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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
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"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... Tuesday, July 06, 2004
You've Got JE Mail
Two years and two weeks ago, I told you John Edwards would be sworn into office on Inauguration Day 2005. I stand by that statement. I was just one off on the office, that's all. (Kerry-Edwards, Edwards-Kerry, what's the difference in the age of Cheney?)
Edwards -- Mr. Sunshine, Mr. Popular, Mr. South -- has been the obvious choice for this moribund campaign for so long that I feared Kerry would pick someone else in a fit of pique, perhaps to prove his independence from the Democratic machine. In the end he did the smart thing -- proved his independence by the means of the declaration, not the content. Announcing by email was a stroke of genius, even if it does look a little like he's trying to be Howard "Al Gore invented the Internet but I politicized it" Dean.
I was not one of the 150,000 who signed up for Kerry mail, but I got the news by email anyway. This tends to happen with big news that breaks before the West Coast wakes up; feeding my email addiction is the very first item in my morning routine. It was an email to my journalism school class list about the New York Post's horrific mistake in calling the decision for Gephardt. (who was their secret source -- someone in the Kerry campaign with a mischievous sense of humor who couldn't miss an opportunity to needle Murdoch?) The Post had got it wrong, and that suggested there was a right to be had. I fired up Google News, and there was my favorite Senator and his good ol' boy smile.
For a while I couldn't say anything. I felt my shoulders drop as months of tension melted away. He made the right choice. He's no Dukakis, no McGovern. This has to be the dream ticket. The sunshine seemed brighter, the fog lighter. On NPR a pollster talked about record levels of Democratic mobilization in the wake of Fahrenheit 9/11. Democrats, he pointed out, simply have more registered voters on their side; if they all turn out, they win. This afternoon P put on The War Room, a lovely reminder of the last time Democrats mobilized to oust a Bush. If a day ever felt like a turning point, it was this one.
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