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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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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.
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.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Schwarzenegger Surprise
I was just sitting there at the kitchen table in the early evening sunlight, reading the latest on the recall election and feeling my stomach sink. There are at least 400 candidates in the running now, allowing for the possibility that our next governor will be elected with as little as 0.26% of the vote. The State Supreme Court, which contains eight Republicans and one Democrat, is unlikely to help out. A memo with the White House's fingerprints advises GOP strategists to use the recall as a recruitment opportunity for 2004. Arianna freakin' Huffington is running. Some of my friends simply shake their heads and laugh at the whole damn Hollywood circus. I would love to appreciate it that way too, but there's a large part of me that cannot help but see it all as evidence of the decline of democratic civilization. This, you see, is why I stopped writing about politics.
So I sighed, and got up from the table, resolving to forget it all by losing myself in work. That was when Petra called.
"Arnie's running," she said. "Just thought you'd want to know."
"Oh God," I groaned. There was no turning away now. "Which channel?" I may find the spectacle stomach-churningly distasteful, but that doesn't mean I'll refuse to turn on a TV when news is being made.
There he was, Ah-nuld, mangling the English language live on five channels. Here is a man who makes Bush epithets look positively Shakespearian. When he said "I want to make sure children are not left with any books," I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After all, Ah-nuld has shown more interest in ad-hoc after-school programs than in funding schools themselves. Who's to say that was a verbal slip? And even if he makes a hundred such gaffes, will it matter? Give him 20% of the vote and he's laughing all the way to the statehouse.
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