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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
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My TIME articles
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Online column index
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, July 03, 2002
Bring on the Tar and Feathers!
Time was, back in 1994, when I was terrified of being in America on Independence Day. Here I was, a Brit, in a country celebrating the fact that it beat up the British. Part of me felt a little like an Irish nationalist stuck in the path of an Orange march in Ulster. Sure, we were allies now, but had the Yanks really forgiven us yet? Would people give me strange looks (well, stranger looks) when they heard my accent? Would I encounter a boozy rabble of patriots looking for Tory types to help them reenact some good old-fashioned tarring and feathering? Just how far did this spirit of '76 thing go? My girlfriend at the time, an American, set me straight. "Oh honey," she said, "most Americans don't even know what happened on July 4." To my enormous relief, she was right. There was scarce little historical reenactment going on -- not unless Jefferson et al set down their quills, fired up the grill and feasted heartily on franks and beer. Since then, like most Americans, I've greeted the holiday as little more than a good excuse to goof off in the height of summer, overindulge, and gawp at multi-million dollar fireworks displays. Think it'll be different this year, with the heightened security, the nerves, the extra flags? Somehow I doubt it. The lure of delicious laziness is just too strong.
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