|
|
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... Thursday, January 08, 2004
A Kennedyesque Day
To City Hall this morning for the inauguration of our 42nd Mayor, Gavin Christopher Newsom (and didn’t he keep that middle name quiet during the campaign?). It was as fun an event as these things can be, I suppose. The crowd was a good, solid ethnic mix; it looked like San Francisco rather than merely being peppered with nonwhites. Maria Shriver was in attendance. Local jazz star Paula West, whom I saw in action at the Red Room last year and adored, sang the national anthem. And Ed Asner read out an interminably long piece on city history prepared by the State Librarian that began like this:
Throughout the millennia, from that infinitely long-ago moment in geological time when it was created, the peninsula later to be called San Francisco waited, and waited, and awaited its destiny. True, it was an end unto itself – all nature is – these 46.38 square miles of rocky outcroppings, mountains, savannahs and sand dunes centered (by modern reckoning) on Latitude North 37 degrees, 45 minutes, 10 seconds and Longitute West 122 degrees, 26 minutes, 27 seconds. For thousands and thousands of years sea fog obscured the coastal regions in the early morning and burned off by midday. For thousands and thousands of years, the occasional herd of tule elk and the occasional grizzly bear roamed the peninsula, and great white sea birds – herons, egrets, pelicans – stood watch on the marshy north shore …
I kept waiting for him to say “then Gavin Newsom arrived. The end.”
Inside City Hall afterwards, they were serving nothing but water, coffee and cookies; clearly, the new administration intends to cut costs. The reception line to get into the mayor’s office was almost as long as Asner’s speech, and I ducked out after a couple of minutes. “I figure I’ll come back some day when it’s not so crowded,” I said to the guy next to me. He thought I was joking.
Outside, a pleasant surprise awaited. That obscuring sea fog of the morning had actually been burned off, revealing our first sunshine of the New Year. Stepping into it, feeling the freshness of a new start for the city, was easily the most Kennedyesque moment of the whole occasion. And not an egret in sight.
|
|
|
|
