aunty Em Ericann blog are:

Entry Pageviews
1494
610
560
375
319
310
310
281
281
266

Some of those surprise me. There’s really no reason I can think of why the Barbara Walters clip comes in at Number 10, or why the post on Wretched Gretched clocks in at Number Six. Both were intended to be silly one-offs, yet they keep on garnering readers. Amazingly neither are part of the search terms people have used to find my blog.

Who am I to argue with my readers? They know what they like.

I am gratified, however, that some of the posts I am most proud of have made it into the Top Ten.  Specifically I’d like to point to the ones on Josephine Baker, The E.W.F. Stirrup House, When Whites Went Crazy in Tulsa, and The Detroit Riots. The thread that connects them all is that they are all about Race Relations and Racism, a subject I have been researching as my own Independent Studies Course as long as I can remember.

Meanwhile, I will keep publishing my blog. Hopefully my readers will realize how much hard work goes into writing these posts and will click on an advert, or two, or three and help support this project.

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Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog ► Part New

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A moment in time

While I use this occasional series to peel back the layers and reveal some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of my blog, the more astute among my readers have already figured out that there is a hidden motive: This is my subtle way of trying to get people to click on the advertising on my blog.

Wait! That wasn’t subtle at all.

No, you’re right. Subtle can be over-rated. My need for people to click on the ads is not subtle either. I spend hours upon hours researching and writing some of these posts, yet the only compensation I receive is from the advertising…and only if you click on those adverts. If you liked something you’ve read here, why not help a blogger out?

Take a closer look at that column of ads over there on the right? Choose something that sounds interesting (but it doesn’t have to be interesting). Then click on it. That’s it!!! While it costs you nothing, dear reader, each click sends a few pennies (and I do mean “few”) my way. I bet that every time you click on one of those adverts, you will feel better. Go ahead, try it! See? Now try it again. Feel even better, doncha? It works every time.

A moment in time on the The Aunty Em Ericann Blog

Meanwhile, I’ve noticed some interesting things in the latest set of statistics. For the longest time — from almost the very day it was posted — Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News” was my most popular all-time article. It was written on May 15th and remained at the very tippy-top of my All Time Popular Posts right out of the gate. However, it was recently overtaken — by a very wide margin — in just this last week by my Musical Appreciation ► Brian Jones post. The Brian Jones post went up on July 3rd, almost 2 months after the Rosen post, yet has jumped to the top of the leader board.

It probaly didn’t hurt that The Rolling Stones celebrated their 50th Anniversary since I posted the Brian Jones appreciation. Most people arrived at the Aunty Em Ericann Blog through a Google search. I wonder if yesterday’s birthday of Mick Jagger will boost the latest numbers.

NUMBER 6 WITH A BULLET: It’s also gratifying to see my Coconut Grove series rising in popularity, especially the post Unpacking Coconut Grove ► Part Two ► E.W.F. Stirrup House. This is the article in which I lay out the history of Ebenezer Woodbury Franklin Stirrup and why his house and legacy should be saved. I would be gratified if you will pass this along to people who are interested in historical preservation.

Stay tuned for Part Three of this series. In the next installment, which is almost complete, I will expose who controls which properties surrounding the E.W.F. Stirrup House and who is responsible for the Demolition by Neglect that the house is currently undergoing. This could get very ugly, especially since there are millions of developers’ dollars at stake.

James Rosen of Fox “News” who
wrote “The Strong Man.” his and
cover-up of John Mitchell

ROSEN UPDATE: For those of you clamoring for Part Two of Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News,” fear not: It’s coming. While it’s partially written, I have had more important things on my plate than proving why the 4-year old book “The Strong Man,” by Fox “News” correspondent James Rosen, is nothing but revisionist history. And, not to put too fine a point on it, there are still a few interviews I need to conduct in order to expose Rosen’s secret source on Page 61 (of the hardcover).

