Listics

If you’re not on the blogroll at Worthwhile, it doesn’t mean we don’t love you! We’re still building and rearranging, Halley teases. Right now they have the blog roll divvied up into several categories, including Political (the a-list guys - from Kos and Marshall through Jarvis to Sullivan and Reynolds), Tech (techie people incl Shelley, Bricklin, Doc, and the Gnomenator, and tech pundits incl Doc - whoa! a twofer! - a Gillmor, and Foley… and mirabile firehose: Slashdot!), the Classics (incl. Rageboy, Joi, Scoop Winer, and - wait! I’m starting to see some names that should be in other categories and some names that already are…). Wonkette and Dave Barry seem well placed in the Funny section, and - hold it! newsflash… the Onion is NOT A BLOG, but it is funny so arguably you could put it in this category, especially if you weren’t too strict about just what you were including in your blog roll). Now about About Work… this section has a lot to offer, very Worthwhile I’d say. Jeneane and Miz Liz are the names I recognize here. But bopping out to Curt Rosengren’s “Occupational Adventure” I’m tickled to find something attention grabbing, by a new (to me) author.

One of the things that happens in this world o’ blogs is we tend to spiral inward, becoming ever more internally referential and ultimately fit only for conversation with the microphones we seem to be looking at in our own navels. It’s nice to be introduced to different voices.

Halley says one may write her an email explaining just why one deserves a spot on the blogroll. I have done so, and in fact, so enamored am I of my own voice that I have reprinted it below…

Dear Ms. Suitt,

As part of my campaign of shameless self promotion, I interrupt my efforts posting flame mail and trolling for adrenaline stimulating action in the blogs and mail lists of the virtual world to take pen in hand and write you regarding why I deserve a spot at the TOP of the Worthwhile blogroll. First, having finished the Joe Sixpack creative writing course and learned about the proper placement of periods (when I discovered that sentences had endings I was doubly rewarded — made me glad I’d filled out the form on the matchbook), I promptly enrolled in the Stuart Smalley Self Esteem and Personal Salesmanship Institute. So you can see why I affirm that I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and - darn it - people just plain like me.

I have examined the blogroll and find that I fit in many of the categories, and in none. I notice you don’t have a category for Pop Culture, Pop Tech, or Pop Goeth the Elizabethan Weaseleth, so none of the obvious niches are there for me to fill. I could argue for a spot in “Classic,” having rebranded myself often enough that Classic must be one of them. But truly, I’m seeking this year’s Maynard G. Krebs Fellowship from your august (and September and so forth) publication and so I would like the space at the top in the “About Work” category as the Maynard G. Krebs fellow.

Thank you for your consideration.

Frank Paynter
What Me Worry? Not about WORK!!!
Denial — not just another river….

Cc: Dr. Weinberger

p.s. Another good reason I should be on your blogroll is because you are on mine and have been since your online magazine’s earliest days those several weeks ago when a ragtag band of hopeful youth set out to make their fortune in the often cruel but exciting world of online journalism… but that’s a story for another day.

p.p.s. Perhaps I should be slotted in Political as this campaign promotion for the re-selection of the president might indicate.