Well, you claimed him first, but Coates really grabbed me as well the first time I read him, when he combined talking about black history, contemporary politics and Dungeons & Dragons in a single paragraph.
Yeah Coates. And Nate Silver, at least situationally; it will be interesting to see how he maintains absent the compelling election drama. Bérubé, who says he will be cutting back after his recent revival. Does James Wolcott count? John Cole.
And there used to be a guy around here who would do swimming posts and short pieces which naïvely illustrated received narratives of feminine beauty. Boy was he good!
Going in the opposite direction, Camille Paglia is still a nitwit.
Two words: Alex Balk. Even if he was writing back during the original blog-crush thread, he's that good. I've recommended him to my mom. He's my own personal Hunter S. Thompson.
Digby is the blogger I would have liked to have been. She avoids the over-the-top part but still always makes a consistently strong statement.
I knew her on Atrios' comment threads before she had her own blog, and when everyone thought she was a he. And I was one of the many who told her she should go out on her own.
Also, you people are sexists.
Coates is a little bitch. He is that lowest form of life on the planet Earth -- the Cowboys fan not from Dallas.
TNC has a weird conservative streak to him. Not that I don't love him or anything, just that occasionally he'll post stuff like this or this.
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PJ O'Rourke blames his fellow conservatives for giving America to the horrible, horrible Dhimmocrats. Every single person except PJ is an idiot! What a classy guy.
The South Side of Chicago is what everyplace in America will be once the Democratic administration and filibuster-resistant Democratic Congress have tackled global warming, sustainability, green alternatives to coal and oil, subprime mortgage foreclosures, consumer protection, business oversight, financial regulation, health care reform, taxes on the "rich," and urban sprawl. The Democrats will have plenty of time to do all this because conservatism, if it is ever reborn, will not come again in the lifetime of anyone old enough to be rounded up by ACORN and shipped to the polling booths. None of this is the fault of the left. After the events of the 20th century--national socialism, international socialism, inter-species socialism from Earth First--anyone who is still on the left is obviously insane and not responsible for his or her actions.
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Coates is great. I've been on a huge Balloon Juice kick lately. Not quite sure why.
Two years ago I had a huge blogcrush on Prides and Prejudices, and now I see that the full versions of the posts are not even online anymore. Alas.
8: Someone (Matt?) pointed out that, in your second link, TNC seems to have conflated "interest" with "preference."
I don't know if that changes the equation on whether it's evidence of a conservative streak, but it suggests that he doesn't quite mean what he's saying (even if he means what he thinks he's saying). Point being, it may be reading (somewhat) more reactionary than intended.
I was pleased to discover TNC a few months back, but he's in the category of Slightly Too Verbose Blogger for me. I ended up stopping with Neiwert for that reason - I'm just not up for a couple multi-thousand word essays every day, no matter how interesting or well-written. TNC doesn't write at quite that length, but it's still a bit much for me.
The O'Rourke thing gets worse. I couldn't finish. The guy has learned nothing. He's collapsed into shrieking hysteria yelling at everyone else but him. He presents it as mea culpa, but it's strictly a you culpa or whatever that would be in Latin. Years of drugs and nastiness have finally turned his brain to quivering, odoriferous jelly.
The O'Rourke thing gets worse. I couldn't finish. The guy has learned nothing. He's collapsed into shrieking hysteria yelling at everyone else but him. He presents it as mea culpa, but it's strictly a you culpa or whatever that would be in Latin. Years of drugs and nastiness have finally turned his brain to quivering, odoriferous jelly.
Oh, yeah? I don't see O'Rourke double-posting.
14,15: Don't feel bad, John. I could barely make to the end of the excerpt you quoted.
The O'Rourke thing gets worse.
Yeah, I read that earlier this morning. He's gone off the deep end. See ya, PJ!
O'Rourke has an editor
who double posts for him.
The South Side of Chicago is what everyplace in America will be
That's right,PJ. "America: the baddest part of town."
