This Week: The Behind-the-Scenes Edition, in Which Your Editor Takes You, Uh, Behind the Scenes
So last night, I was supposed to be watching I-Robot with the kids, but I also had my laptop with me and I was thinking that I could read some weblogs for this post while I watched the movie. Could weblogs be more interesting than I-Robot? I wasn't sure. Right away I discovered the news about a new group weblog, Clearly Erroneous, that was started so a group of anonymous webloggers could be even more anonymous. My first thought: Jeffrey Rosen definitely wouldn't approve. Although the new site features quite a line-up of humorous webloggers, there's no word yet as to whether they'll be focusing on subtle, intellectually-based satire or straight-up comedy. Either way, I'll be dropping in. I'm searching for another apple to polish.
Next in my blog-reading (boy did I, Robot suck) was a knock-down-drag-out concerning those magnetic war ribbons. It was point by ambivalent imbroglio, then counterpoint by Three Years, then point again by ambivalent imbroglio. (Later, I came upon another view at Nudum Pactum, which made good use of the strike tag to make it appear that the opinion expressed therein was changing before the reader's very eyes.) I'm aware that no one asked me, but I wonder why no one ever mentions Tony Orlando and Dawn when they're arguing about those war ribbons? I mean, there's a group of people you just know is ticked: if all those magnetic-ribbon-buyers would put their old song where those magnets are, Tony Orlando and Dawn would be gazillionaires. (It's why I can't stand those magnets, by the way: they remind me of Tie a Yellow Ribbon, which was excessively overplayed in my youth.)
Next in my weblog-reading, I tried to learn something new I hadn't known before. And right away, I learned something about Starbucks coffee. Then I learned that mellow-drama had moved to Typepad; that makes us cousins, sort of. Then I learned that Will Baude, who just can't help himself, was being pretentious again. This time he was posting about gift cards, for God's sake--way over my head. Even Matt Schuh's post had me running to the dictionary. I wasn't back on solid ground until I read Better late than never's nod to the Harper's Index. This was followed by an anecdote about one bicycling law student's poetic use of his tongue, and then a post explaining with demonstrative aids why women live longer than men.
By this time, I'd completely quit following the "plot" of I, Robot, and poor Austin, who realized I'd quit, stopped breaking in to tell me what I'd just missed. It was about this time I came across this recommendation for a better movie; it really served more as a reminder, I guess, since the movie was already on my list. Next, it was on to a post at The Slithery D, which seemed interesting but was impossible to read quickly; I'll return there tomorrow. Meanwhile, Magic Cookie posted a real-life jury story that resulted in a (spoiler alert!) not-guilty verdict. Accounts of jury duty seem to show up a lot in the blogosphere; someone should collect them all.
Speaking of weblogs, I also learned last night that they've now become so trendy that you need an excuse to start one. Of course, if you start one then shut it down after many months, an excuse will also be required: you can read one at Metaphors of a Magnifico. And if you stop one then decide to start it again on another platform, you can consider blawgcoop. Jeremy Richey explains.
Back to I, Robot. By this time in my reading, the credits were rolling, I'd been through more than a hundred weblogs, and the kids were asleep in front of the TV. I was reading Energy Spatula's call for comments on this topic: What do men want? You can find answers, some more fleshed out than others, at Half-Cocked, Inter Alia, Naked Drinking Coffee, and Soupie's BBQ and Daycare (Soupie, that shirt-changes-before-Target thing really struck a chord).
It was time to carry the kids to bed. Last stop: Heidi Bond's Letters of Marque. I was there only a moment when I saw she'd taken a break from forest-blogging to say "[t]here are some very popular blogs out there" that she "doesn't much care for." At first, I was certain she was talking about Rufus. But then she got me all confused with references to people like "Feynman" and concepts like "distributions of preference." I realized it was time for me to go to bed too. Why can't Heidi just post about gift cards and be done with it???
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