This is the first full week of my Poor Wife's summer break, a week which traditionally is spent moving stuff around at school, since art teachers tend to have enormous caches of supplies. This year, though, as they've thoroughly screwed up the room assignments she finds herself stuck waiting for someone else to clear out her new room, so it all came home and currently fills the shed and the guest room, and the dining room is now the command center for the summer class she'll be starting in a week. So I'm trying to dedicate my free time to her, and my little charges in the landscape which are being assaulted by a late-spring series of 90ยบ days. All of which has somewhat curtailed my reading time, and has meant composing posts in my head and trying to write them down later without spending hours at it. If I disappear for a day or so, rest assured I'm not enjoying myself.
So, short takes: President Clinton is in town, he spoke tonight and will be signing 500 copies of his book tomorrow. I'd have gone to the speech, but I didn't find out about it until it was long past sold-out. The book and the autograph I can do without. But I did get to hear some local hairdo on the Constant Tape Loop of Local News we're blessed with on cable call him, "the controversial former president" (do we have one that isn't?), note that he would "only be signing copies of his book," (and not, evidently, Your Left Breast), that "some people" had "paid up to $500" for a ticket to tonite's speech (I suppose they'll be sending their Investigative Team to find out if it was their own money), and concluding with a note that the Controversial Former President is the highest-paid speaker in the land. God, I hate these motherfuckers. That was essentially the content of my email to her.
The ever-charming Kathy takes on the Kos Kontretemps and other bloggers she no longer reads. I do read Roxanne, and I'm sorry to have dropped Kevin Drum, who does a lot of good work. But I wanted to point out here that the high-traffic bloggers who are genuinely funny, (e.g. TBogg, s.z., norb) as opposed to the wonks, never seem to do any ego tripping. I've met a celeb or two in my day. Johnny and June Carter Cash were as nice as nice could be. Liberace was a genuine, sweet guy. I got to shake the hand of Jorge Luis Borges. I played violin for Josef Gingold. The only person I ever met who was on a star trip was z-lister Lorna Luft. Curious, ain't it?
My Poor Wife tells me that CNN went wall-to-wall for about three hours this afternoon with a California police chase, then simply dropped the story. Nothing on their site about it now. Apparently there weren't any blonde girls in the car.
10 comments:
most of the celebrities you mentioned were male -- except for june carter cash, of course. and most male celebrities aren't on the ego trip.
it's the women who are insecure, who want the blind worship, especially if they come from strained circumstances -- o hell, let me just say poor.
it's sad, really.
i just bet jennifer lopez is about a bastard and a half.
it's an old cliche but the bigger they are the nicer they are. i bet back in the day, jimmy stewart, gary cooper and clark gable were swell fellas. but joan crawford? puh-leeze!
I think one of the things that gets me about the big bloggers is that their commenters are nothing more than yes-men. They'll do anything that the blogger suggests and believe anything that the blogger tells them to. It's almost cult-like. I know my comments on various blogs aren't always constructive, creative, or good, but still. I can't read any of the comments on Atrios anymore.
As far as the bloggers themselves, I'm with ya', Hokie. There are some who bring a new perspective or mention stuff that they are actually experts in. Dave Neiwert is a great one. I also like TPM, although I'm kind of wishy-washy on the new TPM Cafe thing.
Ok, um, people from Indiana? God love you, but you do not know from celebrities.
The bloggers who have become A-listers remind me of nothing more than those guys in law school: the super-geeks who could never in their lives hang with the cool kids. Once they get their ticket, they invariably are consumed with what they perceive to be their power and prestige. They also invariably end up as solo practitioners because no one can stand to be partners with these still-geeky egomaniac loose cannons.
And I liked Roxanne and should probably pick her up again. I just get impatient when political bloggers spend too much time picking the same little scab.
Thanks, Hokie. I enjoys yours too. [awww] BTW, do you go by another name in other places?
I thought that was you but I never was sure.
if anyone wants another angle on the politcal blogs vs. other blogs discussion, please check out lance mannion's blog.
don't know the url; just go ahead and type his name in the search engine and it ought to lead you there.
basically, he agrees with a lotta you who've posted.
read it and add your five cents's worth
I suppose I plead guilty to being something of a yes-chick as a commenter. It seems to be a combination of "Don't go into someone's home and wreck up the place", "If you don't have anything nice to say," and the fact that I'm just not reading blogs where I *don't* agree with what the blogger says or how it's said.
I drop 'em pretty quickly if they don't appeal in some way.
But, yes, I'm a toady, I admit it. I'm like this in real life, too. When people are brilliant, or hilarious, or insightful, I tend to propose.
(This is actually pretty common in my peer group.)
Where's the harm in letting people know they've done good? And why should I tell them when they screw up? I can guarantee someone else will be along within minutes to do it instead of me.
That said, I dig wonks, in general. Smart is sexy.
That's pretty much it, as you can tell from how almost all i ever say here is how great of a writer DH is. What gets me is in every single comments section, almost every single commenter says "Right on!" It is great to hear that, don't get me wrong, but when there are 200 comments on the thread saying that, the point has been made.
And actually, I guess what I'm saying is even beyond just complaining about the "right on!" What gets me is it seems like if one day A-list Blogger X says "Corn tastes nasty," thenall the commenters say "I hate it! Never touch the stuff!" about 200 times. But the next day, if the blogger says, "Oh, I didn't mean corn, I meant beets," then everyone responds, "Corn good! Beets bad!"
What I like about most of the sites that I visit regularly and comment on, is that while most of the commenters agree with things being said, they still seem to show that they have the ability to think for themselves.
And D., your comments are also always good. They're much more than just being toady.
Thanks. That means a lot, especially coming from THYCWOTI and someone who feels that civility is overrated.
(You two aren't trying to get me to stalk you, are you? 'Cause I'm pretty busy for the next few months.)
As far as that kind of yes-manning goes, I would never do that. Corn and beets are both great, I don't care who says otherwise. It's *sniff* all those tiny, tiny *sob* frozen peas... *sniff* that are so terrible... *wail*
(Yeah, I could have resisted. But why?)
Actually, I hate corn. I despise the stuff, unless its ground up and in cornbread. The whole kernels are dangerous if they get up your nose.
But, wow, I so agree with you about everyone so agreeing with each other because I so agree with Bats Left, Throws Right on this one that I pointed to his blog when I talked about the Pie Fight Incident of 2005 ...
Actually *sniff* when I say something different on most sites, I just get ignored. *sniff* Maybe it's because I'm a blonde white girl and they can tell from my comments ... but I'm not rich so I don't count ... I'm going to cry ...
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