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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.
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Dream Journal Archives: IRA Holiday
Terror dreams, we may one day forget, existed long before 9/11. They often involve one coming face to face with terror, on a personal level, with no resolution other than an emotional one. Here's one I had a year before the Good Friday agreement:
J. and I are on a coach trip to a small Scottish seaside resort, a trip that turns out to be a covert IRA operation. The Provos take us into their confidence, assuming us to be somehow one of them (I remember talking at great length about my Glasgow experiences, and of working for an IRA sympathizer, T., at the Scottish Daily Express -- fearing sudden retribution if they suspected my true position).
The purpose of the trip, they reveal, is to kill a British soldier holidaying there, probably with his family. On the coach ride, I'm going along with it out of fear. But on arrival, as we check into a hotel the night before the murder is due to take place, I am suddenly unfrozen, at last aware of the need to do all I can to stop this, to phone the authorities and warn them. The conviction that this is altogether right and proper, regardless of my safety, occurs at a deeply subconscious level; the courage is drawn from such a deeply ingrained sense of morality that it is almost not my decision.
Indeed, in order to compensate, my bullshitting with the Provo leaders stats to work overtime, lest they suspect my fear, lest they somehow notice my change in demeanor and forsee the moment I will sneak down to the hotel payphone that nice and phone the police. These are extremely clever men, however, and I think they do suspect. I have absolute foreknowledge of sudden, meaningless execution, a strong image of a bullet in the back of the head, yet the utter certainty that this must not be allowed to happen and I will not stand idly by does not waver.
A dream about duty, but without the patriotic bluster.
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