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Have a restorative break — the bus always needs to be serviced and get new spark plugs and oil filters. Does it show that I know nothing about buses? I think the plan for season 5 is a smart one. I had to go to once a week as my business has taken off to where I can no longer write during the day.

As I hopped on the bus half way along the journey, I look forward to catching up in the archives.

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A principal are a college I lectured at got confused during his motivational new academic year speech. “You’re either on the bus or of the bus, there’s no room for passengers.” My colleague whispered loudly: “That’s what buses are for, isn’t it, carrying passengers?”

I’m currently pondering changes to my Substack, too, also for reasons of time. All the best with your plans.

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That's a great misquote and correction from your colleague. There's nothing like badly quoted or pronounced public statements - a colleague once announced to the staffroom that a student was the epi-TOME of politeness. Which begs a few questions, to be fair.

I've done a few changes to The Bus since I've started - usually to streamline the content, but nothing with regard to its publication schedule until now. When I launched, I'd been made redundant and had decided to take a break from teaching, so the twice-weekly thing seemed a good idea. And then when I returned to work I kept up the pattern because - though difficult - it still worked. But after two years, it's become obvious that I just can't keep it up. Good luck on sorting yours out!

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I’m mostly wondering about my weekly playlist and especially the notes that go with it. The notes take a disproportionate amount of time to get together. They take me away from my more ambitious writing.

I’m considering compiling the playlist in the same way I do now and adding only very brief notes - not track by track.

Would you still value the music in the playlist, or do the notes add to the experience? If you don’t bother with the notes, I won’t be offended if you say so.

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I read every word of your Glimpses; at best, I skim the notes for the playlists - but definitely listen to the tracks. In my experience, I have a TINY (like MINISCULE) percentage of readers who click on any link - whether it's the Detour, the Playlist, etc - and no one EVER seems to click on one of the citation links. And this hasn't changed in over two years. But I decided about a year and a half ago to keep doing those things because (1) some people do click on them and - most importantly - (2) it's what I'd want to see if I read my letter. I'll still be doing the same in the next volume, but only once a week because time is too precious a commodity. If I were you - personally - I'd move to brief notes for the playlist, but keep the Glimpses going strong. They're great.

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