Don't spit into the wind none, either.
You people don't seem clear on the blogcrush concept.
There's this blog called "waste", see ... has anyone read it? Oh, I'm just twitterpated telling you it exists.
23: My blogcrush is on Becks. Like I'm going to say that on her own blog. How gauche.
23: Please do clarify it for us.
Merely look at the previous post and its comment thread to see how it's done, JP. "This person has a great blog" is a different sort of claim.
Oh, and Mimi Smartypants, who has long been and will remain one of my favoritest blogs evar. She's just so clever! And awesome! And funny!
(Am I in the ballpark, bwo?)
re:O'Rourke: Why is it significant that some crazy person has gone crazier?
I don't think any bloggers have demonstrated themselves through their blogging to be seemingly attractive mates for me.
I'd have to go with TNC as well, I was so happy when The Atlantic picked him up after that excellent article he wrote on the conservatism inherent in black nationalism.
He also explained the Cowboys thing recently. Basically, he picked them when he was a wee sprat back in the 80s, after the Colts had left Bmore but before they got the Ravens. His dad was an Eagles fan and lectured him on the importance of not switching teams after the Cowboys suffered a humiliating playoffs loss to the Eagles, and he stuck with the Cowboys ever since. Doesn't sound terrible to me, though he'd probably be more in the clear if he switched to the Jets.
and a vein in his spine
though i don't know who is he
Coates really grabbed me as well the first time I read him, when he combined talking about black history, contemporary politics and Dungeons & Dragons in a single paragraph.
I had this reaction as well, and really liked TNC the first couple of times that I read him. But, for some reason, I stopped reading him relatively quickly.
I'm not quite sure why. I should start reading him again.
27: "This person has a great blog" is a different sort of claim.
Well, of course. I was merely pointing out that in addition to wanting to have buttsecks with the folks I mentioned (which I *assumed* went without saying), that they also had very readable, informative blogs.
I am retroactively aware of all Internet stuff'n'at.
Oh man, I have a bunch of blog-crushes. Let's start here. She is merely twelve years old. I've thought about making a post out of her before, but didn't want her to be criticized too harshly, given the twelve-year-old-ness of it all.
The current front page post isn't her best ever, but this and this recent ones showcase a bit of the charm.
I'm far too gentlemanly to reveal which unfogged commenters I crush on.
So young, and already a falsely conscious victim of the fashion-industrial complex!
36: "gentlemanly" s/b "afraid of apo's burning jealousy"
who he is i meant now 32 sounds nonsense
i won't confess coz people leave
That's not why ogged left, read.
38: Quick Ben, hide your bunny! Also, any pot you've got around, 'cause apo likes to keep himself loose while stalking.
Also, any pot you've got around
That would be the burning part of the jealousy.
42: Little Bunny Foofoo, specifically.
Ben calls it "his bunny"?
Yeah, and it goes down rabbit holes.
wow, it's a remarkable day
i got addressed, with one ambition fulfilled i have to leave here :(
but not corrected yet so i'll stay for a while maybe
And can only be used with the express permission of Hugh Hefner.
What the hell happened to the Kircher Society? Apart from stomach cancer, I mean.
Site's been dead for over a year now. Very sad.
Coates is not from Texas, but Texas wants him anyway. And like Becks I also don't understand why he doesn't live in the District and come over for Top Chef watching and casserole like everyone else on the Internet. I'm making milanos, T-NC!
My IRL crush is Eve Fa/rbanks, whom I see on the 52 bus every now and then.
Unfogged is the crazy kid you're half in love with from a distance: you stop by once in a while and she always makes you laugh, but you know it can never be serious. Though sometimes, she's totally cute.
Obsidian Wings is the older woman you were in love with when you were in high school. She seemed so wise and sensible. Then you discovered she was really pretty conservative and gave up on love forever.
