We're th1s many!

December 16, 2008... a date which will live in infamy. Why? We started writing about all things Lino.

Fast-forward 365 days. We're still here. We just spent our last ten bucks renewing linorulli.net for another year. We're astounded, the public is incredulous, and Lino's having severe stomach pains. Coincidence? We don't think so.

So on our first anniversary, we thought we'd take a look back at our first post and compare where we intended to go then with where we're going now. Last year's post is in yellow, our comments follow in white:

What this blog is:

• A forum for expressing our thoughts on Lino Rulli and The Catholic Guy Show as we see them.

  As the poster behind George W. Bush so prematurely proudly declared: Mission Accomplished. While we don't post as often as we would like (or as seldom as Lino would prefer), 96 posts in the past year ain't bad.
  

• A means of poking a little fun at Lino when we think it's deserved... which is often.

  In all honesty, we had imagined us poking fun at Lino a lot more often than we did. Looking back at our posts for the past year, we think we had a pretty decent blend of praise, mocking and criticism of Lino... going from more mocking a year ago to more supportive now. Of course, who out there ever would've foreseen the events of August and September.
  

• A place to remember classic Lino moments, especially from the older shows with Maureen and Tom that Lino has quietly buried.

  Except for our Twelve Ten Days of Lino series we wrote during last year's Christmas season, we never really did this. In fact, when Lino discussed our first post on his show back in January, he mocked us for this particular point and proclaimed (paraphrasing) that Tom and Maureen were part of the past. Then Maureen came back-to-the-future in September, and the past is now re-lived on a daily basis. We still miss Tom, though, and hope that his head has not fallen out of the Earth's orbit yet.
  

What this blog is not:

• A competitor to CatholicGuyShow.com and the Unofficial Lino Rulli Fan Club. That site certainly has its place and we're an eager reader of it. We see this site as a complement to it... posting thoughts that don't always toe the line of the die-hard Lino fans.

  First off, our tone last year was just too harsh. They're good people who have a great site, the show's unofficial sanction, and are doing their best to keep a positive tone. And that's good because the gist of our statement is still true: we're not competitors, but our sites complement each other in an odd sort of way. Plus, their positive outlook should in no way should infer that we're the place that's going to bash Lino day in and day out. It just means that we're going to call things as we see them, positive or not.
  

• A mouthpiece for Gus Lloyd. Gus doesn't maintain this blog (he has his own, after all), and we're not a shill for him. But we're as much of a fan of his "dog and pony show" as we are The Catholic Guy, and we think that Lino and his pack take the Gus-bashing a little too far sometimes, even if it might be in jest. We're more than happy to poke a little fun back.

  If we're a mouthpiece for Gus Lloyd, then our mouth needs to be washed out with soap. We've done at least half-a-dozen posts over the past year that didn't portray Gus in the most flattering light... from his back going out again to his impromptu use of Spanish on the air to his mocking of televangelists. Yeah, we made an audio slideshow out of The Catholic Guy Who Stole Christmas, but just like Fox News we were Fair and Balanced™ by doing the same for Lino's Catholic Guy Christmas "album" that mocked him right back.
  

• A resurgence of the Catholic Taliban's defunct blog. We're not that orthodox.

  If you don't remember this blog, you never will: what was once merely defunct is now extinct. However, the site's domain name (catholictaliban.org) is available for purchase if the Spirit so moves you.
  

Our final comment:

Will it last? We don't know... only time will tell. But we'll give it our best shot.

Well, so far it's lasted a year... and a heckuva year it's been. Will we make it to our second birthday? Our third? As we said last year, only time will tell. But we gave it our best shot last year, and we'll do the same again.

Now that the review of our first post is over, here are some things to look forward to in the coming weeks:

• A minor site refresh, whose primary goal is to add another column for posting stuff. We know... we said way back when that this was coming out today, but it just hasn't worked out. Our new goal is to get the refreshed site posted by the end of 2009, but we're not making any promises.
• The extra space in the new design will allow us to post a few new evergreen items that you won't have to scroll down to see. Nothing earth-shattering, but it'll certainly enhance the site a bit. Look for these at the same time as or shortly after the site refresh.
• Like almost every other site at this time of year, we'll be doing a series of posts tentatively titled "Lino's Top Ten for 2009". It is what it says: a look at the Top 10 Lino moments in the past year. And there's no shortage of moments to choose from. These will come out while Lino's on vacation later this month.
• We'll also do a feature on Lino Watch's Best & Worst, highlighting the stuff we're proud of and the stuff we wished had never seen the light of day. That, too, will come out sometime before Lino returns to the air in January.
• There'll be one other surprise that'll make it easier for the public to reach our site... that'll come out sometime after Christmas.

To all Lino Watch fans and foes: thank you for reading our drivel for the past year. We may not like Lino as much as the other guys, but we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't like him at all. Onward to 2010!