We're back!

That would be the editorial "we," of course. After a holiday hiatus, Antigravitas is back in the blogging saddle. (Blogging saddle--you can get them at Brookstone, right? Or maybe through SkyMall.)

Define:blog

OK, there's something I need to get off my chest. I notice that some have started referring to a single blog entry as "a blog." I heard some host do so this morning on C-SPAN radio. As in, "In a blog yesterday, Bloggy McBloggerton excoriated outgoing White House advisor Karl Rove." Or, "I wrote a blog about that topic just this morning."

That's weird. Let's clarify.

A blog is a frequently-updated online journal or newsletter.

A blog post or blog entry is a single entry within that online journal or newsletter.

So,

post/entry : blog :: article : newspaper

Thoughts? Has anyone else heard this odd usage?

Enjoy the silence

Turns out wireless technology has not yet completely saturated the greater Tri-Cities area. So this blogger will continue to slack off for a couple of days.

Ding, dong...

Pombo Defeated (Tracy Press) "In a night that saw Democrats sweep to power in the House of Representatives, little-known challenger Jerry McNerney unseated Tracy's Rep. Richard Pombo from his perch as one of Congress' more powerful chairmen."

Just one of many reasons for joy over the last few hours.

By the way, Blogger® users may have noticed yesterday that Blogger was super slow. I'd guess that's because at least 99% of its bandwidth was being used at Tryst Coffeehouse in Adams Morgan, where CNN had set up an "E-lection Nite Blog Party." And quite a party it was, according to Wonkette.

The ultimate tempest in the ultimate teapot!!!

Hold onto your hats, folks!!!!

Lee Siegel, author, New Republic blogger, and coiner of the term "blogofascism" just got suspended from TNR. His crime? Posting outrageous, Siegel-aggrandizing comments on his own posts under the handle "sprezzatura."

Eh? What's that gentle buzzing I hear? That low-volume grumbling? Oh, it's just the left hand side of the blogosphere, which is going characteristically apeshit today over the Siegel suspension. (Google search: "lee siegel" sprezzatura)

Hmm, the whole story does raise some vaguely relevant questions about the unwritten rules and ethical constraints of blog punditry. And sprezzatura's posts are really over the top and fun to read in a cringe-inducing way. Quick, post some comments on ThinkProgress, then create a satirical mini-blog dedicated to the scandal! Get on it!

Things that are rarely appropriate on your blog

1. Comparing U.S. politicians to Hitler or the Nazis. (Unfortunately, too frequent an occurence to single out just one link)
2. Graphic descriptions of one's sexual escapades with important people.
3. The use of blackface for any purpose. Especially if you are a very white person from the Left Coast.

Poor research or poor grammar: which is the worse sin?

I respond as the tort reform community sends its least prepared representative to comment on my May, 2005 post about the federal energy bill's MTBE liability waiver. Read it here.

Bah, humbug

TO: Anonymous MySpace user, anonymous Xanga user, Ballparkguys.com, and all the people who are using that one image of the Grinch I posted last year
FR: Waage
RE: Blogging etiquette 101

Hi, nice to meet you. I'm glad to see your websites are getting so many hits. I can tell they are because you have deep linked to images on my site, and many, many people are downloading these images each day.

So here's the thing: it's fine if you want to use images from my blog, but can you please host them on your site instead of just linking to mine? That way you can use your bandwidth, and I can use mine. Alternatively, you may link to the page containing the image. That's fine too.

Thanks, and have a happy holiday season.