2007 marks the 10th anniversary of “Snide Remarks,” the weekly humor column that appears on this website. In case you have not been paying attention for the past decade, “Snide Remarks” began at The Daily Universe, Brigham Young University’s campus newspaper, where I worked from 1997-1999. The column then followed me to the Daily Herald, Provo’s local paper, from 1999-2003. Since March 2004, it has been published here at EricDSnider.com.
The official 10-year anniversary date is difficult to determine, and scientists have debated it for years. The first column written under the title “Snide Remarks” was published Sept. 29, 1997. But if you look in the archives, you’ll see that one is listed as column #9. That’s because I wrote eight columns before it that, while not yet titled “Snide Remarks,” and not yet published on a regular weekly basis, obviously were in the “Snide Remarks” vein. Taking those into account, the first “Snide Remarks”-ish column was published Feb. 6, 1997.
In my mind, the September date is the more official one, so that’s mostly what I’m going by. Still, I figured, why not celebrate throughout 2007?
I’ve been making my way through the 500-plus columns in the archives, re-reading everything, fixing the odd punctuation or typographical error, reformatting things that got messed up during our various server changes, and updating the “Comments & Reaction” sections where appropriate. This will make them brighter and shinier for you, the casual browser and at-work time-waster.
I’ve also been taking notes. I’m compiling my personal lists of the best and worst columns, making note of my favorite angry letters, and other such lists. I’ll post them periodically over the course of the next few months.
And just for fun, every Wednesday in 2007, I’ll post a blog entry with a link to that week’s designated “Snide Remarks” Classic column. These will be columns that perhaps are not as well-remembered as some of their brethren but that are still funny and worth reading again (or, very likely for most of you, for the first time). If significant, memorable entries like the “Titanic” column and “I Was a Junket Whore” are the assassination of Lincoln and the Watergate scandal, then these lesser-known columns would be the Aldrich-Vreeland Act of 1908 and the election of William Henry Harrison. They are important, in their way, as they contribute to the larger tapestry of history, but not monumental.
Our first “Snide Remarks” Classic is #011, published in The Daily Universe on Oct. 13, 1997: “1800 Dumb Questions,” in which I call toll-free consumer-comment hotlines and say stupid things. Enjoy!
