Of no use after all?

Why do I write my daily blog?

Good question.

Most people would respond that this is the future and I am smart to get with it. I have been doing it since April 2007, so it has become a habit of almost six years now.

However, the grip of the past is still not completely gone from our Internet future.

Why do I think that?

I had a phone call from someone who spotted one of my roughly 1,500 blogs online. It was a topic that was of particular interest and it was the caller’s hope that I could help him find the original work in the print product, Numismatic News, so it could serve as a citation in a paper being written.

I was eager to help. At first I did not realize it was my blog as the caller referred to a letter, but I quickly zeroed in on what was being sought.

I was quite pleased to learn that I had made a point that just didn’t disappear into the Internet version of limbo.

But what is the status of something that never existed in print? Not very high if it cannot be used in a paper.

There was another chance for a print incarnation.

One out of five of my daily blogs finds its way into the print edition of Numismatic News. I scoured the issues from around the original posting date.

No luck.

Staff here did not consider the topic interesting enough to use it again in our print product. I do not usually choose which blog goes to press.

Obviously, time has cast a new light on the original subject.

I am glad.

When I write I hope I am doing something useful, but how can I prove it? This telephone call is probably the closest thing I will ever get to such proof.

Now I know.

What was the topic? That is a matter between me and the telephone caller until publication of the paper.

It may never come to light, of course, because apparently blogs are inferior to a newspaper.

I don’t think my bosses will believe it.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."