Debra Galant Explains the Universe

Honk if you love to blog

Go over to Mark's site and read the top 10 ways you know you're a blog nut. (Hint: If you're, like, going to bloggercon.) Mark has a special place in my heart as the person who addicted me to this.

And if you want some heavier reading, go over to Unbillable Hours to see some more bloggercon-inspired writing.

Yipes!

Oh man! You can watch four TV networks at the same time (like they do in news rooms and on trading floors), but you can't listen to conservative and liberal talk radio simultaneously. I've got Rush* coming in my left ear, and Al Franken coming in my right. And my brain is about to burst.

Rush is talking about how the liberal media gets everything wrong, and how despite all the liberal media's whining, widespread virulent anti-Semitism did not break out after "Passion of the Christ." In fact, he's just reported a list of bad guys who turned themselves in after seeing "Passion."

OK. I turned Rush off. That's better.

Al is talking about the 9-11 Commission hearings and Condoleeza Rice. And, oh weird, they just went to a commercial. So strange. It doesn't sound like NPR at all.

Best line from Franken so far: "Satire is protected speech, even if the object of that satire doesn't get it."

But here's a lie from a lying liar. When Al Franken says that not one job has been created by either Bush I or Bush II, he's wrong. What about Al Franken, chief voice of Air America?

*YIPES UPDATE: Rush wasn't Rush after all. It was Roger Hedgecock subbing for him, says my husband. It was noisy what with two radios on, but I'm not sure I'd recognize Rush's voice anyway. I'm not the only one who made this kind of mistake today. See Wonkette, who confused Katherine Lanpher with Janeane Garofalo.

Don't sweet talk me, Michelle

For those of us who basically live for Tuesdays and the Fox show "24," last night was a joyous one indeed. In our house, it's what passes for family time, and Noah then regurgitates the plot at school the next day to kids whose parents don't want them to see nonstop violence and mayhem. (Poor kids.) Well, those meanies at Fox put the show on hiatus for five weeks, and we've had to content ourselves with The Sopranos, The Apprentice and the occasional Curb Your Enthusiasm. But last night, "24" was back with a vengeance.

If your parents won't let you watch, here's what happened:

The virus is out! People are dying! Gael is hemorraghing blood out of his mouth and nose! The President lied to get Sherry out of trouble! (Jeez, I almost typed Omorosa, and I was thinking Condoleeza Rice.)

But what I wanted to talk about was the exchange between Michelle, who's in the hotel with the deadly virus, and her husband Tony, back at CTU.

She's just told Tony that she's in the hotel (he told her not to go in), which means that she's probably going to die before this season (ahem, I mean day) is over. It's a poignant moment. Here she is, a hero. And there he is, angry, worried, sad. His wife is going to die! But... they're both busy saving the world.

So what does she say when she hangs up? Not "I love you, Tony." Or "Sorry." But "Call me back when you set up a working protocol."

How cool is that?

Let's see how it works in real life.

"Darling, I'd love to go to Junior's school play, but I'm stuck here trying to get in the Lincoln Tunnel."
"Call me back when you set up a working protocol."

"Dammit. I lost the passports, the traveler's checks and the luggage!"
"Call me back when you set up a working protocol."

"Honey, the kids are locked in the car! And it's on fire!"
"Call me back when you set up a working protocol."

Yup. It works.

You don't have to live in New Jersey...

... to read this one.

Even in Vancouver, I bet, you can get the Times and read my story "Child-Friendly or Child-Frenzied?" in a special Museums section today.

They listen in Vancouver

They're still celebrating International Blog Comment Week up in Vancouver, where Big Pink Cookie, Neurotic Fishbowl and Half Geek have all posted the news.

I'm sure they got the word from my pal Raymond Tomlin at VanRamblings, who says he visits my site every day. Wow.

And it all started with Jo at Spanglemonkey.

Funny how ideas just fly.

The New AP

The Blogging of the President 2004, a blog by Chris Lyden, Jay Rosen and others, lists on one of its side panels The New AP, which consists of

Atrios
Instapundit
Political Wire
The Note

I don't know how many people at The Old AP know about this New AP. My husband, who works there as a radio correspondent, didn't.

Now that he does though, he left this morning with this goodbye: "I'm going off to the OAP. You stay here and work on the New AP."

Aint it swell? An AP for every member of the family.

I'm all in favor of blogs and new media, but since the OAP is the one with a full-time salary and health benefits, I'm hoping the world still needs it. For a while anyway.

