Digital Feuilletons

From the Encyc. Brit, 11th Ed.:

FEUILLETON (a diminutive of the Fr. feuillet, the leaf of a book), "originally a kind of supplement attached to the political portion of French newspapers, separated by a line, and printed in smaller type. It consists chiefly of non-political news and gossip, literature and art criticism, a chronicle of the fashions, and epigrams, charades and other literary trifles; and its general characteristics are lightness, grace and sparkle. " (Emphasis mine)

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

feuil·le·ton (foo'yeh-tôn') n.

The part of a European newspaper devoted to light fiction, reviews, and articles of general entertainment. (Emphasis mine)
Besides France, Russia in particular cultivated the feuilleton genre since the 19th century, and the word acquired the general meaning of 'satirical piece' in the Russian language.

I've been entranced by the idea of feuilletons since I first read of them in High School, but never thought of a way to introduce them/bring them back. Or a reason, really. I mean, they were used primarily to fill space on the typesetter's page. Crank-file rants, pointless poetry, quick satires, small engravings, word-puzzles; they were the beerfoam spilt on the coaster of daily news.

Occasionally I'd come across collections like 'The Vienna Coffeehouse Wits, 1890-1938' by Harold B. Segal (great bathroom reading, btw) and quietly enjoy a style of writing I'd never got to see on a daily basis.

Now, 20 odd years later, this 'world wide web' thingy has given us all the ability to personally post feuilletons, about all & any subjects, anytime we wish, with a potential readership undreamt of last century.

So, with nothing important to say I'm getting around to starting a project I daydreamed about over the last 2 decades. Ah well....

Stay tuned. Coming up next; more dead-air.