A BLOGGER'S CROSS WORD

A BLOGGER'S CROSS WORD



I've been known to have a cross word
or two for various people who do things that annoy me.  So be it,
I am not such a Zen sort of feller that I can just smile, relax in my
inner peacefulness, and wish those who annoy me a wonderful and
blissful existence.  Then again, I am generally not very
vindictive or filled with ill will.



Sure, there are some people who have gone on the permanent "ill will
list," but they are few and far between.  Plus the passage of time
lessens the intensity of those fellings . . .most of the time. 
Well, now that I think about it, there are a few folks, just a
few,  for whom some really dark feelings do sustain.  But as a
general rule for mental health, I try to spend as little time as
possible  thinking about them.



Of course there's one of them who calls me semi regularly, but that's
just life; we all live it, imperfections, annoyances, and all. 
And even those calls are less perturbing as time goes by.  I do
think, though, that the less these things bother me, the more they
bother the person on the other end.  There's some comfort in that,
come to think of it.



This Is Proof Enough For Me (crosswords, not cross words)



Last Sunday's New York Times got various bloggers all tickled and
talkative.  The front page of the Business Section had an article
about Gawker [1], the commercial
blogging enterprise.  Some bloggers hate the commercialism of
Gawker, others are outright jealous of the business and success
thereabouts.  And Nick Denton, the Gawkermeister, spends the
entirety of his interview time demeaning the buzz, calling it just a
little bump on the adworld/press/blog horizon.  His
underwhelmedness, clearly a very practiced and honed tack, is really
wonderful . . .at least to this reader/blogger/media guy . . . because
he refuses to participate in the "high and mighty holier then-thou
hugely righteous" (A-List) cabal of the blogosphere.



Kudos to him for that.



But more important, and to this observer, more proof that blogging is
so today that it is yesterday (which positions it as more viable and
extant, if you catch my marketing drift), and will also be
tomorrow, sort of like all those other things that are just part and
parcel, of the fabric of our everyday lives. . . . is this:  The Sunday Times Magazine Crossword Puzzle.



Despite the Times having become more of a yuppified gentrified overly
cool and hip (just ask them, but realize that they would be too hugely
cool to acknowledge this, although they might secretly kiss your feet
for making the observation, and then speak ill of you for having made
it, after all . . they are the NY Times, the old gray lady, now the
chic Tribeca Babe, wearing a shade of gray, the new black, of course).
paper -- what with all those sections with politically correct content
and trendy stories about trendy people written by trendy writers who
are fortunate enough to have trendy ads positioned next to their trendy
work --



Pardon my ramble, but this is why Gawker is better at this than the
Times.  Gawker comes to it very naturally, tongue firmly in cheek,
able to laugh at itself.  To be itself, to enjoy itself.  The
old gray lady has her thumb entrenched in a trendy, but unpleasant place, where
one does not usually see the sunshine.



--- last Sunday's Times Crossword Puzzle made it official.  The
clues are the whole thing, and since Will Shortz has been the Crossword
Editor the clues have been oddball, left field, too cool for the
readership, and oh so chic.  I actually miss Will Weng, CW editor
from some time back.  More so, I miss Eugene T. Maleska and his
predecessor, Margaret Farrar.  Now they knew how to craft a
challenging puzzle, and not have it so hip you think you should move to
Williamsburg or Hoboken after completing the puzzle.  And then
have the Sunday Real Estate Section write up every little detail about the
transaction: what it cost, what the broker made, who lived there
before, who are the neighbors, how much other comparables go for, 
which mortgage company handled the deal, how much was spent, how much
was mortgaged, how much the buyers earned last year, what they do, who
they know, what they eat for breakfast, and how they love a chic new
trendy cafe that's walking distance from this oh-so great new
neighborhood (The Times has yet to use "hood"for neighborhood . .even they have their limits, stylebook and Safire
notwithstanding) where the artsy fartsy and the scions of the
investment world are flocking to . . . before the normal people come
and ruin it.  oh, those normal people, they're just so untrendy, so, uhh, boring!



BLOG VALIDATION - IN THE CLUES!



ANYWAY, here's how we know that Blogs are here to stay, old hat, new
hat, chic and trendy, and also completely a part of normalcy and
everyday life according to the Sunday Times Crossword style book and
judgment of NY Times Games Editor Will Shortz: 

I entered the second e, since the correct answer was either "the net"or, "the web."  A little while later I got the whole answer, when
I filled in 20 Across.  The clue was Bud.  The answer: 
CHUM.  The h in chum was also the h in the, as in the_net.



OK, if a clue about blogging, or bloggers' arena shows up in the Sunday
Times puzzle, then blogs are mainstream, old news, and here to stay.



Case closed.