Unnamed suburban mom blogger besieged with McDonald's press release

Now that I've made Jay Rosen's site as an unnamed suburban mom and journalist,

(The press doesn't own journalism, entirely. And Big Media doesn't entirely own the press, because if it did then the First Amendment, which mentions the press, would belong to Big Media. And it doesn't. These things were always true. The weblog doesn't change them. It just opens up an outlet to the sea. Which in turn extends "the press" to the desk in the bedroom of the suburban mom, where she blogs at night.)

I'm going to be besieged with pr requests to cover bake sales and Chuck E. Cheese grand openings. Why it's already happening.

Look what arrived in my e-mail box just this morning, a press release from McDonald's!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE McDONALD'S® TEAMS WITH 4KIDS ENTERTAINMENT TO CELEBRATE 25th BIRTHDAY OF THE HAPPY MEAL® Promotion to Feature The Dog™ at Participating McDonald’s Restaurants Nationwide

Oak Brook, Ill., March 29, 2004 – McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) and 4Kids Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: KDE) have teamed to celebrate the 25th birthday of McDonald’s® Happy Meal®. The special promotion will feature 12 breeds of the lovable Artlist Collection: The Dog™ inspired plush toys in Happy Meals beginning April 2, 2004 through April 29, 2004, at participating McDonald’s restaurants nationwide, while supplies last.

Officially licensed by 4Kids Entertainment outside of Asia, The Dog is a highly successful puppy photography franchise from Japan. The heart-tugging collection consists of more than 70 different breeds of puppies photographed with exaggerated proportions where the heads of the puppies are charmingly enlarged. The McDonald’s Happy Meal toys, modeled after the award-winning photographs, feature the same exaggerated characteristics.

“McDonald’s is thrilled to bring the most desirable new toys and characters to our young guests as part of our summer long, happy birthday celebration,” said Kathy Pyle, director kids and family marketing. “These toys will capture the hearts and imaginations of kids and delight collectors of all ages. The 25th Happy Birthday Happy Meal celebration marks a milestone in McDonald's history, and we are excited to begin our summertime lineup with the debut of The Dog.”

“We are proud to partner with McDonald’s in promoting the 25th birthday of the Happy Meal,” said Alfred R. Kahn, Chairman and CEO of 4Kids Entertainment. “The inclusion of The Dog in McDonald’s Happy Meals is testimony to the growing popularity of this property. McDonald’s is one of the top franchises in the world and we look forward to working with the company to celebrate this historic achievement and inspire puppy love for kids, collectors and puppy lovers alike."

Dog plush toys! In Happy Meals! A historic achievement! Wow!

Stop the presses!

Wait, I just remembered. Don't kids get fat from those McDonald's meals? Right, and they scream and yell in McDonald's and drive their mothers crazy if they don't get the happy meal toys they want. And sometimes they choke on them. And why dogs, for that matter? Why not cats? Is that fair? Is this an anti-feline conspiracy? I'll just have to ask some of the other suburban moms. Where's my Rolodex? This could be a great story...

Who's on first?

Noah's on first.

In a heart-stopping 8-pitch, full-count plate appearance, in his first game ever playing under lights, and his first at bat with the traveling team, with his parents watching anxiously from behind the fence, powerless to influence the outcome, Noah took a base on balls.

International Blog Comment Day -- psst pass it on

From Spanglemonkey, this great idea: International Blog Comment Day.

Here are the rules. No freeloading. If you read somebody's blog, you have to post a comment. No silent stalking and making us pick up your scent on our Sitemeter referrers page. And a smart comment, too. Pithy, funny, to the point.

Mom, Dad - no excuses about not getting how this comment thing works. Just CLICK ON IT. We want to hear from everybody.

Pass it on. By the time I get back from my bike ride, I want 23 comments and Jo's idea circling around the blogosphere like a greased pig being chased out of a kosher butcher shop erev Rosh Hoshannah. Oy.

On the internet, nobody knows you're in Mahwah

If you live in New Jersey (and who doesn't?) pick up a copy of today's New York Times and look for my story on Jersey bloggers. It's on page 2 of the Jersey section, and it includes some of our favorite local bloggers: Tom Biro, Lizbeth Finn-Arnold, Robert Recchia, The Soup Lady and Jeff Jarvis.

I wish I could have included The Prop, whose blog is now a daily read, but he wanted to keep his identity secret. OK, fine. Your secret's safe with me. I send you readers anyway.

I'd also like to send my readers over to Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber. She's a bona fide Ph.D. sociologist who studies weblogs and who has excellent Jersey credentials (the doctorate was from Princeton). She took the time to do an e-mail interview with me from Budapest last week, but here wise words were cut to make room for a New York Times house ad. Sorry, Eszter.

