Keep making us wait, and we'll expect a really *good* essay. No pressure, though.

I have found only three essayists of note who are regularly worth reading. One is Victor David Hanson. The second is Bill Whipple. The third, Steven den Beste, has unfortunately been forced to drop out and will be sorely missed.

Dear Korjack.

Thanks for the very kind words. However, after years of "Mr. Whipple" torment in elementary school I can say with confidence that if you call me that again I will exit this browser and erase the eight pages of SANCTUARY I wrote since I posted this entry.

Courage!

Bill,
Glad to hear you're OK and regrouped for another "online essay". Right on. Thought maybe you came down with Avid indigestion. I regretfully loaned SA to a verbal sparring buddy and like borrowed tools + music will have to make the drive up to confiscate it back. Talk about wealth redistribution, it hurt me more to let your treasure of "online essays" pass from my hand to his than to write out another tax payment. Keep your head down and don't drink the water. We need your clarity.

Waiting patiently....for the next essay and the hardcover SA!

Pace yourself Bill, don't burn out.

Verbiage!

We need to tawk befo' you do that hardcovah thingee, OK, sweetie? Moo-wah! ;^)

A hardcover version, excellent. Now I can actually buy the damn thing! (I hate paperback).

What a relief! Your Middle East fan club (me and my son, as far as I know) was getting concerned. Please take your time. Your stuff is always worth waiting for.

BILL!

You ARE alive! Amazing that even that short note is enough to have the shakes in remission.

Kudos to GHS, but I'm glad to hear from you and that you're still going strong.

Skate off an encouraging e-mail to Ann - she's starting to sound like she's running out of steam, and if I'm left here without my regular fix AND my methadone....well, it could get ugly.

Relieved,

MuscleDaddy

After the hardcover version, do we get the book on tape? :D

Any chance Bill could record his esays so we could listen to them? If not, due to time constraints, then perhaps some reader could? It would be pretty cool to listen to an essay in the car or something.

Bill!

Glad to see you are alive and well! Looking forward to the next installment, whenever it comes! 8 pages, sounds like brain candy...

Damn capitalism! Always making people WORK!

:)

Suffice it to say, your fans understand. And while we may wish you didn't have to do anything else besides write for us...well, if you were the kind of person who could stand to live like that even if you had a money press in the basement, you wouldn't be nearly so interesting.

He lives! Phew . . .

Perhaps an e-mail list you could use when there is new content here would save bandwidth AND your fans' time checking this site every day.

There are more good blogs than I have time to check, much less read. Your essays are worth checking for, and MUST be read.

-Dave

"I will sell no essay before it's time."

That's "its". Just ask Orson Welles.

I wouldn't have complained, but you're one of the better writers around (and that includes those in print), so I figured you wouldn't want a hastily-made mistake to stand. (I do it all the time, and have to watch carefully.)

Yea Bill, Can we get on an email list to notify us when there is something new?

Mike, re: the grammar mistake...

I don't think Bill was talking about the essay's time (usage would be its, like you said), he was saying he would "sell no essay before it is time" (so it's is the proper usage).

Or maybe I'm just trying to defend Bill b/c he would NEVER make a grammatical mistake!

;)

he would NEVER make a grammatical mistake!

stract, this magazine editor (that would be me) has to differ with ya on that one (c:

he would NEVER make a grammatical mistake

"This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put."

Bill,

Any chance you might make it to Oshkosh this year?

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Actually, Larry R, it's (check spelling) looking pretty likely that Bill and the Velocity will be making it to Oshkosh this year. Normally he does Sun 'n Fun, down in Lakeland, FL, but this year it looks like the same job that's keeping him away from the blog world right now, will be messing up his chances of getting to Sun 'n Fun, his annual pilgrimage.

Sorry about that, stract. I know we were all looking forward to meetin' up in the southeast in April, and under normal circumstances, it would have been a given. But right now it appears that the last weeks of May will be the first chance he gets for a week+ break away from the editing booth.

Either way though -- Sun 'n Fun or Oshkosh -- he'll still be winging his way through the southeast SOMEtime (got to stop in on North Carolina, to take the plane's owner up for a spin and all that), so, somehow, someway, it'll happen.

Gotta' run.

GHS

P.S. - And yes, "SANCTUARY" is gonna' be really cool. Can't wait.

I thought that the quote was:
"This is the sort of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."

Either way, it sounds like Churchill. (Winston, not the idiot at UofColorado.)

Prof W -

There are so many version of the quote that it's impossible to tell which one is correct. The story appears to have originated in Sir Ernest Gowers’ "Plain Words" (1948). The version I used comes from the Oxford Companion to the English Language.

See http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html

BLANK PAGES? WE DON' NEED NO STEENKING BLANK PAGES!!

No need to write since you're so busy.....just post more pictures of Dana. That will keep us occupied until your next missive.

Bill:
I think the difference is not whether what you write is blog or essay, but whether you have something to say or just need to say something. When you write you definitely have something to say. I agree with korjack about the Victor Davis Hanson comparison. I would much rather wait for the real thing than have my eyeballs wiggled with word candy.

Bill,
Please forgive me the incorrect name. It was purely a finger fumble and brain fart with no bad intention. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

Online Essayist? That is not what I signed up for at all! And to think all this time I thought you were a blogger! I feel like I have been lied to. I am sorry Bill, but this changes our relationship entirely. I need some time to sort this all out.

