On this day in 1876, the United States issued a patent to Alexander Graham Bell for his invention of the telephone. My more modest contribution to March 7 is that on this day in 2004 I published my first blog post, a comment about the plan to put parking beneath the historic Pioneer Court House. In the 17 years since I hope that I've occasionally led you to ponder, to get irritated, to be amused, to learn about our city's history, to consider plans for improving civic life, and sometimes to bellylaugh. At the rate that our civic leaders are creating new material I'm optimistic that I'll continue to have plenty to talk about for years to come.