I read a lot of OS.  I read the good guys and the bad guys.  I read the cool kids and nerds.  I read the trolls and the whatever non-trolls are called.  I read the poetry, the prose, the fiction and the non. I read it all.  However, much of my favorite reading time is consumed by the comments.

The comments are usually flattering to the writer and many of those are pretty boring.  There are some posts, however, that warrant a single word of exclamation, i.e. “Wow,” or “Awesome.” There are a lot of those.

There are also many posts that extol a particular politically partisan position (alliteration alert) and these often create a huge amount of dialogue. Much of that dialogue is predictable with the majority beating one or two dissenters unmercifully about the head and shoulders.  These comments can be fun as long as you’re not the beatee.  In this situation, I sometimes feel like a bystander watching the cops club the stuffing out of Rodney King.

While I know that sometimes the comment section of a post may be mundane and that many of you simply quickly scan or just bypass the comments altogether, occasionally hidden deep inside the predictable praise, the oratory or the vitriol lays a gem of a comment waiting to change your whole damn day.

 My favorite comments are ones that don’t seem to make any sense to me.  As an example, just today, Just Cathy posted a very humorous article about computer junk mail and Jonathan Wolfman commented: 

“You're such a hippy. r.”Jonathan Wolfman  

I have no idea what he meant by that comment but it amused the hell out of me.

 In a response to a post entitled “Ex-ist-ential Musings” by the brilliant and beautiful Dorinda D back in October, Gabby Abby wrote:

 “Facebook is evil. It can meet you coming and going, even when you don't move one little bit. Spooky.”Gabby Abby 

My point is that if the best writing is the writing that moves you the most then some of the best writing on OS is being done in the comments sections of all those posts out there.

So, there’s my challenge to you.  Go back and find comments to your writing that touched or entertained or amused or bewildered you the most and post them for us all to see in the comments section below.

Really, it’ll be fun.