Belated Happy B-Day, Early Happy T-Day

It was mentioned in the comments here recently, but it really should have been a bit more heralded. Gheorghe: The Blog turned 6 the other day. That’s about 96 in blog-years, but we’re still rolling along in this space and only peeing ourselves every once in a while.

It’s hard to believe that this little blog has been around for six years. Ah, 2003; maybe take a few seconds to ponder where you were, what you were doing for kicks, what you were doing for work, whom you were banging (those last two may have overlapped), and what you were drinking in ’03 – not to mention the state of the world, sporting or otherwise.

It was vastly different back then – just look at how much the Washington Redskins have changed since then: in 2003, they struggled to a 5-11 finish during the head coach’s second and final year as an NFL coach; they had a struggling, young quarterback who would never really prove himself; Ladell Betts and Rock Cartwright were forced into action after the starting tailback got hurt; the Skins blew some games late, and they were just “not very good.” Night and day, right?

Anyway, it’s easy to read the robust banter at Gheorghe: The Blog in 2009 and forget all about its early struggles to survive. By now you all know about Rob founding this vehicle for inanity in 2003, and you get that I’ve been his collaborator in most things bloggy along the way. And it’s obvious that we’ve recruited a roster full of buffoons to join in our revelry. In all likelihood, however, you don’t realize or acknowledge the role of one Thomas James Simspon in single-handedly keeping this ridiculous effort alive for several years until it could get its legs and mature into the full-on dipshittery machine that it is today.

Our new-fangled bean-counter contraptions at G:TB have enabled us to run the numbers more easily. And they stun even me, even though I was right there for the slacking.

Rob cranked out the first 12 posts of Gheorghe’s production. All Rob, all the time for two months. That pretty much ended when 2004 rolled around. In ’04, TJ voluntarily took the reins as Rob faded into the dust ruffle. I chimed in here and there, but here was the breakdown:

2004 G:TB Post Count
Rob	5
Whitney	14
TJ	111

And the one-man show continued in 2005, even though Dennis was added to the fray:

2005 G:TB Post Count
Rob	4
Whitney	19
Dennis	22
TJ	174

In 2006, carrying this blog on his back was beginning to take its toll on Teej:

2006 G:TB Post Count
Rob	2
Whitney	6
Dennis	3
TJ	92

Let’s be honest: it didn’t look good for the future of Gheorghe. Rob’s whopping two (!) posts in all of 2006 (one of them three sentences long) represented an indefensible abandonment of the blog he’d initiated. His disappearance from these pages had everyone predicting the end of Gheorghe (and checking their shoes for the little guy).

Just when Teejay’s broad shoulders were about to give out, however, Like Phoenix rising from the ashes of the 2003-04 season and winning 33 more games a year later under Mike D’Antoni, Gheorghe: The Blog returned to prominence . . . or at least semi-regular posting . . . in 2007. A hearty 69 of the 192 Gheorghe entries that year were from non-Teej sources (including one from newcomer Dave), and a reinvigorated Rob accounted for 38 of those. It represented a rebirth for the blog, one that now has us cruising along at our sixth birthday and planning for the fun that lies ahead.

I didn’t come here today to bury Rob’s reputation as creator, cornerstone, and curmudegeonly heart and soul of Gheorghe by revealing that he contributed a post here just 11 times in three calendar years during the formative years of his own blog. (That’s just gravy.) No, instead I’m here to remind and/or inform you readers of one very special boy without whom we would all have a few extra minutes in every day to get things done, but also without whom perhaps our lives would be one shade less bright.

From what you see and hear of T.J. today, and especially from how the rest of us offer only condescending asides and back-handed compliments to his work at G:TB, you might think of him only as the clown who does the silly YouTubes, News of the Weird blurbs, and the Ghoogles . . . oh, and the guy who puts his name on Mark’s pick posts. I implore you, however, to remain aware that were it not for the efforts of Thomas James, today Gheorghe: The Blog would be a fleeting memory of wasted hours gone by. He’s not a clown; he’s a hero, he’s a savior of blogs, he’s a stubborn ass who posts stuff nobody may ever read but he doesn’t care, and he’s a clown.

So when it comes around the table on Thursday, and it’s your turn to be thankful for something in your life, why not eschew the trite “good friends and loving family” crap and offer up the change of pace: “I’m thankful for Teejay, and how he helped saved Gheorghe from extinction lo those many years ago.” At the very least, it’ll keep you from having to entertain your nephews and nieces for a while…