WELCOME THE MULTITUDE OF NEW SUBSCRIBERS - UPDATED YET AGAIN!

This morning, I was pretty surprised when I checked my email and found a whole lot of new free subscribers to That’s Another Fine Mess. And over the next hours, more signed up. Hallelujah!

I finally discovered the source. My good friend Robert Hubbell gave a recommendation (and link) to yesterday’s post, “The Wind Has Changed.” It’s very gratifying to see that post touched so many of you.

There is, however, one little glitch to all this.

Many people who subscribe to Substacks all over assume that any Substacker whose work they like will be recommending other people they will like, and they click over through the recommendation list and subscribe to those - often without looking at the content on that page.

This can create a problem for some people when they subscribe to me. That’s because I have a very eclectic bunch of friends - all of whom rate high on my Cool Person List - but many of them can come across as “wildly inappropriate” to people who aren’t involved in the activities that person and I are engaged in that brings them onto my list. Given our polarized times, some people might ask themselves, “How is it that TC consorts with the enemy?”

The answer to that is, they’re not “the enemy” to me. The people you are most likely to get that reaction to are my Airplane Geek friends. They’re a strange, eleclectic bunch, and none of us talk politics to each other because we know how each of us thinks and we know we could go from Zero to Screech in 30 seconds if we brought that up, and wreck a good thing - which we choose not to do because we respect each other and enjoy each other’s company.

For those of you pantheistically subscribing to Substacks, the number one of these is my long-time good friend Budd Davisson and his “Thinking Out Loud” Substack - which it turns out several dozen of you did subscribe to overnight. “The legendary Budd Davisson” (he hates it when I call him that, but it’s true) is one of aviation’s greatest curmudgeons and a definite “acquired taste.” I acquired the taste over the past 50 years, learning from him how to take good photos of airplanes from another one, and working for him when someone was crazy enough to hire him to edit one of the many aviation magazines he improved by his presence. He and I laugh at the fact we’re as close as we are - but we both respect each other as the creative weirdos we are.

When he asked me this morning where all these new subscribers came from, I told him I’d written something that went viral, and suggested he block the new subscribers. It’s nothing against any of you - you’re all fine and wonderful and intelligent folks, or you wouldn’t subscribe to me - but it is protection of one of my most valued friendships. If you’re really curious now, go read one of his articles, and if you “get it” (many don’t), then I’ll work it out for you to be able to subscribe.

Thank you for your patience reading through all this. We will now return to our regular scheduled programming.

TC

UPDATE!!!! According to Substack, “The Wind Changes” resulted in 525 new free subscribers and 37 paid subscribers!

A new world’s record.

UPDATE 2:

Well, that record was soon broken. As of 11:45am PDT, there have been 1,200 sign-ups for free subscriptions, and 105 paid subscribers. “The Wind Changes” really went viral. And more keep showing up.

It’s like having what was expected to be a nice little movie turn into a Major Hit, leaving the filmmakers to try and figure out what was different with this one compared to the others. All one can do for follow-up is Do The Best You Can (which I will). The three rules of Hollywood - Nobody. Knows. Anything - also applies to Substack.

I hope I will be interesting enough for all you new folks that you’ll consider becoming a Paid Subscriber. That’s Another Fine Mess doesn’t exist without that support. It’ only $7/month or $70/year (aving $14).

Comments are for paid subscribers.