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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.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
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
"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
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Daily Blah for... Tuesday, September 21, 2004
High Flight
Good evening, ladies and gentleman. Welcome aboard Daily Blah Flight One, with service from Seattle to Idaho and back again. Make sure your electronic equipment is not properly stowed and is wireless connected to the Internet. Yes, this Blah comes to you live from an airplane, a test flight for Boeing's new "connexion" wifi service, already available on some Lufthansa flights. But in the press junket to end all press junkets, Boeing invited a bunch of us up to Seattle for what turned out to be a little loop-the-loop of Mt. Rainier – the kind you can't do on commercial flights, so breathtakingly close I thought the wings were going to clip the edge of the snowy peak – and on to a sumptuous dinner at the Couer d'Alene resort in the Idaho panhandle. Everything on the menu advertised itself as having been flown in from somewhere else; I had beef fresh from Chicago, and felt delighted to have been able to meet it halfway.
And so here we are, feeling full and decadent, on our private night flight back to coffee city, sending bragging emails and instant messages to whomever happens to be online. I have a bag of random gifts from the Couer d'Alene shop – potato lotion and huckleberry soap – just to prove I was here, that it was not a ridiculous dream, that we really did happen to hop over the blue-state/red-state boundary on the whim of an evening. Flight time is expected to be around 20 minutes. In the event of an emergency, exits are located in the upper left or right hand corner of your browser (joke stolen directly from my friend Katey – thanks, Katey). Journalistic hubris may be used as a flotation device.
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