Popular Content: Top Five Most-Clicked Pages From The Wudder's Past Year
"like we always do at this time!"(c)Yeezy
New Year's Day means gazing into the wudders of our new beginning, while reflecting back on our past.
In the case of this forum, that means breaking you off with the countdown of our five most-clicked pages over the past calendar year, with hyperlinks on each title.
So for those who missed it, or would prefer to relive it, here we go.
#5
"Live & Loco: Let A Dog Roam and He'll Find His Way Home (DMX at TLA in Philly 4/7/17)"
(April 10th)
Despite concert coverage being a sizable chunk of our free-lance reporting bread-and-butter, The Wudder's "Live & Loco" segments usually generate some traffic, but never sniff Top 5 levels.
The Ole Dog's show attended by two old DAWGS was the exception that proved the rule.
As was DMX having a positive public moment, in what for him seemed to be a problem-plagued 2017.
X is returning to rock the same South Street room on the last Saturday of January.
Part of me is tempted to see if lighting strikes twice, with another stellar show night, another part wonders if I'd be better off preserving the memory by leaving well enough alone.
Either way, this DAWG is thankful to the Dark Man for being the inspiration behind #5, "Let A Dog Roam and He'll Find His Way Home".
#4
"A Wudder Sports Requiem for the Fallen Leader of the '93 Phillies"
(August 9th)
While 2017 wasn't the bellwether period for wuddershed loss of public figures that 20SickDream was, there were still some notable passings.
On the Philadelphia sports front, for folks of a certain age (say, mid-30's-and-up), none of them loomed as large as the captain of the '93 Phillies, Darren "Dutch" Daulton, succumbing to cancer on August 6th at age 55.
We showed our appreciation for the player and his era of Philadelphia sports with this memorial tribute.
Wudder readers showed their appreciation for both by making this the 4th-most-clicked jawn over the past twelve months.
As it seems we're reminded weekly, including the past two (RIP Ginny Gray and Reggie "Combat Jack" Ossé respectively), cancer is the worst.
#3
"Are You There GODgers? It's Me, Kaepernick"
(October 18th)
Controversy sells, almost everywhere, The Wudder being no exception.
This one, deploying a hypothetical Kaep-writing-to-ARodg device, was an unsurprisingly divisive captor-of-eyes, in the vein of last year's installment on Joe McKnight's murder.
The Judy Blume title flip might've helped bump this into the Top 3 too.
Speaking of help, you can't convince me Green Bay doesn't win the game needed to be in the playoffs today had the Packers picked up Kaep.
Instead, they chose to toe the NFL line and trotted out sad-sack quarterback Brett Hundley.
Hundley immediately lost his first three starts, leaned on the running game to edge out a bad Bucs team, in a game he threw for 84 yards with 0 TD's + a pick, and even needed OT to beat the winless Cleveland Browns.
He finished 2017 3-8 in games he primarily played, compared to 4-1 with a healthy Rodgers.
Mike McCarthy remains the worst coach we can think of that's ever won a Super Bowl.
Still, despite McCarthy's insolence when Kaep's name came up something tells us this decision was beyond his pay grade anyway.
#2
"A Digging In The Crates Poetry Slam: Young Bam Bam & The Space Program"
July 8th
2017 was a relatively skimpy year on the "Story Time with Bomb" front.
There's a few reasons for that I suppose: 2016 mined that territory quite a bit, so the cupboard got a little barer for soul bearing.
Also a few favorite stories on the back-burner may less than ideal for public consumption in a forum my entire family reads.
But this particular one, inspired by family, along with an ill-fated NASA flight, which also featuring our first published work at age 9, is one of our favorite pieces to date.
Wudder readers seemingly agreed wholeheartedly by making it a lay-up for the #2 slot on the countdown.
Shout-out to my Aunt Ellen for coming thru with the newspaper clipping from Nana's folder in the clutch.
We'll be back on our Story Time grind in '18, you can consider that our New Year's resolution to youse.
#1
"98 Degrees: Words of Wisdom & Tales of Tenacity From My 98-Year-Old Nana"
(February 4th)
Speaking of Nana, the beautiful lady in the above photo provided the subject of this year's runaway #1 most-clicked.
It is now solidly The Wudder's second-most-clicked of all-time, behind only our 2016 birthday tribute to Ryan DeWitt.
I was extra grateful to co-author this one with my 98-year-old grandmother, shortly after her birthday and published on mine.
Sadly, just five months shy of '99, Ann Hannigan Rhoads passed this past summer.
But she lives on in the hearts of all that knew her, and thankfully in this collaboration with her eldest grandson.
It was an honor to share her here with the world, and we thank everyone for the almost uniformly, overwhelmingly love-filled response.
Happy New Year, Everybody!
Thanks For All The Love & Support You Showed The Wudder This Past Year.
Wishing You Each Smooth Sailing Into a Hopefully Happy and Healthy 2018.
Peace and Love,
Bambino
JAN 1, 2018
