Ah, well. I can see that the dyspeptic reader’s email has generated a desire among readers to either support more timewasting puffery or denounce same. Perhaps when we finally get our polling software up and running we can definitively ask readers where they stand. All I can say is I’m completely open to the idea that I post too many silly things. Indeed, I often ask Kathryn, “Am I posting too many silly things?” I do wish we had more debates in here, and more hardnosed political analysis as well. But that’s hard to orchestrate for a blog whose content is generated spontaneously by disparate contributors.

But, I would like to clear up the notion that I post just to have my name up here. I cannot tell you how categorically untrue that is. My usual motivation for posting the lighter stuff is the unproductive pursuit of distraction. The more work I have to do, the more I post. When I don’t have any “real” work to do, I’m not at my computer at all. (“I can attest to that!” — The Couch).

Also, there’s a philosophical thing. The Corner was my idea. I always conceived of it as a simalcrum of what people think the offices of NR are like (as opposed to the horrific, blood-chilling, reality). Most water-cooler chatter is a mixture of serious conversation and silly banter. The timewasters and the like are part of what gives the Corner an authentic feel and personality. My best guess from feedback is most readers like this stuff (which is why they send me so many of my links). After all, the ranks of purely earnest political blogs out there swells by the day. And I think communicating that Conservatives — particularly those of us at NR — aren’t all Latin puns and Chesterton quotes has its benefits.

But, if I do it too much at least you now know why. And I can certainly do the earnest stuff more if you like. After all, Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.

Update: From a reader:

Jonah, Jonah, Jonah. Here I am, trying to waste time in the Corner as a distraction from the insanely boring work of correcting my own translation of Anselm, and you have to post something in Latin. And get it wrong: it should be videtur, not viditur. Holy Krugman’s cat! Please, no more Latin, I beg you!