Just between you and me.

Blogging is a very interesting experience, no matter what your subject.

You have your regular readers, your usual daily number of hits. And then you see a spike in the numbers, for no expected reason. Mention a group or person with a lot of Twitter followers, get re-tweeted, and the numbers spike. That sort of thing happens. But then there's this other thing . . . .

A few comments pop up, just to let you know that you're getting some new readers, and that some of those readers pretty much knew they disagreed with you before they even got to your stuff. Which means somebody out there is pointing at you and saying something. It's a devoted paranoid's dream.

But this, happily, is the Sherlockian world and not the larger one. We're worldwide, but not the world. We're a dedicated, ongoing group of fans, but we pale in comparison to those of any major sport. Even now, our community isn't nearly as large as it could be. Which lessens the impact of our teapot tempests a little bit, but still, to anyone who isn't a true sociopath (and not a TV character who merely claims to be one), you feel those impacts. We have no demons in our Sherlockian world, just people.

People with individual points of view. Individual. None of us speak for all of us, not the head of the largest and oldest group of Sherlock Holmes fans, not the most flamboyant member of the most popular podcast, and not any random Sherlockian who has an occasional moment that gets a bit of a firebrand tone to it. That last one is me, by the way.

This is where the blogging gets tricky. I want to write something that's just between you and me, even when I don't know who you are. And for those who come back to this blog, month after month, to check in, that's who I'm writing to. Those who come around for a post or two, go "I can't stand this guy," and zip off to some other part of the net . . . well, I can't write for them, because they're everybody. And if you try to write for everybody, you often wind up writing nothing worth reading by anybody.

So the disclaimer I'm trying to write here is simple, and one we should all know by heart. One blog, one opinion, one human being among billions on our planet. Just one. Not an army of old school Sherlockians who are rallying against you. Not a radical faction trying to tear down all the traditions of old school Sherlockiana. (It sure seems like I'm in the wonderful position of being intensely disliked by a few folks on both sides.) Just one person recording their reactions to the Sherlockian life just in case someone cares to read it.

Yes, yes, I do say things the wrong way sometimes. I'm married, I get that a lot in non-blog life.

But I pretty much just keep it here, where you can come see the verbal trainwreck if you want, and if you don't want, that's fine, too. I don't promote this, try to purposefully raise readership, any of that. Those who wander here and come back again for reasons other than stirring up their blood in place of morning coffee are much, much appreciated. And they're some lovely people who don't seem to mind that I . . .

. . .  don't really like Elementary.
. . . never have been into the way the Baker Street Irregulars is run.
. . . question commonly accepted things at random, like William Gillette's acting ability.
. . . use too damn many ellipses.
. . . change my mind on occasion, or contradict something I previously said.
. . . can come off as a tremendous asshole in print.

And I like leaving this here for those people. Leaving words laying around in public like this is going to get you in trouble now and then, as you never know who is going to find them. Someone looking to stir up sympathy for their own pet peeve. Someone who wants to foster a feeling that they're all out to get us. Or someone that just needs a weird kid in the schoolyard to mock for their friends.

That's the price of being able to write for those of you that do find a few thoughts you can empathize with here, or the chance to go, "Hey, it isn't just me!" But, as I've learned when the blog hits number goes up sometimes, it's sometimes better if we just keep this between you and me.