I waited for the joke. It never did arrive.

The Professor, despite being several years and several thousand miles removed, is still a Southern boy at heart - polite, well mannered and genteel. I was raised to say "Yes, ma'am" and "Yes, sir" to my elders, to open doors for ladies and to never, ever be arbitrarily rude to another person. Well, to their face anyway. This upbringing makes this particular gig a bit of challenge sometimes. Today is a good example.

I grew up in the steaming pine barrens that straddle the Florida-Georgia line. Once I had done my time in my hometown's one-room school house, I headed west to the Capital City to continue my education. A couple of my fellow reviewers may know a stretch of Interstate 10 in north Florida that runs, pointlessly, between Dickert and Drifton. Going to and from university, I became painfully familiar with that length of tarmac. It's long, straight, flat and unapologetically dull. You've got to be pretty vigilant, because it will put you to sleep quicker than a handful of Ambien and before you know it you're a hood ornament on an eighteen-wheeler. It's also littered with billboards flogging all manner of crap that nobody needs.

Do you know what else is long, straight, flat, littered with billboards and unapologetically dull? Stuff and Nonsense.

I could pretty much leave it there and call that a review done. Get on with my Fundamentals of Bootology lecture for next week. That's what the Southern gentleman I was raised to be would do.

But I had high hopes for this one. Joel Klebanoff is a published author. He's been at this blogging gig for three years. He's a Canadian. What's not to like? I waded through a couple of posts until I found this one on Darwin. Now, as most of you probably know, Bootology is a core life science and thus the professor is intimately familiar with the father of evolution's work. I spent much of last week reading some outstanding posts celebrating Darwin's 200th birthday. Joel's post? I couldn't finish it.

It's not just that it was too long, nor that it was riddled with bad jokes. It was dull. And kind of lacking a point. Story of this blog.

Based on some of the widgets and gazoos on the sidebars, Stuff and Nonsense strives to be a 'humor blog'. Why is it that any site with a 'Humor Blogs' ranking is, almost without fail, painfully unfunny? This post is a perfect example. I get it - a mock interview about our current economic woes, overdone to get a laugh. Not funny. Not even a little bit. Painfully awkward, lacking in originality but not funny. Story of this blog.

If I have to be mean, I'd like more than anything to at least be constructively mean. I'm struggling to do so. I just don't know what to tell you, Joel. You could certainly pare down the junk on your page. I don't know how much revenue all those Google Ads are pulling in for you but you'd be better served by building your readership and then working with a real advertiser. One that won't make your page look like some poorly published free newspaper. As for the writing - it's stilted, awkward and long-winded - all I can suggest is edit. Make it snappier and cleverer. Don't ape humor that you've seen elsewhere. Try and come up with something original - funny or not - and go from there. The average blog reader just doesn't have the attention span for dry multi-part satires about the economy, for example. The exceptional blog reader - the one that you covet - demands exceptional writing and, I'll put this as politely as I can, you just ain't got it.

It doesn't work for me and I'm kind of your target audience, Joel. That's bad news for you. My unshakable Southern gentility forbids me from giving you any kind of finger - flaming or otherwise - and you don't really inspire that level of hostility anyway. What you do deserve is a solid:






Story of this blog.