Blogging for Sanity

Did you ever have one of those days? You know, when everything you wanted to say seemed so inane, you were rendered virtually speechless? Doesn't happen often to me, as friends and readers will attest. But today, well, it's a close call.

My parents are with us in Philly, refugees from South Florida. A lot of damage in their town, and we don't know about their home yet. But at least they're safe. As for the rest of the world, it's going to Hell in a Hand Basket.

Wilma. Miers. Iraq. The Middle East. North Korea. Nigeria. New Orleans. DeLay. Saddam. Rove. Miller. All the usual suspects. It's so overwhelming I just want to howl. So I decided to read some blogs instead. And I found a post from the splendid cartoonist Dry Bones, in his Golden Oldies section, called AIDS and Terrorism (1987), where you'll see his comment:

I drew this cartoon almost twenty years ago. Like most political cartoons it uses exaggeration to amuse and highlight, but at the time I assumed that by 2005 we would have conquered at least one of these two diseases.

The sad reality is that I could run this cartoon today without any need to change the wording.

Bones, as usual you said a mouthful.

Another mouth that roared had me grinning with malicious glee. Thanks to pal Dan Rubin of Blinq, who introduced us to somebody with a forehead-smacking great idea, and then added a twist of his own.

Seattle blogger Matthew Baldwin had a brainstorm: Take Time Magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Novels and match it with one-star reviews of those classics, written by customers on Amazon.com.

Let's make this interactive. We'll quote from a few of these Citizen Critics, and you have to... find out which novel they're dissing.

Click here Blinq: Critical Masses to play Dan's game.

If you're a Boomer--and even if you're not, you'll learn something--take a look at Time Goes By, one of my new finds. In her section Crabby Old Lady, blogger Ronni Bennett offers sage advice on Blogging For Older Readers, which frankly applies to anybody and everybody who craves a reader's true attention. Ronni, you rock.

Last but not least is a message on an unfortunately nameless and linkless blog seen by one of my DC pals: WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE GIVE BUSH A BLOW JOB SO WE CAN HAVE HIM IMPEACHED.

Amen to that. Blog On, Gang.