This time last week, I gave you my most-read posts of the past 12 months. Here are what I consider my best blog posts of 2023.
As I prepare to celebrate the 20th birthday of this little blog, it occurs to me the number of times I’ve written a post and thought, It’s one of my best posts. But if there’s one thing I learned quickly about blogging, it’s that our “bests” don’t always end up being the most-read. There are plenty of posts I would put on my best-written list that didn’t make the most-read list. It can be frustrating, to say the least. So that’s why I now provide a list of what I consider to be my best blog posts of 2023.
That way, you have a second chance of sorts to visit them. I hope you’ll enjoy them this time around if you missed them the first time around.
I offer them here in no particular order.
1. I Asked ChatGPT to Write a Blog Post. Here’s What Happened.
I wrote a good bit last year about artificial intelligence and concerns about bloggers using the technology. Different developers claim AI can write complete blog posts for you. Yes, this creates ethical dilemmas responsible bloggers should easily be able to imagine. But the fact is, AI is definitely not infallible, as I found out when I put it to the test.
2. Why a Doggie Joint Supplement Needs Side Effect Warning
I thought I was doing a good thing for my dog, a 10-year-old Collie who I’ve described as my “heart dog.” I bought a well-known, common joint supplement designed to help protect the joints from aging. It caused a side effect that you can find mentioned online. Oddly enough, however, there’s no mention of it on the product packaging. If I’d have known it was a possibility, I might have saved more than $250 on emergency vet bills!
3. Why Would You Put Grammar Errors in Textbooks?
Some school textbooks are beginning to include phrasings some insist are grammar errors. As such, they argue they don’t belong in instructional books. Others argue it’s a step towards inclusion.
Where do you draw the line when it comes to including mistakes versus teaching accepted rules of the grammatical road?
4. Aspartame Report Claims Possible Cancer Link
I’m not a doctor and wouldn’t ever claim to be. I don’t dispute the kind of data being reported.
However, there comes a point at which you have to question the correlations they base their reporting on. Type 2 Diabetics like me depend on artificial sweeteners to various degrees while we avoid regular sugar. But this kind of report merely links commonalities. It makes no effort to prove any kind of cause and effect. What does that actually accomplish?
5. Why Anti-Manager Posts on LinkedIn Get Tiresome Fast
I noticed a growing trend on LinkedIn that I became fed up with in 2023. Post after post bashed managers every which way. Sure, there are plenty of bad managers. But workers aren’t perfect, either. I took this take on the manager-bashing.
6. When Did the Act of Compromise Become ‘Failure’?
I don’t think I’m alone in the idea I’m about to express. At least, I’d like to think I’m not alone. I believe most of us would really like to see our leaders work together more often. I think we could get so much more accomplished if both sides would set aside their partisan foolishness and listen to one another.
Unfortunately, our politics have reached a point at which compromise means losing a battle. I don’t know how we got here, but it isn’t difficult to see examples on a daily basis of politicians who seem to exude that attitude.
7. Could You Find 14 Ways to Use AI on Your Blog?
Even more frightening than the glaring error the aforementioned AI produced for a blog article experiment is the fact that people are trying to find multiple ways to let it do even more. I found an article that pointed to 14 — count ’em: 14!! — ways a blogger could use AI. If I cared to take the time to ponder such a list, I wouldn’t want to reach that many.
In fact, if I wanted to use AI that much, I think I’d prefer to just shut down the blog completely anyway.
8. Bloggers, Here’s Why You Should Own Your Own Domain
From time to time, I hear people talking about “microblogging.” On the surface, it sounds like a convenient way to blog without the aggravation of running a site. But when you blog in someone else’s sandbox, you’re at their mercy. In this case, a user on X, formerly Twitter, suddenly lost his long-used handle because X wanted it for something else.
9. Grocery Store Reminds Customers: ‘No Pets Allowed’
When I started this blog almost 20 years ago, I used a simple tagline: Regular doses of common sense. Some little pearls of wisdom shouldn’t need to be spoken. Unfortunately, not everyone knows even the most basic things everyone ought to know. In this case, I wrote about a grocery store chain that actually had to go to the expense to print up signs reminding people that a grocery store is no place for their four-legged friends.
10. For a Journalist, Finding Truth isn’t Always Simple
“If someone says it’s raining and another person says it’s dry, it’s not the journalist’s job to quote them both. Their job is to look out the window and find out which is true.” That’s a cleaned-up version of a popular quotation people use to blast journalists they think aren’t working hard enough to cut through lies and mistruths.
On paper, sure, that’s absolutely true. But in practice, journalism is about more than just looking out a window to prove or disprove a simple claim. I’m glad this one made my list of best blog posts of 2023.
11. A Presidential Pardon Should’ve Been a One-Time Thing
I’m just old enough to remember President Gerald Ford issuing a pardon for President Richard Nixon. At the time, the decision angered Democrats who wanted Nixon to pay for his Watergate involvement. Perhaps their anger was completely justified. I believe that the nation had been mired in Watergate for far too long as other domestic crises loomed.
I think Ford made the right decision for the right reason. But I also think no U.S. president should ever be pardoned again. Any president who didn’t learn from that moment in history should absolutely be doomed to face the music!
12. What Makes Responsible Gun Owners So Responsible?
What do gun owners and pet owners have in common? I would say they share the potential to be responsible, although not all of either live up to that potential. I include this one among my best blog posts of 2023 because I think it makes a convincing argument about reasonable gun control. And if you’re the type who believes there can’t be any such thing, I’d definitely invite you to read this one.
13. Do Our Pets Go to Heaven? Can We Really Know?
The easy answer to the second question, obviously, is “not yet.” We’ll find out when we get there, assuming we eventually get there. But the first question is the hard one. It’s also the question many loving pet owners ponder from time to time.
I decided to explain why I think we’ll see our pets when we reach the pearly gates.
14. What Is It About a Typo That Enrages Readers, Editor Asks
When I write — either here or for the real job — I hate making typos. The fact is, we all make them. But despite the fact that no one is immune from an occasional typo, why do people get so angry about them?
Yes, there are times when they tick me off, too. I guess after writing for as many years as I have, I’m slightly more tolerant only because I know how easily they can happen, even when you do your best to avoid every single one of them.
But it turns out seeing one isn’t just about annoyance. Medical science tells us it goes deeper than that!
15. Remembering Bob Barker: 1923-2023
Bob Barker, without realizing it, helped influence my decision to enter the television industry. Yes, there was a time when I fancied myself being a game show host. I actually did host a game show for a couple of semesters at my college’s cable TV station. Mercifully, I don’t think there are any tapes that exist — at least none that aren’t in my custody!
Barker was one of the best in the business and was a master of making contestants shine. The shows for which he was best known, Truth or Consequences and The Price is Right had something important in common: They pulled unrehearsed contestants right out of the audience. Barker excelled at bringing out the best, and often the funniest, of those contestants. I wrote this piece when we lost Barker to Alzheimer’s Disease in August at age 99.
That’s my list of the posts I consider to be among my best blog posts of 2023. I hope you enjoyed the quick trip through memory lane!