BitchPhD is the feminist everyone at the local consciousness-raising group is at least a little love with, even all the straight feminists. She's smart and funny and totally upfront about being conflicted and always cool to be around.
Pandagon is the scary feminist at the local consciousness-raising group that nobody's in love with but everyone admires.
Feministe is the local consciousness-raising group. You keep wandering away thinking "never again" and coming back because, really, where else are you going to pick up all the cool feminist gossip?
Slacktivist is the nice guy in the office you never had a crush on but all of your straight friends wish they'd married.
Apostropher.com is the bad touch uncle who can't come to Thanksgiving any more.
I'm making milanos, T-NC!
Surely the Pepperidge Farm version is good enough that you needn't bake them yourself.
Read may be right in speculating that the ToS has been depressed recently.
I'm currently auditioning new blog crushes. Please send a personal statement, a list of pseudonyms considered and rejected, and a sample post on the topic of your choice. Nude posts preferred.
65: If you haven't tried turning thin butter cookies into a sandwich with ganache (or even if you have), they are surprisingly good. Better than Milanos.
It's Christmas cookie season again soon. Feh. While I like baking, I've never really gotten the hang of decorating cookies.
Oh, hey, baking! I have to do a cake this week for (someone who totally doesn't deserve it, but cake decorating is Rory's new hobby and she thinks he's super...) We've settled on a tennis court theme (rectangular cake, green fondant, white icing court lines). Any ideas for how to do a net?
60: Everyone hurry up and comment till we get to 65: I want to see what LizardBreath was responding to.
60: I have to make cookies for Friday, and I'm thinking about sandwiching punitions with rasperry frosting and chocolate frosting. (You can choose!) Does that sound good? The punitions aren't very sweet in themselves.
Hmm, 65 is not what I was expecting from LB response...
60: I think I would have thought of cake and cookies too in response to 65. Langues du chat.
No one ever expects you, Di Kotimy.
I expect Di Kotimy to bring me cake and cookies.
How's this -- I will promise a care package of cookies to whoever suggests the best option for my stupid tennis court net.
70: use it to protect your kids from attack by giant mosquitos the size of pigeons. (Alternatively: from attack by pigeons.)
All this baking discussion reminds me that I was thinking after the recent discussion of spices that it could be fun to have some food-based unfogged holliday gift exchange. Either cookies or some such or, for those of us who aren't good at baking, a small, holliday appropraite, sample of favorite food items.
Like the CD exchange I expect it would be a very large gift exchange, but it could be fun.
Any interest?
61: It'd take some experimentation, but I bet you could do it with royal icing (the very stiff egg-white confectioner's sugar stuff). Draw out the dimensions on paper, lay down wax paper on top of it, and pipe the net in royal icing. Let it dry and carefully peel off the wax paper, and then stick some candy or toothpick posts into the cake, and stick the net to it with more royal icing. It'd be fragile as all getout, but I think it'd work.
Conversely, who needs a net?
Any ideas for how to do a net?
You could string dental floss between two of those plastic cutlass toothpicks.
Or you could just skip the net.
No, I need an idea for making a "net" for a 9 X 13 tennis court cake.
it could be fun to have some food-based unfogged holiday gift exchange
Yes! I'm in.
Or if there's time for mail order...
75 to 71...
73 might be worth a try!
He is...the Cowboys fan not from Dallas
I hope that's just a mean joke.
Or if there's time for mail order...
You greatly overestimate my ability to plan ahead.
I feel like 54 cries out for a "Blogcrushes as Physical Theories" list, but that such a list would fail to be funny.
Okay, my net idea is dumb.
Draw out the dimensions on paper, lay down wax paper on top of it, and pipe the net in royal icing.
Would it be more structurally sound if you made the horizontal lines have a slight upward arc rather than being flat?
Conversely, who needs a net?
I recall Becks needing one when she did the trapeze class.
If you haven't tried turning thin butter cookies into a sandwich with ganache (or even if you have), they are surprisingly good. Better than Milanos.
