Bakker Bugle Blog Say it three times fast. In Luxembourgish.

In order to keep our levels of service at the excellent levels that our customers expect, it has been decided that commenters to the Bakker Bugle Blog will be honored on a fortnightly basis. This decision is not related to the health of the Bugle brand, and it is not a reflection of the quality of comments provided by our comment-vendors. Our customers, investors, and stake-holders can continue to expect the quality that the Bugle name implies.

The Commenter of this Fortnight is Dave! In addition to his consistent series of comments, Dave applied knowledge from this blog in the world. Given the level of frivolity here, we are quite impressed. Dave also played a shadowy role in elevating the ranking of this blog, which befits the winner of a spy-themed trophy.

To celebrate Dave’s third win, the Bakker Bugle secured naming rights to one of the most prominent ruins in the Dublin area: the Lead Mines Chimney in Carrickgollogan. The Chimney is near Stepaside and Enniskerry, two lovely towns just outside Dublin.

The Chimney is not as old as it appears, but it is extraordinary in ways that do not depend on age. The Chimney capped the longest brick-built flue in the world. The flue runs down the hill to the lead works in the Carrickgollogan valley. The flue looks like a low stone wall running west from the chimney. The Chimney is just one of the highlights of the B.B. B&B’s premium Walk in the Mountains.

As soon as the legal niceties are complete, this monument will be known as the Dave the Quality Commenter Ballycorus Lead Mines Chimney of Carrickgollogan Ireland, and any American corporations referring to the monument will use its full name. In the meantime, the authorities have kindly begun the brand-badging of the monument itself, as you can see here. (You can see more photos in the Flickr set devoted to Dave’s Chimney.)

We didn’t spray-paint “Dave” on that rock, of course. We found it that way when we explored the Chimney with Cindy, and we’ve been looking for an occasion to post it ever since.

Due to unexpected travel for the staff, there probably won’t be any posts until September 11. We won’t award a commenter of the week for this week. So we’ll have an extra-super Commenter of the Two Weeks ending September 16, and we’ll consider this week’s comments towards that prize.

The Management would like to clarify the policy regarding the acceptance of Commenter of the Week award in the comments for the succeeding week.

A comment written by the winner of the Commenter of the Week award, in the week preceding the comment’s posting — that is, the week succeeding the notice given of the Commenter of the Week award, except where such award is given late due to secret retreat — shall not be considered as part of the contributions of the previous week’s Commenter of the Week, when such comment pertains to the award given in the preceding week. Thus, such a comment, as described above, may not secure for the Commenter of the Week for the previous week an award for Commenter of the Week where such week is the week succeeding the week of the previous award, that is, the week of such comment’s posting itself.

In haiku:
Winner of last week
Comments to accept award;
Other words, win twice.

Some people are recognized as leaders just as soon as they enter the fray. This week, we recognize one of these natural talents. Jaime’s comment on Will’s new knife combined her personal experience with wise advice. We hope that her talents continue to develop over the next several weeks.

In addition, the Bugle staff would like to take a moment to recognize the contributions of all our commenters, both on the blog and for photos on Flickr. At our retreat, we resolved to recognize the contributions of our stakeholders using effective processes. In the coming months, a committee will review our current processes to discover unrealized potentials. We expect things from this initiative.

Tomorrow, this blog will review some other results of our retreat. Today, the staff will implement innovative suggestions from our “Work-Life Balance” session. Unfortunately, that session was scheduled at the same time as the “Q&A with Our CEO” meeting. So the only person there was the administrative assistant who organized it. Fortunately, the CEO text’d one suggestion regarding Work-Life Balance to the All-Staff Distribution list during the Q&A. So the staff are allowed to take the rest of Sunday off, once they finish Sunday’s assigned tasks.