When Rosen wrote his John Mitchell apologia, his anonymous source could be assured that (s)he could lie with impunity about whether Anna Channault was telling the truth. However, subsequent releases of information about the 1968 presidential election, years before Watergate, proved that what Channault said was THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

This might be considered by some to be arcane, academic knowledge not worth revisiting at this point, some 44 years, or 11 presidential elections, after the one that put Richard Nixon in office. However, TREASON is never an academic issue and that’s what Rosen’s secret source is covering up by lying about Anna Chanault.

The million dollar question needs to be asked: Who could possibly be still around from those bygone days still interested in covering up Richard Nixon’s TREASON? Rosen knows who it was and, by now, must know he printed an untruth told to him by his anonymous source.

I have my suspicions on who the source was. A few more interviews and I will be able to announce it as a fact. I am even willing to listen to what James Rosen might have to say, but he’d rather block me on Twitter than answer my uncomfortable questions about his book.

Another moment
in time.

BACK TO THE STATS: One of the statistics that continues to fascinate me is where my readership lives. While ‘Merkins are far and away the top readers of my blog, I find it surprising that #2 is Italy by a wide margin over #3, the United Kingdom. Both of those beat Canada, where most of my family and friends live.

Italy? I don’t even speak the language.

Meanwhile, feel free to poke around on my blog, leave some comments, call me names, whatever meets your fancy. However, don’t forget to click on one of those adverts. Pretty please with sugar on top!

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Unpacking The Aunty Em Ericann Blog

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Help keep Aunty Em in nail polish. Click on an advert.

One of the cool things that Blogger gives a blogger like me is a bunch of stats. There’s not a lot of ways to view the information, but within the statistics can be found some real information. F’rinstance, since starting this blog, here are the Top 10 countries where my visitors live:

United States [9,601 visitors]
Italy [1,420]
Canada [320]
United Kingdom [284]
Ireland [177]
Russia [168]
Germany [119]
France [67]
Australia [46]
Netherlands [32]

    This is information I find totally useless. It would make more sense to know who they are than what country they come from so I can ask them personally if they enjoyed their stay here and how much they think it was worth.

    However, this is info I found more useful:

    Pageviews by Browsers

    1. Firefox 9,336 (64%)
    2. Internet Explorer 3,472 (24%)
    3. Chrome 619 (4%)
    4. Safari 343 (2%)
    5. Mobile 296 (2%)
    6. Mobile Safari 214 (1%)
    7. Opera 71 (<1%)
    8. Instapaper 21 (<1%)
    9. BingPreview 4 (<1%)
    10. Maxthon 3 (<1%)

    It allowed me to see what the Aunty Em Ericann Blog looked like on other platforms.

    But wait! That’s not all!!!

    Pageviews by Operating Systems

    1. Windows 8,782 (61%)
    2. Macintosh 4,731 (32%)
    3. iPhone 320 (2%)
    4. Android 217 (1%)
    5. Linux 144 (1%)
    6. iPad 115 (<1%)
    7. BlackBerry 41 (<1%)
    8. Other Unix 12 (<1%)
    9. Windows NT 6.1 8 (<1%)
    10. SymbianOS/9.3 2 (<1%)

    HA! There are operating systems on that list I have never heard of.

    As of this moment [1:29 PM DST; June 18, 2012] here are the Top Ten All Time Posts on my Aunty Em Ericann Blog:

    The Top Ten All Time Posts on the Aunty Em Ericann Blog

    Aunty Em Ericann’s Bun Fight With James Rosen of Fox “News”
    486 Pageviews
    Day In History ► May 31, 1921 ► When Whites Went Crazy in Tulsa
    340 Pageviews
    Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► My Days With John Sinclair
    301 Pageviews
    Day In History ► Last Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
    288 Pageviews
    Today’s Fox Snark ► Gretchen Carlson ► Updated With New Snark!!!
    285 Pageviews
    Another Magical Tee Vee Moment ► Barbara Walters ► Katherine Hepburn ► Trees
    280 Pageviews
    Johnny Dollar Has Proven Himself To Be A Very Dangerous Person
    269 Pageviews
    Sick Joke of the Day
    257 Pageviews
    Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used To Be ► Mr. Bojangles
    252 Pageviews
    The Mark Koldys-Johnny Dollar Comment of the Day
    239 Pageviews

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