Every time I think I have the hang of something, someone throws a monkey wrench into the works.

About the time I mastered the touch-typing system (my wife thinks that is hilarious since I look like a spaz typing with only two or three fingers per hand), newspapers introduced computers and HTML coding into my life.

Then along came the Internet, Web sites and the equally useful and hateful e-mail. It's all a ploy to unnerve those of us who are more comfortable using fountain pens (yes, Waterman, Sheaffer, Parker and others still craft them) and urge us to master change since that is the only constant in our lives. It's the modern way of saying that "old dogs can't learn new tricks," at least they had better do it if they want to survive.

Now, along comes this thing called the blog. It sounds like that 1958 sci-fi movie starring Steve McQueen and Aneta Corsaut -- oh, right, that was "The Blob" or something that crawled out of a swamp. Or worse, something obscene.

Instead, it is something from cyberspace. Blog is Internet jargon for "Web log," or an online journal. Instead of the private journal I keep at home using my relic of a fountain pen, the Web journal is shared with you and the world. Sometimes you can make entries, too.

These kids (young professionals) around The Gazette and those at the corporate office who love the Internet tell me it's a new standard for communication. I think it is the Web version of the party-line telephones where everyone listened in - except now you don't have to keep quiet; you can click on the comment key and join the fray.

They tell me it is a modern version of talking over the backyard fence, or hanging out at the former Yankee Restaurant and Bar, which was on the site of today's Boys and Girls Club on Boundary Street. You never knew who you'd meet, what they would say or what mood they would be in when they said it.

Shucks, if you sign on to Google.com and type in blog, you get 145 million results -- not that I personally checked out every one of them. But it shows that this worldwide encounter seems to be wildly popular.

We intend for beaufortgazette.com to be the link to the world -- but so does each of the gazillion other sites. I don't know what will show up. It may be interesting and offer insight into how we perform our jobs, why I made a certain decision.

So if you are interested, follow Gazette editors Steve Blust, Chris Passante, David Hale, Jill Coley at www.beaufortgazette.com where you will find a link to the blogs.

Now that my dog has died and I don't walk the streets as much any more, who knows in this new cyberspace street or backyard, I might even run into my daughter who was married two months ago or my neighbor Joe Simkins, who hasn't talked to me since he asked for help to fix his Internet connection. I may meet a lot of new people, too, but it certainly won't be like having a beer with Harry Chakides at the John Cross Tavern or the guys over at the AMVETS. And, it won't replace the face-to-face conversations of happenstance in the isles of the Piggly Wiggly, the Bilo or Publix supermarkets. Nor will it replace the extended coversations of Thursday clubs, breakfast or lunch. You can't replace that kind of relationship.

As for me, a goal in life has been to resurrect the handwritten note.

I'll join this new-fangled meeting place, but I won't relinquish my fountain pen and notecards. Old dogs can learn new tricks, but some don't give up old habits.

Jim Cato is editor of The Beaufort Gazette. He may be reached at 986-5505 (work); 522-2009 (home); or e-mail at

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