The coolest thing about being an obscure internet hack (instead of a professional writer) is the feeling you get when you find out that people actually read your stuff. The following five behind the scenes moments prove that people really are occasionally reading The Nate Way.
1) I walked inside The Local Pub and ordered a beer. Bartender Devin grabbed my beer, handed it to me, and said, “You’re just mad ‘cause I fucked your mom.” Nice.
2) I received the following email from PIC editor, Court Sullivan:
I often analyze site statistics to see which websites people came from to get to pages on PIC, and I came upon a link to your article about LaToyia Figueroa on wikipedia.
check out the last link on this page under “External Links”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaToyia_Figueroa
Cool huh?
Later, I called Court and he said the following, “The funniest is how they posted up that link like you’re a real responsible journalist or something.”
Once again ladies and gentlemen (just so we’re clear on this), Court is on my side.
3) I received an e-mail from a woman who said she was using The Cute White Boy, in one of her classes on racism. The e-mail praised my work in eloquent prose and suggested I find more serious topics to address. She wrote, “The world has a lot of problems, Mr. DeGraaf. And your voice could help with many of them.” I dumbly responded, “Wow. And I thought that was just about eating fried chicken.” Needless to say, she has not replied.
4) I was sitting in The Smoky Pool Hall when buddy Royce came up and slapped me on the back of the head.
“Why’d you do that?” I asked.
“Does your momma read your blog?”
“Yes.” He hit me again.
“Get those fucking cuss words outta there already.”
5) Brother-in-law Paul asked me the following question while I was in St. Louis: “How are things going for you on that website—you know, the one I can’t access from work?”
I told buddy Mike these five moments and he said, “Further proof that there’s just not enough quality entertainment on the internet.”
Just so we’re clear here, Mike is also on my side. Though he reserves the right to abandon my side at any moment in the name of attractive females. Who can blame him, really?