The pause that refreshes

A grateful Substacker welcomes his readers

There was an old Coca-Cola ad from back in the day that went simply: “The pause that refreshes.” It seemed an unusual way to promote the product, which has to be one of the greatest products in the history of our nation’s products. And that Coca-Cola logo. Whoever designed it had to be a genius, don’t you think? No reason to ever change it.

On a lovely Sunday morning, everyone in the fort is asleep, I thought of this ad - the pause that refreshes. This is where I thought I ought to pause, say thanks to a modestly growing readership base that clipped over the 800 subscriber mark this morning. Or last night. Not sure. I did not expect this.

As a long line of math teachers could attest, numbers are not a strong suit for John Francis Nogowski, but these numbers excite me. Eight hundred and two subscribers as of 7:49 A.M. EST today, 543 posts (Counting this one) in a 557-day span since I cranked this Substack puppy up, sitting on my couch, listening to The Replacements on May 8, 2024. Not quite one-a-day, like vitamins, but pretty close.

The classic Coca-Cola ad from back in the day - “The Pause That Refreshes

That’s a lot of Substacking, folks. And while I dislike reading about those number nerds going for record-setting paid numbers or whatever, I do think it’s responsible to keep an eye on how your own numbers grow and to let those new readers feel welcome (Welcome, friends!) and to encourage them to wander around among these 543 posts and see if they can find something to tickle their fancy.

Lately, I’ve seen posts from months ago get re-stacked or a new comment added, which is fantastic. I love that Substack houses all your posts so if you’re interested in Roxy Music or Chekhov’s “The Lady With The Little Dog” or the World Series or comedian Nate Bargatze, say, they’re all here for you.

As I’ve explained, me and math don’t generally get along. But when I see my post the other day on the great Scotty Moore, Elvis Presley’s guitar player, get over 1,000 views, that tells me I hit a good topic.

Scrolling through, I see more surprises:
— Dylan’s classic “Highlands” (1,230 views)
— Bryan Ferry’s remakes (938)
— Dylan’s 1965 press conference (905)
— Bruce Springsteen on Spotify (981)
— Bruce’s new movie Deliver Me From Nowhere (1,260 — this one ran in the Hartford Courant)

There’s more: Writing about Pete Townshend’s Quadrophenia becoming a ballet (825), Dylan’s movie “Masked And Anonymous” (1,001), a piece on the great Howlin’ Wolf, a blues giant (860) and Seinfeld (945) and J.D. Salinger’s “Catcher In The Rye” (977), that’s fun for me, as a writer. To go from The Who to Howlin’ Wolf to Seinfeld to Salinger, diversity, baby.

Over the course of these 543 posts, I’m grateful to have a few regulars, folks who generally read and often comment on what I’ve got cookin’. If I write something about Bob Dylan, Bonnie will comment. My former editor Mike Connell keeps an eye on what I’m up to and only offered one correction (I’d written “Rays” instead of “Jays” on a World Series piece after the 18-inning game. Oops.) And there are others who’ve been so gracious and supportive and encouraging me to keep on pumping them out.

And to be honest, I’ve loved it! When you’ve been at this writing game as long as I have, you’re riding home after seeing “Deliver Me From Nowhere” a second time — just an extraordinary movie — and you feel like writing a Substack, remembered you’d just seen a photo of Elvis’s great guitar player Scotty Moore, get home and about 90 minutes later (with a pause for a delicious dinner), you have a pretty nice little Substack on your hands, that’s a great feeling. And nearly 1,000 folks like it, that’s a bonus, isn’t it?

What’s also wonderful about Substack is you can make new friends. Like my pal Luis, a distinguished professor from New Orleans, a guy that, after a few shared posts, seems like we’ve been friends for decades instead of a few weeks. Or Jeff, a enthusiastic reader of A.J. Liebling like me. And, fortunately for me, there are many others who share ideas, comments, posts, observations.

It may be naive of me to think this way — I’m good at that — but I like to think these posts and discussions are all open-ended; I’m throwing out my side but I’m listening and reading yours, too. There’s so much going on in the world that drags you down, I hope my Substack gives you a nice place to, well, pause and refresh.

So thanks to all my loyal and my brand new readers. Welcome to my little Substack world where we share ideas and the gift of reading that binds us all together. Onward to 544! Thanks, friends.

When you're a writer, getting the words down is one thing. You need readers! I'm grateful to have so many

Some readers have asked about what books I’ve written, where you can get them, etc. Here’s a post that explains it all. Thanks!