Mark Twain has always been among my most admired writers, so when I saw a quote attributed to him on the main page of a favorite site, I felt a slight urge to investigate further. The quote was exceptionally poignant in the context of writing—and more to the point, blogging—which propelled my urge to the point of action.
Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.
—
Mark Twain
I decided to snip a few words from the quote, and wound up pasting "a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for" into the familiar Google search box.
This is where things got a little weird. Although Google came up with over two million results for this query, the fourth slot was occupied by the same site from which I had culled the quote to begin with. Stranger still, the result also contained the title of one of my old blog posts, which I had posted on that site in an effort to spread a little sunshine in an otherwise dreary technical-writing environment. That's just the nature of tech writing; it isn't a negative reflection on this particular site.
Waiting for Irony | A Technical Communication Community
| May 21, 2008 ... If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for." — Mark Twain ...www.techwr-l.com/node/584 - 23k - Cached - Similar pages |
Anyway, if there's any meaning to this, it may lie somewhere in the circular pattern that brought me back to the point of origin. Not only did my search deposit me within four degrees of my starting point, it included an unexpected reference to my own history, at least that portion of it having to do with writing in the blogospheric scheme of things.
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