Heh.

heh

I will sell no essay before it's time.
You may be a bigshot essayist, but you can't rhyme worth a damn!

Bill Whittle?
Sounds familiar.
Bill Whittle?
OH, yeah, I remember. He's the guy who wrote those BEAUTIFUL essays that brought tears to my eyes and strength to my heart.
Whatever happened to him?
Geez, I hope he didn't die, or something.

I just stumbled on to your page tonight, about four hours ago. (9:30 pm) As far as it goes, I agree almost completely with your logic, and you may be the only person in the world who can convince me that G. W. Bush is who we need in the White House, however much I dislike his domestic agenda.

I really recomend "Moral Politics : How Liberals and Conservatives Think". On Amazon, by George Lakoff. I agree with you on what needs to be done, but I hate that the only people who will do it are the conservatives. Between Lakoff's book and your essays, I think I finally understand why I disagree with almost everyone in politics, in one way or another.

Bill,

I sent you an email about a gift from our EC-130H crew in Iraq. A little thanks for writing Silent America. We look forward to the next installments. On to Victory!

Methinks you slight Wretchard the Cat. His essays may not be quite as complete, as insightful as yours, but Sir! with all due respect, Wretchard posts some excellently crafted, factual and insightful essays which regularly touch, move and inspire the reading public even as they educate and inform.

March 21st already... Happy New (solar) Year! Happy Naw Ruz! Spring Equinox and all... May yr new year bring added satisfaction, meeting deadlines and writing essays!

Carridine

I will sell no essay before it's time.

expands to:

I will sell no essay before it is time.

Still makes sense :) Although 'its' -- making the essay posess time, rather than simply referring to it, does make a little MORE sense...

Nitpicking, nitpicking

--phil

Tuning Spork and Mike Ralls: you force me to divulge my shameful secret. I've had little success in getting my mother to read Silent America -- she's too busy, with long road trips etc. -- so I've been putting it on tape for her.

(Please don't sue me, Bill! This was intended to get you one more reader, that's all. Her copy is one of three I've bought so far and given away, in addition to one at home and one in the office.)

If it turns out that there's a market for Silent-America-on-Tape, I'd be happy to help out. What do you think, Bill? Are you interested in a dramatic reader with a resonant bass voice? (If you are, please contact me privately.)

with great respect,
Daniel in Brookline

Well, getting high praise from Hugh Hewitt, along with a *new job description*. Life don't get much better than that *grin*. We will wait while you do what needs to be done with "the real world ™ ".

In any case, the door is open and we'll leave the light on for ya!

Hey Daniel in Brookline,

How about e-mailing your reading to Bill? He puts his essay's up for free, why not someone reading of the essays? (Getting an book-on-tape published is even harder than a regular book).

Heck, I was considering offering my reading services to Bill myself.

Bill, you out there? I do pretty good dramatic readings, not to toot my own horn or anything.

Cheers,
Mike

I mentioned to Bill the other day this popular call for a book-on-tape version of "Silent America," and he said that not only did he like the idea a lot, but it was his ultimate intention -- SOME day -- to put it on DVD! With visuals. Like a PBS special or something.

If only he could find a competent video editor somewhere.

All he'd need would be a decent reading voice for the narration -- you know, like James Earl Jones, or maybe even Pauly Shore -- and the rest he could do in his own little evil splice-and-dice lab.

So it is, theoretically anyway, in the works.

So is another potential cross-country adventure in the Velocity somewhere around early-May.

And so is "SANCTUARY." The page count is mounting.

Have patience. "Kudo season" is almost over in L.A.-la land.

GHS

Thank God! I was beginning to think you had morphed into something weird after that cross-country flight.

Mr. Whipple...(smiley, smiley)...I thought your name had something to do with pocket knives and pointed sticks not bdsm.

He is risen!

Where have you been, man? THIS is your real job!

GHS!

Pauly Shore? THE Pauly Shore???!!! You think Bill could score top-shelf talent like that???

Hoo-boy, Bill has hit the big time now.

hehe

Hi Bill,

I've been reading your work. I'm up to "Trinity,1"

I'm curious as to your opinion of Christopher Hitchens.

I have mixed feelings.

I know this vein may have already been tapped, but I just started reading your work. (Just curious)

I just wanted you to know that I purchased your book from Amazon, and I'm really enjoying it. So much so that I plan on buying a hard cover copy if/when it ever comes out. Lots of people have complained about no true chapter breaks and no table of contents, but those don't bother me. Honestly, the only gripe I have is that the book is so *expensive*. I want to buy a copy for every member of my family, as well as every last one of my friends... at $30 a pop that's not financially feasable, and they ALL need to read this. Especially my misguided liberal friends still holding on to their college mentality.

Anyhow, just wanted to say "Keep up the good work".

Charles.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaay! A blank page!! A new essay to follow!!

And not a moment too soon, with all the "Male Enhancement" links that have popped up lately. Someone should tell these twits that real Repubs don't need any enhancements.

Two words: Swinging Death.

Well, here it is, April 22nd and we have a steenkin' blank page. I was hoping to post this on a fresh new Whittle encyclical, but it's 10 minutes to Midnight on April 22nd, and this will be my only chance:

HAPPY INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION DAY!!!

Let the treehugging idiotarians celebrate "earth day".

--Dave

(PS: Does anyone have plans to attend the Eau Claire Air Show next month?)

Hmmm, blank page again, why it's (dare I say it?) squeezably blank, by golly! ;)