Biscuit conditional (UK), cookie conditional (US). Not that I mean to sound ungrateful—that sounds delicious.
I don't do much baking but milanos are exceptionally easy to make. The recipe I have calls for the addition of various loose teas to add flavor (I use a Moroccan mint but I mean to try both a citrus Oolong and a rooibos). It is in fact easier to make them at my house than to travel to the next Metro stop and buy the Pepperidge Farm version.
'Smasher, can I have your recipe? I'd love to make something like that for my Friday thing.
Would it be more structurally sound if you made the horizontal lines have a slight upward arc rather than being flat?
This is why I've convince Rory that she needs a 4-year degree prior to culinary school -- engineering! I will attempt this.
Nate Silver, of course.
4 is funny. I had a blog crush on Balk before we knew his name and he was The Minor Fall, The Major Lift.
If you were really daring, Di, you could make the net out of sugar. Make a hard-ball caramel and then drizzle the network of lines that enlace on a buttered pan to cool, then set it upright into the cake? It might break your heart if it snapped, though.
TBH, I was assuming that "milanos" referred to something other than the cookie. 56 was therefore (supposed to be) facetious and/or silly.
Cook's Illustrated has, in the current issues, a recipe for French butter cookies (sablés, IIRC) that includes a milano-like option. All of the options look amazing, and I can hardly wait.
I wouldn't worry about that, the strength-to-weight ratio of royal icing is huge. It's fragile, but it's way too strong for the shape of the net to be a worry.
87: Wait a minute, Di. Someone you don't care for, but Rory thinks is swell? Does UNG deserve sugar cages on his cakes?
Must the net be edible? Would a quick strip of cheesecloth not do the trick?
Oh, and for a net, white chocolate, drizzled, should work - structural, not too delicate. You could even cut it into a neat rectangle with a warmed knife.
89 could be impressive -- but definitely daring. Would you just do straight melted sugar? Something like a brittle recipe? I'm willing to experiment with multiple ideas and see which survives best...
It might break your heart if it snapped, though.
This makes me think it could be good, when you're preparing the net, to make 2 or 3 at a time so if you snap the first one trying to attach it to the cake you can try again immediately.
89: I was going to recommend the same thing. But with the added suggestion of making it in sections, so it'd be less likely to snap, and more easily fixable (make some spare sections) if it did.
Another vote for the white chocolate, which beats sugar on the color, and royal icing on actually having a flavor. And Nick S. is right about making three, no matter which method you use -- the amount of material used will be trivial, and not having to start from scratch when you snap one will make you much happier.
95: Melted sugar won't harden unless you keep it boiling until it reaches a high enough temperature. I'd recommend melting the sugar with a little water, which slows down the process. Don't stir it at all until it's all melted, then stir constantly until a drop dripped into icewater instantly turns into a brittle ball with a brittle tail. Then take it off the heat and begin drizzling. Be extremely careful, as the hot sugar is ridiculously hot and will stick to your skin as it burns you. Horrible.
I was expecting Di to say "My three weapons are....No, four, my four weapons are....." I was expecting that. But no.
92: Not UNG! No, of course he doesn't deserve sugar cages. I'd bake him a cake only if I could be sure Rory wasn't going to eat any, mwahahaha.
Colleague. Group celebration. He's a jerk, but I relish the opportunity to have my colleagues ooh and ahh, "Rory made this?" (And she will do the fondant and piping unassisted.)
94: White chocolate might work! I just bought a bag of chips, and no longer remember why...
...which is to say, I'd do white chocolate if I were you. Melt it and temper it by adding a few chips of unmelted chocolate, so it will end up nice and shiny with a good "snap" to it. Also, it won't burn you.
102: Will it harden before it caramelizes? That is, can you make a clear net, rather than a golden one?
Also, it won't burn you.
This, given my steadiness of hand, pretty compelling.
