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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... Thursday, January 22, 2004
Scream for Dean
It was the scream heard around the world. But in case you haven’t caught it, Howard Dean gave a virtuoso performance in the role of “angry weird yelling guy” after his dismal third-place showing in Iowa a couple of nights ago. Not only has this made him the butt of jokes along the Leno-Letterman-Stewart axis of comedy, but now the quintessential Internet candidate has had his outburst remixed online not once but three times – set to the sounds of Aphex Twin and Ozzy Osbourne. Not to be undone, the folks at songsfordean.com have fought back with a dubiously-scanned rap called Howard Dean Yell. (Sample lyrics: “If you can’t take one exuberant yell/Then elect someone who will make you feel swell.”) Is it just me, or is it a little weird to have this WASP-y New England candidate with an almost entirely white following celebrated in rap? Anyway, even Dean fans have to smile at this sly Pee-Wee reference on The English-Bush Lexicon: “’Howard Dean’ is today's Secret Word, so, remember, everyone, when you hear the words ‘Howard Dean,’ scream real loud!”
Is this all unfair to the candidate? Yes, of course it is. Life is unfair. Politics is very unfair. Just ask Neil Kinnock, former leader of the British Labor Party. When he was polling ahead by a whisker in the UK’s 1992 General Election, he held a rally in Sheffield. Nobody remembers anything about the rally today except for the fact that Kinnock started pumping his fist and screaming something weird, which was later translated as “you’re alright.” But for that moment, he could well have become Prime Minister. From all the noise coming out of New Hampshire, Dean might as well start reflecting on his own screaming point of no return.
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