South by Southwest: Smiles today -

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Smiles today -

All the buzz makes me smile. The larger blogs often include a community of blog writers buzzing amongst and between themselves over the latest. Today's buzz is about Arianna Huffington's post on Bill Kristol. My favorite bloggers are writing about Kristol, including Steve Clemons of The Washington Note, that now features additional bloggers, including Scott Paul and - recently - Daniel Levy. Libby Spencer at The Reaction (now a large blog with co-bloggers, including yours truly) titles her post about the famed neocon, "Kristolizations." These links, if clicked, will make you smile in admiration of the writer's skill, smile ironically at the "take" of a sardonic writer, or smile with pleasure at such wonderful use of the English language.
Grins of gratitude - Bloggers are able to do our thing because we stand on the shoulders of others before us in our short history. These days we might currently owe one or more of our "Favorites" credit for doing our research work ahead of us. The latter is the case with two of my favorites, Bucky and Maud, who gave me smiles today. With a hat-tip to Bucky at a Brown Bag Blog, I learned about Jorn Barger. Barger was the first blogger; he's profiled at Wikipedia. And - along with Bucky (welcomed back after a writing hiatus) - I owe another hat-tip to MaudNewton, for the link to the great Wall Street Journal story celebrating the "Happy 10th Blogiversary" of the first blog, from which I quote the intro,

It's been 10 years since the blog was born. Love them or hate them, they've roiled presidential campaigns and given everyman a global soapbox. Twelve commentators -- including Tom Wolfe, Newt Gingrich, the SEC's Christopher Cox and actress-turned-blogger Mia Farrow -- on what blogs mean to them.

Gee, thanks! These two are old "blogger friends" of mine from years ago. I will always be grateful to Bucky for his early and regular recognition of me as a writer. Maud was the first real blogger I ever saw in a television interview. In her post today she thanks a blog friend for public recognition, as I just did. And I also want to thank a newer blogger friend, "betmo," for recently adding my blog to her "thinking blogger meme." life's journey, by betmo, is a rich blog written with passion and thoughtfulness by one of the best advocates I know. Her "tuesday post for peace" is wonderful. Smiles for all of us, I'll bet.

Well, howdy! A number of my favorite bloggers post sporadically. Some worry about not posting, and apologize profusely for being missing in action. But we, their loyal readers, regularly stop by at their sites, or notice in our RSS feed aggregators that their material has been updated. I'll bet all of us have had this happen. I was glad to see a 2005 blogger back online with a new blog yesterday - Mike Davis (aka "Adam Ant" of What's Wong With . . ) now writing at Mad Stories. And I am smiling at still being listed on his "Great Blogs" list.

Smiles when Favorites are writing again after a hiatus: From a Progressive POV, "Kitchen Window Woman," at The Dishpan Chronicles, periodically writes so passionately and fiercely that she worries about burning out. Her commenters love her work, as I do. Fayrouz in Beaumont was born and raised in Iraq and now lives happily in Texas. She posts only occasionally, but over the years she has taught me as much about Iraq, in her own way, as Juan Cole at Informed Comment. Fayrouz's most recent post is a touching and informative review of the work of Khaled Hosseini, who wrote "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns." I quote her lovely segment,

I'll start by apologizing to the Afghani people for not knowing much about them until I read Hosseini's books. I apologize for feeling insulted anytime someone compared Iraq to Afghanistan. I apologize for not knowing how much the two countries' recent history is similar.
. . . It's very easy to replace Afghanistan with Iraq to picture what's happening in Iraq. After reading the books, I realized that if all fails in Iraq, the country will become a Taliban-style state.

. . . As an author, Hossieni is a very gifted writer who can tackle difficult subjects that are considered taboos. He remains respectful of Afghani culture. At the same time, he doesn't refuse to tell us about the practices and behaviours others wouldn't mention.

I recommend Hosseini's books for anyone who wants to know more about Afghanistan. I certainly recommend the books for Iraqis who want to reflect on another nation's struggle with war and peace.

Serious gets the smile - This Mea Culpa gave me a chuckle. Grant McCracken wrote this classy little apology at "This Blog Sits at the Intersection of Anthropology and Economics." Usually-very-serious Steve Clemons of The Washington Note, often posts pics of his Weimeraners, Annie and Oakley. Their picture would makes a great ending to this post, but here is my own "Pet-Pic" to make you smile. I cannot give credit because it came to me in one of those E-mails that have been forwarded a hundred times or more.