“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment.”

- Damon Runyon

You all should be ashamed of yourselves. The Mall Diva comes out of blogging semi-seclusion to respond to a meme and then sits back in expectation of getting her customary 20+ comments...and gets just two. Now she's refusing to come out of the bathroom. Thanks a lot!

At least two of the people she tagged in the meme have responded: her sister, Tiger Lilly, and her best friend, Princess FlickerFeather. Their responses to the "All About Me, A to Z" meme are below under their names; click to open the results for each.

Leo at Pscymeistr's Ice Palace bestowed upon me a Thinking Blogger award last week, and since I've been so busy thinking and working (and only lightly blogging) I haven't had a chance to acknowledge his kind honor or carry on the meme by naming five other bloggers who's work makes me think. I think, therefore, it's high time to say "thanks" and "aw, shucks" to Leo. Your blog also makes me think — and usually my thoughts are "Amen!" You are both passionate and prolific and those are admirable qualities in a blogger.

Naming five other bloggers that make me think is kind of hard, not because there aren't worthy ones out there, but because so many of my favorite thinking blogs such as Port McClellan, Portia Rediscovered and Surly's Soap Box have all shut down recently. Like shark's teeth, however, when some wear out there are others ready to move up — and they're just as sharp. I have a comparatively short blogroll but everyone on it is well worth reading and have moved me on a regular basis with their wit, analysis or writing skill. In particular, though, I will point out five that are especially thoughtful or thought-provoking.

1. Jay Reding. I first stumbled onto Jay's blog shortly after I began blogging. If I had read him before then I may have been totally discouraged in my own abilities and never started. Jay provides articulate but concise analysis of the political and legal (funny how much those two intertwine) news of the day. I kind of miss the often intriguing Point/Counterpoint of his Comments section (and participated a few times) now that he's all but eliminated it, but like bugs to a zapper on a summer night, he was attracting too many insects driven by mindless instinct rather than intellect. Good move, Jay. That kind of thing can be amusing and even satisfying for a little while, but there are far too many other interesting things to do on a summer night than fry insects' brains.


2. Over at the Wide Awake Cafe, it's usually time to wake up and smell the coffee as proprietor Laura Lee Donoho serves up a stimulating blog. Her background in a military family and as an officer's wife brings a certain clarity and perspective, while her artistic skills and sensibility add cream and sugar. It's a great place to sit a spell and enjoy the genteel southern charm — but sometimes the crockery does fly!


3. Fireworks are usually on the agenda over at Amy Ridenour's National Center Blog. Crisp and to the point, Amy and her contributors hold forth on politics, global warming, the free market, individual liberty and personal responsibility. This site is a great source for blogging ideas and useful facts when you're feeling a little stale. Currently I'm appreciating the excerpts Amy is putting up from the National Center for Public Policy Research's book, Shattered Dreams: One Hundred Stories of Government Abuse.


4. Uncorrelated is a blog I discovered a few months ago and keeps me coming back to read Mick, Mark and Dave's take on national and international news and events — often from stories you're not seeing in the MSM. Their blog was about the only reliable source for details of the Trolley Square shooting in Salt Lake City last February (where an armed citizen an off-duty policeman, stopped a maniac who had already killed six people and was gunning for more). The guys have an ambitious and wide-ranging Categories list in the left sidebar that also makes for interesting browsing.


5. Half a World Away. As much as I like staying informed and reading good, witty analysis, my greatest joy in the blogosphere is coming across great writers, regardless of what they're writing about. Peter Kelley toiled for a number of years in high-powered business but has recently experienced a huge shift in his life, moving his young family to Amsterdam where he gets to share their discoveries and his own eye for detail and description with readers. This blog really makes me think ... about how much I wish I could have the experiences Peter is having!

One thing I've just realized about each of the blogs I've listed is that they're not really the kind of blogs given to memes such as this. If they want to participate, however, the rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think; 2. Link to The Thinking Blog so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme; 3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' graphic!

I've noted before that blogging can be the modern equivalent of the classical diarist or "journal-ist". That's not to say that everyone is a Montaigne or Gracian, but it is a rich tradition. I note today that it is the birthday of William Wordsworth. The blurb I was reading about him indicated that he had been an enthusiastic writer in favor of the French Revolution, even though that was an unpopular position in his time. Becoming disillusioned with politics, he turned his writing toward other, more prosaic, topics. As the Writer's Almanac notes, between 1797 and 1807:

At the time, most poets were writing poetry about broad topics of history and religion and philosophy. Wordsworth wrote about ordinary things and private thoughts, the view from a bridge, daffodils. Critics thought he was wasting his time on uninteresting subjects. But by the time he had reached middle age, he became a cult sensation and his collections of poetry became best-sellers.

I read a lot of blogs for awhile before I started my own and saw that there was a good representation of those writing on philosophy and religion and "modern history", i.e., politics. There was also a good smattering of those who wrote about ordinary things and private thoughts.

I liked all kinds, and have dabbled in each form here. I think I'd be bored if I tried to confine myself to one niche or another. The thing is, when I'm writing out my philosophical commentaries on politics or the news I frequently think I should be doing more observational posts. But when I'm writing the more personal stuff I feel as if I should be writing about the news of the day. Why is that?

Anyway, I'm just throwing that out as a random observation. I suppose the main thing for me, no matter what I write about, is just that I write.

I've been cranking along doing two jobs at work for a few weeks now. It's meant limited time for lunch and longer hours (well, technically, it's meant more hours; it's just that I wish the hours could be longer somehow in order to squeeze everything in). Most nights I'm either bringing work home or I'm too tired to put a lot of time and research into a new post so I've just written some things off the top of my head to keep Tiger Lilly from taking over. I also haven't had as much time to cruise through the MOB and my blogroll, which is what I really miss.

The pace at work has been kind of invigorating (yeah, I think that's the word to describe the constant squirts of adrenaline and caffeine), and the end may be coming into sight. The light isn't on at the end of the tunnel yet, but we're getting real close to flipping the switch, I think.

There have been a number of things I would have liked to have written about lately but couldn't get to them. Fortunately it hasn't been hard to find others who are doing a better job on these topics anyway. Earlier this week Nick Coleman had a column saying that the rich aren't paying their fare share in taxes in Minnesota. Coleman's rant was about as predictable as worms on a sidewalk after a soaking rain, and it was just as easy pickings for my eagle-eyed friend Jeff Kouba at Truth vs. The Machine who (and Nick, you might want to consider this) actually looked up numbers and knew what they meant. As John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things." They can also be fun!

Also, it's baseball season again. My joy at the return of the Twins is nearly equaled by the pleasure of being able to read the post-game analyses and musings by Bat Girl and her all-star roster of designated hitters as they follow the adventures (real and imagined) of our favorite team. This is good stuff, folks: funny, fresh and often surreal. If you're only reading about the Twins in the newspaper you're missing at least half of the fun.

AAARRGGH! There's goes the shock collar again. Back to work!