168 Reprint Introduction

This is taken from the introduction to the file with reprints of 168 of my non-business blogs.

Through March 23, 2021, I have posted 939 blogs on this site. That is pretty much two a week for a little over 9 years, and I am proud and grateful to be blessed with good health to be able to do this.

When I started I wasn’t sure I could post once a week and wrote an inventory of eight blogs to see if I could do it and to see if they were appropriate for this site hosted by Withum. Once it got started the ideas started to flow and the blogs were written – pretty easily once I came up with the topic since the topic ideas were the hardest part of it.

When I started it took me an hour to write the blog and it still does; except now I spend up to two added hours editing it to get it “perfect.” In the beginning, I was more concerned about transferring ideas and kept the blogs pretty short and limited to one subject. I also felt I had nothing to lose if they weren’t so good. I could always chalk it up to an experiment that did not develop. I also started with no followers except some people I emailed links to “begging” them to sign up. Now the blogs are longer, some very serious and I have a following that I do not want to either disappoint or embarrass myself with, so I try to make it as “perfect “ as I could. I also have become much more critical of my writing and try to remove any unnecessary words and thoughts and make it tight. I’ve set a high standard for myself and I try to live up to it, and that creates some pressure, but also a lot of satisfaction.

I enjoy writing these blogs immensely. I also enjoy re-reading them and also using them in multiple places. So they serve double, triple and quadruple duty, and that enables leveraging the original effort. Besides the initial posting, I also print and postal mail copies to some clients that the blog might apply to or where the idea came from; or use them in speech handouts or webinar slides; and also reprint them in booklets I distribute that illustrate my range of experience in a given area. Those booklets also serve to introduce clients (and students) to the varied services accountants, and specifically, we at Withum, perform. To date over 50,000 such booklets have been distributed mostly digitally but also in print at in-person presentations (remember when we had personal interactions). And some blogs are on thoughts I just felt like sharing, which would include many in the reprinted file.

This compilation was precipitated by a discussion I had with presidential historian Louis L. Picone. Louis agreed to present a program at my Synagogue, via Zoom, on February 28, 2021. His new book was published on February 16 and I felt I should read it before the program. I personally am very interested in presidential inaugurations and something unusual that I was not aware of was in Louis’ book. His book was about Grant’s Tomb and told about the final activity of President Chester Arthur moments before the inauguration of Grover Cleveland that concerned Grant’s pension as a retired general. When I compared what he wrote with what Ron Chernow wrote in his book on Grant there were some minor differences. Nothing earth-shattering, but for me, it was important to find out all the minutiae. I asked Louis if he could send me his references, and I asked the research librarian at the East Brunswick Public Library to track down Ron Chernow’s references.

I then discussed this with Louis and mentioned my inauguration blogs and he asked to see them. I put them in a single file to send to him. However, I sometimes get carried away and after that, I decided to include many of my non-business blogs in that file. The result is this file.

I tried to leave out anything reeking of business, investing, taxes, management or leadership. Some crept in but when you read the story accompanying this business stuff, I hope you’ll forgive that transgression.

Reviewing the over 900 blogs brought back many memories and unleashed ideas for further blogs. It also gave me an idea to update my Power Bites book because over 50 blogs I posted would fit very well in that book. It would also double that size. And, some ideas were for major projects which I might like to pursue but time may not allow and the focus might be more limited than necessary to generate more than a narrow interest.

I left off three categories because I wanted to limit the size of this reprint to 75,000 words. The three topics are blogs relating to the East Brunswick Public Library (of which I am on the Library Foundation’s Board), Baseball and sports (which I will have a separate reprint of those 20 blogs), and my Graduation speeches (which I never presented but those are what I would have said had I been asked to speak). I am blessed with widespread and varied interests, insatiable curiosity and energy and a desire to share my thoughts.

I also want to thank the editors of my blog who are on the Withum team and who check them all out before they post them. Sarah Cirelli who got me started and is now the CMO at Grassi, Matt Basilo (the Withum interactive and social media specialist) and my current team of Ashley Krompier and Krysten Hambrook. They are all overseen by Rhonda Maraziti, Withum’s CMO. They are all great and what I do could not have been done without them.

I also want to thank everyone that contributed ideas and content to the blogs. Most are mentioned in the blogs they assisted in. I also must thank my readers and those who send comments and ideas for additional blogs.

I hope you enjoy these reprints and welcome any comments or ideas for columns. You are also welcome to contact me to discuss anything of interest to you that I wrote about… or even haven’t written about.

The PDF file is comprised of 75,000 words on 200 pages. It’s yours for free. Just email me at [email protected] and put 168 Blogs as the subject. No messages needed.

If you have any tax, business or financial issues you want to discuss please do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected].