I have one of those peculiar habits (well, I actually have a lot of peculiar habits) of noticing things that most people do not.  For example, I can go to a meeting or dinner with a couple of people, come out, tear the thing apart like an old carcass, engage in the post-game, post-mortem discussion, (while driving) and dissect every word with the best of them.  And then I’ll ask a question like, “Did you notice the color of the waiter’s eyes?”

I do that kind of noticing.

So it should come as no surprise that a couple of days ago when I clicked on somebody’s comment to go read a post and watched the browser load the page/blog   

               e   v   e   r      s   o       s   l   o   w   l   y 

that I happened to notice something pretty cool.

We are nearing the 2 million mark on OS when it comes to comments.

That’s a 2 with six zeroes after it.  2,000,000.

Now, I’m no Catherine Forsythe, Kent Pitman, Rob St. Amant, Token Tarheel or Kathy Riordan (hope your husband is on the mend; no homework for you).   Any one of them could probably run a quick diagnostic with both hands tied behind their backs and neatly format a post and provide you with a bold hyperlink (in color and italics) that would show you the exact time, date and post where the first comment was made, complete with a tax return and medical transcription. 

Me, I'm not that good analytically, although I did manage to find comment 60 which belongs to Cary Tennis.   Then it got too boring overwhelming for me to try and dig deeper.  I’m not that interested.  Since Kerry and Joan are figments of our imagination by now rarely show up around these here parts anymore, I’m not going to bother them to find out.  (If you are scratching your head and asking, "Who are Kerry and Joan?", you're not the only one who wonders what happened to them.) Maybe Emily could tell us?  (Not what happened to Kerry and Joan or who they are, but who made the first comment on OS.)  Emily?  Anyone?  Bueller?

I’m pretty confident of only one thing.  The first comment did not come from Mary Lin and probably more than half of all comment in recent months do.

In those innocent days when OS was a wild, wild west of like seven people (they and many others abandoned this place before January  2009 when the real big surge happened), OS was like a big empty room where you could fart into a 500-foot long megaphone nobody would notice or hear you.  I showed up in November 2008 and by then, it was more like a cocktail party and less like the drunken brawl that it sometimes becomes people were worried that we were ruining everything.  So believe me, we’ve all been there.

My things have changed.  Sometimes this place just smells like spam bad gas (yes Emily, we’re talking about weekends and all that live-streaming when this place resembles the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina). Even though it has gotten much harder to show up on the feed, your fifteen seconds of OS fame is no longer still guaranteed.  In spite of all that, we still manage to post and comment and I think it’s pretty amazing that we are approaching the 2 million mark.

We obviously have a lot to say or way too much free time.  (Look at how much I had to think about and write this post.)

So I was thinking.  Wouldn’t it be kind of fun to try to be the person who hits that magic number?  As of the time that I posted this, we were/are at around 1,999,460 comments, which means that there are about 540 more to go before we reach 2 million.  (You’re welcome.  I’ve got a head for numbers.)  I'm guessing we are going to hit that number by 11 am (EST for those of you out west), so why not give it a shot and come out and play?!  Keep checking the comment section as I update the numbers and continue the countdown without Casey Kasem!

Don’t get too excited if you choose to participate in this little challenge and nothing much happens. There won’t be any prizes for this accomplishment (like they’ve ever handed out prizes for anything around here), but I think it would be fun to see whose comment will make a little OS History. It could be yours!

If you don’t go for it, who will besides spambots?  WHERE it might land will also be interesting to see.  No wagers please.  

Imagine the satisfaction you’ll feel if you beat xjkhiii jfbjfbjfb to the punch. 

Ugg.  I mean, “Ugh”.

Good luck! 

UPDATE 10:32 am:  We are counting down and have less than 100 comments to reach the 2 million mark!

WE HAVE A WINNER!!! 

 CONGRATULATIONS

L IN THE SOUTHEAST!!! 

Here is the winning comment that will go down in history as the 2 millionth to grace the pages of OS.  I’m so proud to be the host of the blog where it appeared and to share the stage with Lezlie and Leepin Larry:

 Sorry, Cartouche. Larry's already betrothed to me!

Lezlie

  L in the Southeast

           OCTOBER 15, 2010 10:59 AM 

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO SEE THAT THIS COMMENT WAS IN FACT THE 2 MILLIONTH.

Lezlie won this contest fair and square.  Look in the URL window and scroll all the way to the right and you will see comment# 2,000,000.  

Lezlie:  Let us know how that match.com prize that Larry offered works out for you....