New blog: McCain Hand Quotes

Check out McCain Hand Quotes to see how John McCain really thinks!


Inspired by McCain's "Quote HEALTH":

Blogs of the day: Open Salon edition

I've promised to highlight my favorite blogs over at the newish Open Salon community. There are some fabulous and talented writers there. I urge you to check them out.

• Sandra Miller: She writes stories and personal essays. Miller is probably the most talented writer at Open Salon. A few recent highlights, her musings on holding intelligent (or informed) opinions, the merits of eating alone, a fathers' day personal essay, and a disturbing story about an evil Disneyland plot.

• Arlene Green: She doesn't pull any punches and sounds like an interesting person, confronting old ladies in grocery stores for giving unsolicited advice. She tells us why Rachel Ray would fail at cooking for her family, about how she became the unofficial birth coach for young mothers in her community, and a great piece on teenage sexuality called "Hormones With Feet."

• Pretend Farmer: Living in Arizona entails some adventures apparently. Whether it is providing stark footage of the flash flood that surrounded their home, posting close-up shots of dessert wildlife, or a portrait of her highly litigious neighbor, the Pretend Farmer has something to say every day. She's knitting a vibrator cozy for Sandra Miller, so you know she's no prude.

• neilpaul: An angry defense attorney who writes about the injustices of the criminal justice system. One of his more noteworthy posts is the angry Black versus White post. Did I mention he was angry?

• Chris B: If you want to read about the politics of the day, Chris B is timely. He usually has the lasted campaign ad, snafu, our YouTube tribute posted, be it Ludacris' Obama is here or Paris Hilton's foray into politics.

There are lots of others. Check it out.

Changes are a-happenin'

Frequent readers of this blog (the two of you) may notice some changes. I've changed the title. While I thought "Who Can Say?" was a clever title for a blog, it was kind of confusing. First, I made what is typically implied as a statement into a literal question. Secondly, it's not like the domain was whocansay.com. That domain was unavailable.

So the domain is doubtcreptintohisvoice.com. A bit long for a blog title.

Meanwhile, I have begun blogging over the name Skeptic Turtle at the new online community at Open Salon. I selected that name because I had submitted letters and comments over at Salon.com as "Turtle," but felt I need an adjective to flesh it out.

Maintaining a second blog means I neglected the first. And they are both general interest blogs, so why keep them separate. I'm now Skeptic Turtle in both places and will be cross posting between the two.

So you can read me here or there.

I do recommend checking out Open Salon. Lots of good stuff there which I'll be highlighting shortly.

Garfield

From the blog, Garfield minus Garfield

New blog on Minneapolis-St. Paul

I've started a new, separate blog about the Twin Cities. Ooops, sorry about that. It's not the Twin Cities, it's Minneapolis-St. Paul. The blog is called Minneapolis versus St. Paul.

The cities formerly called twins have had a longstanding rivalry. The rivalry is often friendly and sometimes ridiculous. Like the time where the two cities adopted different daylight saving calendars and general confusion over what time it actually was ensued for a couple of weeks.

Minnesotans know that the two cities have their differences. Minneapolis and St. Paul have their own separate character and history. What this means is you'll have some strong opinions about the alleged superiority of one over the other.

An effort is now underway to scientifically evaluate and measure the ways one city is better than the other. Over time, we will be able to determine once and for all which city is the best.



Suggestions for comparisons are welcome.

Today's Featured Blog: On passive aggressiveness

The blog, Passive Aggressive Notes, includes a tip sheet on tipping from a San Fransisco establishment. It is directed specifically at French-speaking foreigners.

Be careful

Be careful when driving with paint.

Today's Blog: About white people

I recently received a tip to a funny blog called Stuff White People Like. On the whole it is pretty lighthearted and shouldn't be taken very seriously. In truth, it's more of a Stuff Yuppies and Hipsters Like.

A few examples of entries:

• #73 Gentrification - "When one of these white people tell you where they live, you should say “whoa, it’s pretty rough down there. I don’t think I could live there.” This will make them feel even better about their credibility and status as neighborhood pioneers."
• #70 Difficult Breakups - "Once breakup proceedings have been initiated, a white person is immediately thrust into the center of attention in their circle of friends. During this time, they are permitted to talk at great lengths about themselves, listen to The Smiths, and get free dinners from friends who think “they shouldn’t be alone right now.”"
• #63 Expensive Sandwiches - "In most cities, if you need to find a cache of white people get yourself to a sandwich shop."
• #57 Juno - "White people, especially ones over 30, also love movies that take them back to a time when there was zero hip hop influence in white high schools."
• #53 Sarah Silverman - "WARNING: under no circumstances should you EVER list Dane Cook as your favorite comedian. The wrong kind of white people like him. And mentioning him will cause white people to lose all respect for you."
• #51 Living by the water - "Mountain views are also acceptable, but generally seen as a poor substitute."
• #44 Public Radio - "[The] middle portion of the [This American Life] episode where the gay guy who doesn’t own a TV, talks about his one week experiment in TV watching, is an example of what White people love listening to."
• #32 Vegan/Vegetarianism - "As with many white people activities, being vegan/vegetarian enables them to feel as though they are helping the environment AND it gives them a sweet way to feel superior to others."
• #22 Having two last names - "I have a feeling that College Lacrosse and Soccer Jerseys are going to look pretty strange in the next few years."
• #16 "Gifted" children - "But NEVER under any circumstance imply that their child is less than a genius. The idea that something could come from them and be less than greatness is too much for them to bear."
• #5 Farmers Markets - "White people also like Farmer’s Markets because it is outdoors (they love being outdoors), they can bring their dogs and children in expensive strollers, and they get to see other white people."
• #1 Coffee - "I promise you that the first person at your school to drink coffee was a white person. You could kind of tell they didn’t enjoy it, but they did it anyways until they liked it - like cigarettes."

Demon children

Writer Neal Pollack writes in his Parenting Magazine blog about the strange change in his 5 year old son's behavior, going from bad by even bad standards, to an angel. He is at a loss for an explanation.

Talking to other parents, this doesn't seem too unusual around the holidays and traveling. These kids are creatures of habit. Taking them out of their element in terms of time, space, people, activity can throw them off and suddenly they are someone different.

This week back from our Florida travels has been a difficult one. The first decent day was yesterday. Hopefully, it'll continue.

• What Have You Done With My Son?

Blog (and podcast) of the moment

Check out Grammar Girl on why it's okay to start a sentence with "hopefully."

This is part of a weekly podcast, but each episode is transcribed to a blog entry. In this issue, one learns that the attacks on "hopefully" are ill-informed.