|
|
Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
RSS feed coming soon!
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.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
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.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Purple Bear Update
First of all, sorry about my comments section being down. (Blame the oft-unreliable klinkfamily.com from which it comes -- anyone have any better sources for a free comments feature, let me know directly). I know a lot of you have been coming to the site after doing a Google search for Pelusa the purple polar bear. Daily Blah is the top result when you type "Pelusa purple bear" into Google, which makes me feel moderately proud, somewhat absurd, and a little nervous because I still don't have the definitive answer to Pelusa's purpleness and I don't want to feel like I'm wasting your time. I know also that five of my visitors were from Argentina, and I'd hate to think one of you had an eyewitness report from Mendoza zoo but weren't able to leave a comment to tell me so.
Grizzled (and grizzly?) cynic that I am, however, I am leaning towards believing the bear is for real. The report has appeared anew -- albeit briefly -- in three independent locations: Australia's Sunday Tasmanian, KPIX-5 in San Francisco, and Pro-8 News in Texas. The latter added details not found in the Reuters report, to wit: Pelusa is undergoing skin treatment for another two weeks, and the treatment contains a purple-staining liquid, suggesting for the first time that it is sprayed on. That would explain the purple stains on the cage bars. Then again, if this is a treatment common enough to be commercially available, how come we haven't seen purple polar bears before? Why do they put purple dye in a treatment for polar bears, and not white dye? Why put dye in at all? Is this all a conspiracy on the part of purple dye manufacturers? If so, where do I sign up to be part of that conspiracy?
Perhaps the most convincing piece of evidence, though, is that I've tracked down another Pelusa picture. It does appear on the blog of a self-confessed Photoshopper -- but if this is a fake, frankly, it is significantly better than the rest of his work.
|
|
|
|
