Ten years ago today, a book was sold.

Earlier today, we stopped by Destinations Booksellers, and Randy Smith said that 10 years ago, on October 18, 2004, he sold his first book at the store.

Congratulations are due, but the happiness goes beyond New Albany having and supporting an independent bookstore for decade, during changing times not always favorable for the genre.

Randy and Ann are our friends, too. That's the most important thing.

I've known Ann for a long time, but we first met Randy and his wife as a couple at an open house at Moser Tannery around the time the bookstore opened. They've done more than sell books. They've been an incubator for progressivism, ideas and ideals -- for thinking. Nowadays there's a coffee shop, bars and a brewery for fostering subversion.

Ten years ago?

We had nuthin'.

Concurrent with the advent of Destinations Booksellers, I began dabbling in blogging. My first post was on October 22, 2004, but it wasn't until George W. Bush was tragically re-elected shortly thereafter that I realized how futile it is to debate national issues when local affairs are far more capable of being influenced by direct participation.

Roughly 8,000 posts later, it occurs to me that I may have been profoundly mistaken. Either way, without people like Randy and Ann, and of course non-bookselling others too numerous to mention here, it isn't clear how we ever could have survived New Albany's mind-numbing numbness of mind these past ten years.

Thanks, Destinations. You've helped make this unreconstructed, dirty river town bearable. Now, if we could just stuff it into the tub for a good scrubbing.