You May Laugh, You May Cry

I’ve spent a lot of time the past two days learning my way around WordPress. Reminds me of when we first moved into our current house and I was carrying some clean laundry to the master bedroom. Totally forgot there were three steps down into the den and sort of catapulted myself into the room. I survived that “launch” with minimal bruising, and I’m sure I will this one, too.
A couple of things have kept me busy. I was a bit surprised when the stat counter told me I had imported almost 8,000 comments. Apparently the comments got cozy during their journey from LiveJournal and multiplied themselves, some threefold, some fourfold, and some sixfold (sounds like the makings of a somewhat kinky parable). I’ve been deleting the duplicates manually. I realize I could just leave them, but then if anyone (including me) ever decided to go back and read something in the archives, they’d give up scrolling through all that mess and miss some hilarious conversations.
There’s a boon to this tedious task of deletion, though. As I go along, I’ve been reading the comments again. Not only have I been thoroughly entertained, I’ve also been surprised at some names that showed up years ago. It’s an honor to think so many people I admire have dropped by my blog over the years. Too bad I’ve been such a slug about updating.
I’m also assigning categories to past posts. Some may think that’s an exercise in futility, and perhaps it is, but when I’m looking for info on a certain topic or a recurring thread of posts or whatnot, I hate digging aimlessly through archives. So I’m adding categories, which brings me to the title of this post.
Judging by the comments, there were quite a few posts that cracked people up and others that made them cry. I wanted to create categories that would alert (or warn) unsuspecting readers that a given post had potential to evoke drastic emotional response. But I wasn’t sure what to name the categories. “Hilarious” or “Tear Jerker” sounds conceited. And then what if you read it, and you don’t even smile or feel the least bit moved? Awkward. Sticky business this labeling.
But I still wanted the categories. Laughter is my drug of choice, and I like the idea of helping other junkies find a quick fix. In the end I decided to go with “You May Laugh” and “You May Cry.” After all, if other people laughed and cried, isn’t it safe to suppose someone else might, too? Also, I like the way it sounds like I’m giving you permission. Yes, class. You may laugh. After you’ve finished all your addition problems.
I still have a long way to go. So far I’ve categorized 75 out of 444 archived posts. I just think of it as unpacking my boxes.
And now I need a bit of advice from the locals. If posts are categorized, should they also have tags? What’s the advantage of one over the other? Are categories internal and tags external? Is my new home missing essential bells and whistles? Pink flamingos? Garden gnomes?
Oh, and if those are really stupid questions, permission stands as granted.