530,000 * 10 = 5,300,000 = 70,000,000 ?

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WHAT IF MENCKEN BLOGGED? Jack Shafer wonders whether it's true that H. L. Mencken actually produced 70 million words in his lifetime. He reckons it's more in the 5 million range. But what if he'd been a blogger, as I suspect he would be if he were alive today? I just counted up the words typed into this blog over 2005. I say "typed" because a chunk of them are quotes or emails from readers and the like. Nevertheless, at 530,000 words a year, a blogger could match Mencken's lifetime record in a decade. Six years and counting ...

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http://www.andrewsullivan.com/index.php?dish_inc=archives/2006_01_01_dish_archive.html#113630426610054309

I think he means if the lifetime record were 5 million

>He reckons it's more in the 5 million range.

Ummm, the math works out if you assume that what he reckons is correct.

Nevermind. Cory beat me to it...

Oh, I get it. So there is a guess that Mencken wrote 70 million words. Shaffer says, nahhh, couldn't be more then 5 million.  And Sullivan comes along and says, WAIT, if he were a blogger, well, THEN it could be 5 million. Well, great Sullivan, that's exactly what Shaffer got WITHOUT blogging.

I suspect Sullivan has mixed up the 5 and the 70.

I think this is the key line:

"He reckons it's more in the 5 million range."

Oh, so a decade instead of a lifetime. OK. Makes sense.