20,000 words*. An essay published in the Globe and Mail. A three hundred per cent increase in average daily readers. (My god, there's like three of you now!)

Thanks, Mrs. Kennedy, for dangling the carrot. Thanks, Leah, for telling me about it. Thanks to my readers old and new. Some of you wrote beautiful words of encouragement, and I choose to believe the rest of you were thinking them. Thanks to all the other participants. For a brief, shining moment, it felt like we were all part of something. I can't believe there won't be a balloon drop and champagne. (You'd tell me about it if there was, right? Guys?)

Here's to you. Now I must go collapse.

* (by traditional count; 14,000 by spellcheck)

Last night's post is below in case you missed it. (Hey, if I gotta write 'em everyday, you gotta read 'em.)