For reasons we don't understand, you can get everything else in today's New York Times online, except for the Jersey section. They don't post Jersey stories on the website until a week or two later - and then you have to pay for them.

So here's what it said:

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're in Mahwah

By Debra Galant

SOUTH ORANGE

LATE on a snowy St. Patrick’s Day, eight people sat around a table at the Dancing Goat Café here, not getting drunk or singing Irish ditties. The beverage of choice was coffee, and they were talking about things like how often they check their Technorati numbers. These people are all New Jersey bloggers: They all keep Weblogs, or online journals.

Face-to-face meetings are sooooo 20th century, and not surprisingly the bloggers seemed a little uncomfortable, perched on cushions and shouting to be heard above live music. They’re more used to meeting in cyberspace, where they can write cleverly without having to make eye contact.

But the gathering in South Orange was organized by nj.com, the online home to nine New Jersey newspapers and a big promoter of Weblogs in the Garden State. The awkwardness faded, laptops emerged, and within about an hour of the meeting’s end, three bloggers there had written about the event one of them, Tom Biro (www.themediadrop.com), even posting a picture. “We all figured out that we’re very into blogging as a whole,” he wrote. “Gee, I couldn’t tell.”

In the real world - oops, the physical world - communities are formed in schoolyards, at churches, bars and book clubs, and over the water cooler at offices. But in the blogosophere, where bloggers meet, communities can transcend geography altogether. Gadget-lovers from Florida to Alaska discuss cell phone features.

Even so, when the subject is local, there is still a little geography involved. New Jersey bloggers, even when not meeting in person, do reassert their roots in cyberspace.

“Our emphasis on nj.com is local,” said Dean Betz, editor in chief of the site and its chief Weblog recruiter. “We can’t really get local enough.” In addition to Weblogs about the Sopranos (pro and con) and on Bruce Springsteen, nj.com now features 13 Weblogs focused on the goings-on in specific towns. The newest, Bloomfield Journal, was started by Mr. Biro, who was recruited at the Dancing Goat Café meeting.
Then there’s the Transit Blog (www.nj.com/weblogs/transit), also on nj.com. There, commuters can whine about all things transit, from fears of a Madridlike bombing to the “curse of the middle seat.”

Nobody knows how many New Jersey bloggers there are, because on the Internet, nobody knows you’re from Mahwah. But it’s not hard at all to find bloggers who admit hailing from the Garden State.

First of all, there’s a New Jersey bloggers “net ring,” which now lists 74 active sites. Members of the ring post this code on their sites, which allows readers to leap effortlessly from one state blog to the next.

Lizbeth Finn-Arnold, a filmmaker in Aberdeen, has a Weblog called Mom and Pop Culture (http://travelswithlizbeth.typepad.com). She started blogging to find mothers sharpe-tongued than those she was finding in the physical world. "Motherhood is about not being honest," she explained, adding, "I had to talk about things other than dirty diapers."

Like most bloggers, Ms. Finn-Arnold has developed her online community by listing other mom bloggers on her “blogroll,” a feature that allows readers to link easily to online pals. Such links are recorded by Technorati, which tracks 256 million links among 1.9 million bloggers. (By the way, Technorati says that 11,000 new blogs are started every day.)

Curiously, a popular cybercommunity fixated on the subject of soup also originates in Aberdeen. There a nurse named Susan Rizkalla, aka the Soup Lady, writes “The Joy of Soup” (http://joyofsoup.com).
Ms. Rizkalla is a nurse, not a cook, but started the blog because she likes to eat a robust cabbage soup when the weather gets cold. Before long, she started using the blog as a way to reminisce and comment about things from Jell-O to hospitality.

Other blogs are more specifically Jersey-centric. Over at a Weblog called “Garden Status” (www.gardenstate.blogspot.com), a former journalist named Robert Recchia regularly scours New Jersey newspapers for interesting articles and adds his commentary. Recently he praised NJ Transit for a radio ad that pronounced Secaucus the way natives do. “It’s SEE-caw-cus (not see-CAW-cus as it’s always pronounced by the New York media).”

Blogs certainly got a jolt of adrenaline after Sept. 11, which is when Jeff Jarvis, president of Advance.net, publisher of www.nj.com, began his blog. “It quickly expanded to fill available life,” he said.
Mr. Jarvis’s Weblog, now called BuzzMachine (www.buzzmachine.com), is one of the most frequently linked blogs on the Internet (1,672 sites link to it, according to Technorati). Mr. Jarvis has become a major voice in the debate over the Federal Communications Commission and Howard Stern.

On March 18, Mr. Jarvis proved that one person can simultaneously take action in two communities.He blogged about Mr. Stern’s $27,500 fine - while sitting in a church.