Also, to return to thread-topic, the food threads are the source of all my blog crushes.
4 is funny. I had a blog crush on Balk before we knew his name and he was The Minor Fall, The Major Lift.
I remember that blog!
the food threads are the source of all my blog crushes.
And yet, no interest in my 72?
I have never heard of "royal icing" before. That comes from bees, right?
111: If you've ever seen a hard, brittle, sugary icing used for cake decoration, that's royal icing -- basically you beat the hell out of egg whites and confectioner's sugar, and get something that dries rock hard and makes good structural glue (gingerbread houses are held together with royal icing.)
I would love to do 72! I never participate in the food threads but I would love to participate in the eating.
Everyone's getting flavored popcorn from me. Hope that's ok.
For a mediated purely by blogs crush, I will suggest this lady, even though I don't read her blog very often.
I hope someone mails me a bag of bacon sprouts.
Spun sugar is the most frightening thing I've ever tried to do in a kitchen. And the most difficult.
I think white chocolate would look better, too. Sculpt it a bit with a skewer or a needle.
I'm pretty sure this food/recipe blog got linked here before, maybe even by me.
The white spongy plastic surrounds that very expensive fruit comes in (Asian pears from Japan, IME) might make a recognizable net for the clumsy, lazy, etc.
Be extremely careful, as the hot sugar is ridiculously hot and will stick to your skin as it burns you. Horrible.
Yes absolutely to this. Molten sugar is confectioners' napalm.
I vote for this idea, though. For maximum authenticity, you could cook it (or dye it) dark and add a white chocolate strip along the top. You could also use candles as endposts.
For maximum authenticity, you really ought to buy some Easter grass and weave a to-scale net. Careful, it breaks easily.
For minimum authenticity, buy some button candy paper that just unscrolls across., and prop it up with toothpicks. Easy-peasy.
You could carefully separate the filaments of cotton candy* and spin them into thin, strong threads. Then make your net by knotting the threads together at regular intervals in a grid pattern.
*A bristled wool carder works well for this; be gentle.
Easter grass is tall, so you'd need a super-sharp knife or an eensy-weensy mower. Or you could frost the cake with actual clay.
The implication that jms has herself separated filaments of cotton candy using a wool carder strongly tempts me to transfer my blogcrush to her.
Have you begun to work out yet how you'll create the participants and stands of spectators? I recommend molding the spectators after different individuals at Unfogged. You could use a peep for Ben's bunny.
If it's possible to crush on someone you know, then it's Nate Silver, easy. Many a night I slept like a baby knowing how thoroughly he'd schooled me with his statistical acumen back in the day.
Otherwise, it's Jonah Lehrer. I only with I could kick in Snow in the balls as swiftly and regularly as he does.
129: Gum paste people. I suppose if I really cared, I'd craft bleachers for the spectators out of gingerbread. Luckily, I don't really care.
Silver is really great, but I find it strange that now that we have the results of the election he's not posting a retrospective on how good the model was. I haven't checked that carefully, nor do I know how to do whatever one is supposed to do in checking statistical errors (sum of squares or something?), but unless I'm badly missing something the pollster.com linear regression model did a better job of getting the margin in each state than Nate's model, with all of its weightings and other incorporated variables, did.
Now there are other ways to grade the two other than comparing their final results to the actual results (for instance how far in advance they were calling basically accurate results), but on that one benchmark Nate's model is not the best.
I have a man crush on Harry Hutton, even though his most recent post is crap and his posting regimen makes The Poor Man look like a twitter feed.
When Becks did the earlier post urging commenters ask out their favorite unfogged bloggers, both will and I announced that Lizardbreath was our blogcrush. I think I get priority here, though, because LB and I were also hooked up when we discussed Unfogged arranged marriages.
LB is taken though. If marriage isn't an issue I call dibs on Katherine.
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I wonder what name is found most commonly among fictional characters, compared to its incidence among real people. My guess is "Sadie".
