Thursday 31 December 2009

Happy New Year! Open thread - UPDATE 2!


2009 was a good year for the "basement" bloggers. We tackled serious subjects, discussed many interesting topics and had a few laughs together...

Palingates started very modestly in February, with around 13,000 readers in that first month. We're pleased to say that we're going to wave good bye to 2009 with 180,000 readers in December.

Our little community is growing and we're sure there will be more opportunities for people to make new friends in 2010.

Together we'll continue in our quest for the truth. Many eagle eyed sleuths have contributed extra pieces to the ever expanding puzzle that is Sarah Palin.

Patrick, Kathleen and Regina are the names you know, but commenters and others send e-mails, not forgetting the many people behind the scenes, who gather new information and try to make sense of Sarah Palin's convoluted stories. It's sometimes very tiring and disheartening, but we all get a kick when things finally fall into place. A big thank you to all for your patience and dedication!

The big prize for providing invaluable information must go to Sarah Palin herself. "Going Rogue", Twitter and her interviews are a veritable gold mine. We didn't include Facebook because it's not really our Sarah writing any of it...

Here's to an exciting and fruitful 2010!

Please use this shiny new thread to continue the discussions started earlier. Those threads are getting a tad too long.

(I wonder if the person behind Sarah Palin managed to catch the rat before it escaped from the nest...) .

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UPDATE (by Patrick):

Here is one of the last laughs of 2009, and it's a particularly good one:

Palin Family New Year Newsletter!

(h/t Mrs TBB!)

Apart from that, in addition to everything that Regina has said and what I couldn't have said better, I would like to thank our brilliant REGINA for letting me become her co-blogger. It's quite a big deal if you have an established blog and then let someone else fiddle around with it. You lose some of the control you had before, but of course we were doing it properly and Kathleen and I met up with Regina at her home in France before we fully started our cooperation.

I wished that more of you had a chance to meet Regina, who is a brilliant person with a strong sense of justice and whose heart is always on the side of the oppressed and disadvantaged.

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UPDATE (by Regina):

Patrick caught me by surprise with his update.We exchanged e-mails before my husband and I left for a friend's house to eat, drink and be merry. Fine tuning of the Open Thread was discussed and agreed, happy new year and all that, and I didn't think I would see any updates... We stayed at our friend's overnight and have just returned home. I headed straight to the computer and voilĂ : I'm still blushing!

I can play this game too!

For some months, Patrick had been a voice at the other end of the phone and I knew there was a Kathleen over there as well. Then we invited them to come and spend some time in our beautiful village, not knowing what to expect.

I'll tell you: they are a most charming couple, with a fantastic sense of humour and fun, coupled with an honest desire to discover the truth. We had a great time and it wasn't all about Sarah Palin, I hasten to add. Patrick can only be described as the most enthusiastic walking encyclopedia and Kathleen as a calming influence, with an uncanny gift for finding things on the internet and making sense of confusing stuff.

Patrick was reluctant to blog, so we started slowly, with his wonderful guest posts. Then there was the trip to Australia and Patrick was thrown in at the deep end of the world of blogging. We became equal partners and you have all seen the results: palingates reached new heights, the readership went through the roof, we were mentioned on national television and linked by some major sites.

Well, Patrick, thanks for fiddling with my established blog!

This partnership works because Patrick and Kathleen are brilliant people with a strong sense of justice and whose hearts are always on the side of the oppressed and disadvantaged.

Thank you, from the bottom of my blogging heart...

( I was asked to link to the full gallery of photos of Sarah Palin in Arizona. I think Bree Palin and other bloggers have been having too much fun with the book tour galleries and they are now private and can't be viewed...)
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