{"id":201,"date":"2003-05-14T22:30:38","date_gmt":"2003-05-15T06:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=201"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T08:00:00","slug":"jumping-the-shark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/?p=201","title":{"rendered":"Jumping the Shark"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a favor to ask of you.<\/p>\n

It’s that time of year—sweeps week, season finales on prime time TV, dramatic plots and cliffhangers. Shows that you like might never come back, and shows that you hate might pop up again. And after the season is over, all that’s left are reruns.<\/p>\n

H.E. and I have been discussing some of his favorite shows—which of them are coming back and which of them aren’t, which of them have jumped the shark<\/a> and which of them are close to doing so.<\/p>\n

The conversation led me to think about a casual observation that Christian Finnegan<\/a> made on his blog some time ago. He wondered jokingly if his blog had “jumped the shark.”<\/p>\n

Now I am idly wondering the same thing about mine.<\/p>\n

Here’s why. My site consistently gets bookmarked between 150-200 times a month, but I have no idea what makes all those people bookmark me. [Hmm… or is it just one person obsessively bookmarking me five times a day?!] So I got the notion that I should list some favorite entries or recommendations to first-time readers [or to that single nutty person bookmarking me 40 times a week], and I started reading my older entries, even the ones from B.C., before comments. After reading a few of them, I had an uneasy realization:<\/p>\n

Some of my writing back then was way, way, waaaay better than it is today. [For one thing, back then, I would never have written the words “way, way, waaaay better” at all.]<\/p>\n

Does that mean I have jumped the shark? Am I going downhill from here? Am I only progressively getting worse? I sure hope not. I’ve got many more plots<\/strike> ideas for future episodes<\/strike> entries up my sleeves, and I haven’t even come close to using half of them. There’s going to be a couple of shootings and a kidnapping, a là West Wing<\/a>, a few murders and instances of extortion, a là The Practice<\/a>, and some accidents, evil twins, and bouts of amnesia, a là every single damn daytime soap opera.<\/p>\n

Yes, I plan to stick around a little bit longer, dishing out new episodes whenever the hormones permit and for as long as Aaron Sorkin<\/a> is writing my log. But I need to know when I have jumped the shark. Someone has to point it out to me because I’m sure I’ll be too blind to see it. Will you do that for me?<\/p>\n

Pretty please? That’s the favor I’m asking of you.<\/p>\n

Some blogs come, and some blogs go. Some mysteriously never get taken up again, and all that’s left are the archives, like old reruns on Nick at Night. Some remake themselves, like spinoffs, forever creating new characters, material, and expensive ad buys. Some just keep going and going and going and going, like the Energizer bunny, unchanged yet outlasting everything (even cockroaches) and still coming out fine. And some just keep going and going and going and going, even though they’re no longer any good, having killed off the entire cast (who have all been raped, extorted, kidnapped and deprived of all memory) and having told every sad joke and bit of drivel at least twice or three times over.<\/p>\n

Well, I don’t want to be one of those in that last category, so nudge me in the ribs if I start doing the beach thing in a black leather jacket and motorcycle boots.<\/p>\n

Or…<\/p>\n

Better yet. Among all the blogs or online journals that you’ve encountered online, tell me which ones have already<\/i> jumped the shark. Then maybe I can go read them and learn what NOT to do. But if you send me a link to my own site, be sure to specify in which entry the shark was hiding, okay?<\/p>\n

Thanks!<\/p>\nShare this post:

\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"reddit\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"tumblr\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve got a favor to ask of you. It’s that time of year—sweeps week, season finales on prime time TV, dramatic plots and cliffhangers. Shows that you like might never come back, and shows that you hate might pop up again. And after the season is over, all that’s left are reruns. H.E. and I have been discussing some of his favorite shows—which of them are coming back and which of them aren’t, which of them have jumped the shark…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aprilgem.com\/log\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}