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If marriage isn't an issue I call dibs on Katherine.
Careful - I think the baby is still included in the deal.
136: Surprisingly, it's actually Ned.
Wow. I missed reading the part of the thread where I was set up with Shearer and TLL. You guys have no idea what drives me, do you? Wrenae, however, is my type.
140 is extra-funny, because I was away for a bit and reread 138 and 137 kind of simultaneously, resulting in briefly thinking that I had, in fact, said 138 to 137.
Yes, AWB, we all thought you would be perfectly happy with Shearer and TLL. How could we be so wrong? How could we ever, ever guess that you would be unhappy with such carefully-planned matches?
142: You are missing the fine distinction between "OMG, I can't believe you all thought those would be good matches," and "OMG, I can't believe anyone thought that those would be matches calculated to produce teh hott hatesex.
If we're still talking blogcrushes, I think dana over at EotAW has to be top of my list at the moment.
Can you have blogcrushes on someone who was just a guest blogger at a couple of sites over the summer? Or does it have to be a regular blogger?
If we're still talking blogcrushes, I think dana over at EotAW has to be top of my list at the moment.
Heh.
Also, and I know this is an unpopular sentiment, but writing about D&D makes me less likely to read a blogger regularly. Same with comic books. And baking. (But it doesn't change my high opinion of them.)
145: You can crush on Meekins if you like.
It's not exactly a blogcrush, but I'll confess to having a surprisingly detailed sex dream about W-lfs-n a few weeks ago.
151: But for a typographical error, there's the story of my life.
He also explained the Cowboys thing recently. Basically, he picked them when he was a wee sprat back in the 80s, after the Colts had left Bmore but before they got the Ravens. His dad was an Eagles fan and lectured him on the importance of not switching teams after the Cowboys suffered a humiliating playoffs loss to the Eagles, and he stuck with the Cowboys ever since. Doesn't sound terrible to me, though he'd probably be more in the clear if he switched to the Jets.
That would be reasonable, but he was rooting for Dallas in 1980 while a perfectly good 7-9 Baltimore Colts team was available for his fandom.
http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/11/coates_and_the_cowboys.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_NFL_season
Yeah, someone who describes a season where his team loses in the NFC championship game after going 12-4 as "the worst time to become a fan" deserves to be sentenced to twenty years as a Lions fan.
sentenced to twenty years as a Lions fan.
"They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom / for trying to change the system from within."
143 is right. I am very picky about hatefucking.
Cowboy fandom is actually somewhat common in Baltimore due to the proximity of/hatred for the Redskins. But that's only legit if you became a fan after the Colts left.
Otherwise, your just a bandwagon fan. He's probably a Yankee Sox fan too.
Di, since you or Rory are going to the trouble, piping melted and cooled white chocolate will work better than just drizzling it.
Exactly what we did -- piping is Rory's favorite thing! I was going to try the royal icing tonight, too, but then i realized I am tired and that the white chocolate set up quite nicely.
I owe JRoth cookies.
Also, Rory's idea, which I might try for the next one, involved weaving licorice strands and then melting them slightly so that they'd stick together. But I had white chocolate, not licorice, in the cabinet.
I thought we already knew that Becks is a social climber who gets a sick pleasure out of personal relationships with as many Atlantic bloggers as possible.
I missed reading the part of the thread where I was set up with Shearer and TLL. You guys have no idea what drives me, do you?
the idea, my dear, wasn't the best match for you, but the most entertaining match for us.
Cake photos up in the Flickr pool. Not the best, but the white chocolate net helps alot.
I love it, Di. The net is a small miracle.
Looks great, but how was it to play on?
My favorite part about the cake-making process is this fictional conversation I'm imagining:
"Okay, Rory. Time to take a photo of the cake."
"Oh, yeah! So we'll remember it!"
"No, Rory. For the internet."
So how do I find Di Kotimy's photos?