Eleven

To paraphrase a famous children's TV show:
"this post is brought to you by the number eleven!"

What can we say about eleven?
- Apollo 11 was the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon.

- Many authors, politicians, and journalists have invented their own versions of the "Eleventh Commandment".

- World War I ended with an Armistice on November 11, 1918, which went into effect at 11:00 am-the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year.

and for those of us gondola fanatics:
-Eleven meters is the approximate lenght of a gondola
(and by coincidence roughly the same distance as a penalty kick in soccer).

So why am I giving so much attention to the number eleven?
Because as of this post, the Gondola Blog has eleven-hundred posts up for viewing.
Somewhere along the line I managed to miss the thousand mark - blew right past it and felt like a bonehead.

I never set out to publish so much material, I just had stories to tell, an obsessive fascination, and nobody here to say:
"hey you weirdo, quit writing about gondolas!"

So now we're up to 1,100 posts.
We've had great input from readers and fellow fanatics.
We've seen some excellent photography from several outside sources.
I've covered deep, meaningful topics, and also probably wasted your time here and there with silly stuff (like my tribute to the number eleven above).

My thanks go out to all of you for reading and commenting.
I encourage you all to send in photos and info for future posts.

And in keeping with the sillyness,
I can think of no better quote to end on than this:
"these go to eleven" Nigel Tufnel, "This is Spinal Tap"