THE ART OF BLOG

Ray says that blogs are “diaries for exhibitionists.” Of course, this is coming from a man getting academic credit for a memoir. As revenge for Ray’s snide commentary, I’m going to link to this obsequious testimonial about his summer experience at a giant corporate firm (Ray insists that the testimonial was ghostwritten by Kirkland’s personnel department).

Ray shouldn’t be disrespecting the blog. After all, where else but a blog could I pass on the great headline from the front page of today’s Yale Daily News? And the art of blog is more flexible than Ray suggests. For a start, there’s straight down the line political commentary. Chris is starting to take this route. And there is the rare person, like Tim, who can write good stuff about banal events like locking yourself out of your apartment. Admittedly, any time spent surfing the web will turn up painfully earnest blogs by Sylvia Plath fans containing cringe-worthy pieces of blog wisdom like this: “there is a god because there is jimi hendrix, led zeppelin, cream, u2, aimee mann, coldplay and sheryl crow.”

Brevity is a virtue. I think my favorite post so far is from a friend of Tim’s. At the risk of violating international intellectual property agreements, I’m going to paste in the entire post. She writes:

GOSH i just found $10 in my drawer that i didn't know i put there.
and who said being a drunk slut wouldn't pay off?!
some total bastard, that's who.

We get ironic self-deprecation, an insult and a story with a happy ending all in 30 words. Brilliant.