Monday, 6/27

Okay...let's give it a go and see if it works.

As you may recall, Friday I tried to post a blog that Google's Blogger website said violated their “community standards”. The blog was a riff on a joking title I've been given by the Marquette Regional History Center; namely, that I'm “Marquette's Great Living Authority on 'The Oldest Profession'”. However, “The Oldest Profession” was not the actual word. The actual word, which was in the blog 12 times, apparently tripped some kind of robot alarm at Blogger and wouldn't allow me to post it until I put an asterisk in place of the “o” in the actual word.

But then it's apparently okay to have in a blog 12 times.

So here's the blog I intended to post Friday, just with asterisks in place of the letter “O” in one word. See for yourself if it violates “community standards”.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

*****:

Maybe they could change the title just a little bit.

I was walking on South Beach yesterday morning when my phone rang. It was my friends at the Marquette Regional History Center, who had just been contacted by a lady in California looking for information on pr*stitutes and logging camps. The people at the History Center couldn't find information on this particular incident, so they called me because they believe, and I quote the person who called, “You're the greatest living authority on pr*stitutes in Marquette”.

Wow. THAT'S a title I never thought I'd be given!

And it's not really a title that's totally accurate. I mean, the title as stated --”Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitutes”--makes me sound, you know, a little skeezy. Like there's something in my background I really need to hide. As we all know, I'm nothing like that. I'm just a historical researcher who who has a bizarre fascination with the history of pr*stitution in Marquette. And not even really the history of pr*stitution in Marquette. I'm more fascinated by the puritanical...obsession that journalists of the era had with the working women of Marquette. The biggest laughs I've ever gotten during a program was when I was reading—verbatim—over the top newspaper accounts of pr*stitution and the people on both sides who kept the business going.

That's why I'm “Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitution in Marquette”. And that's why I've typed the word “pr*stitution” almost a dozen times in the last two paragraphs.

Sigh.

Maybe the title should be something along the lines of “Marquette's greatest living authority on the history of pr*stitution in the city”, or, more accurately, “Marquette's greatest living authority on the history of press reaction to pr*stitution in the city”. Because when you think about it, I really DO know quite a bit of the colorful history of the working women of Marquette in the late 1800s and the early 1900s. It's just been part of my research, and those sensationalistic newspaper articles with which I have a bizarre fascination do hold a lot of history within their florid prose. So I'm comfortable with a title like the ones I've described. But a title like “Marquette's greatest living authority on pr*stitutes”?

Well, I'm flattered.. And part of me believes it's hilarious that when people think of pr*stitutes in Marquette, they think of me. I always thought I was destined for one or two bizarre things in my life.

I just had no idea it would be something like this.

Have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)