Almost Famous

Well then.  It seems Leslie and I managed to irritate a Chicago talk show host.  Here is her offending post, actually triggered by him, which linked to my offending post, which had nothing to do with him until it was linked by her post to save her some typing to say the same thing.

If you listen to that part of the podcast, in the first little bit, there are a couple funny things.  One is that some of the times he uses “blog” he does so correctly, implying that the correct usage, as a verb, is also one we criticized.  The other is his assumptions about those of us who believe in proper use of words, especially among those who make a living with words, are parental basement geeks of the perceived total loser variety.

He’s getting paid for bombast.  It’s his job.  People who nitpick are always fun targets, right or wrong.  Touché.

Intentional misuse, new use, or creative use of words is not merely excusable, but cool.  Regular readers have seen me invent words or usages over the course of time, and Deb certainly hears me do so often enough.  The trick is to know the language enough to know when you are departing.

A big problem is MySpace, which uses “blog” to mean a post, as well as a blog.  MySpace is also a throwback to 1996, when newbies created garish sites, and things like Geocities arose.  It’s for people who might never dream of setting themselves up a real web site or a real blog, as brainless as that has been rendered over the years.

However, you know what inspired my original rant?  Bloggers on ZDNet.  Some of them call a post a blog routinely.  It may have been someone else, a celebrity on TV or on a blog, that actually made me snap and dash off the post about it.  Not my first, but it had been a while.  However, it was the geeks doing it that had me pre-seething.

So it’s not simply a case of The Newbie Web Game, but of people who ought to know better, really.

Someone like a radio personality, well, he’s dabbling in it because it’s expected these days, but he’s about broadcasting, not blogging.  So while I stick mainly to blogging, putting forth posts on my blog, I expect he will stick mainly to broadcasting, putting forth shows on the radio.  If I ever go into broadcasting, then I could put forth radios on the radio.  Perhaps I could do some dead tree writing, getting magazines published in a magazine.  In the meantime, people will no doubt keep publishing blogs to their blogs, while I publish posts to mine.

Oh darn, my mother is yelling at me from the top of the stairs, telling me I should shut off the damn computer, put away my glasses and go to bed.  It’s cold here in the cellar.

1. Your mom, too?  Geeze.  I thought I was the only one…

   Posted by Omnibus Driver  on  11/06  at  10:26 AM  from 

2. Congratulations!  Andy Warhol would have been proud of you.

   Posted by  on  11/06  at  07:43 PM  from  Red Sox Nation

3. Congratulations!

   (And I freaking cringe any time I hear someone call a post a blog.)

   Posted by sarahk  on  11/09  at  12:57 PM  from  florida
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