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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
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Daily Blah for... Saturday, July 06, 2002
Complaints, Glorious Complaints
A sure sign that my audience is slowly returning after Daily Blah's week-long tech glitch hiatus: I'm starting to get the usual kind of underinformed, barely intelligible correspondents writing in, spoiling for a flame war. A guy called Miles Parnell calls my July 3 entry "the biggest load of rubbish I have ever heard" -- strong praise indeed! -- and bases this searing assessment on, um, the fact that he was "living in the U.S. in the early 80's." Well, that explains everything. He goes on: "As a Brit, I can only say you associate with a bunch of imbeciles." Really? I never knew my countrymen were so empowered with long-distance, telepathic mental health assessment skills. Miles continues: "If I were you I would get out and return to the U.K., since it is obvious you are a loser." Wow. You've got me, Miles. Let me book my ticket. Wait a minute -- does this mean the U.K. is a nation of losers? And since you live in the U.K. now ... Whoops! You've insulted yourself!
As a kicker, Miles claims to have "corrected" my spelling of reenact -- by adding a hyphen between "re" and "enact." Sorry, Miles, but "reenact" without a hyphen is the classic American English style (hyphen placement counts as style, by the way, not spelling). Check it out in Webster's. You are familiar with Webster's from your extensive early-80's American experience, I hope?
Meanwhile, on the American side of the nutter fence, "Ken & Jacquie Ilkenhans" (don't you just love it when married couples share an address and don't sign their mail, as if they were some kind of group mind?) take issue with the Mike Newdow entry (July 1). "Maybe you haven't read the first Amendment in a while," they write. "Where does it say that Americans are guaranteed from having religion? Guess what? It doesn't." Well, folks, perhaps you should read my entry again. Where does it say that Americans are guaranteed from having religion? Guess what? It doesn't. It says the First Amendment guarantees Americans freedom from having religion imposed upon them -- by the government. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." Now we can argue all day about what constitutes an "establishment" of religion, but if you're the slightest bit open-minded you have to agree this might include -- just might -- government-employed schoolteachers being required to use the words "under God" every morning. If those two words are not religious, as I suspect you might try and argue, then why are religious folks like yourself so upset about the idea of losing them? Discuss.
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