Wednesday, December 01, 2004
UK Shifting
The wonderful Bob Harris has filed a report on his recent experience maneuvering a stick-shifting "Vauxhall Blindspot" around a small area of England.
Why do I say "wonderful"? Harris is a funny-as-hell liberal and professional writer. I first encountered his work in the pages of The Funny Times (about which, more anon); it was trenchant, laugh-out-loud, sometimes simply goofy. It was like someone had reincarnated James Thurber (at his best), or E.B. White (at his wittiest), and turned him loose to comment on matters political. So I was delighted when I found out he'd set up his own blog. (Previously he'd been a frequent guest contributor to Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World blog.)
While you're at Harris's site, be sure to check out the poll-of-the-day feature, at the top left (current question: "What's the creepiest thing about this year's National Christmas Tree?"). (There's also an archive of previous polls.) You don't have to be a registered visitor to participate in the polls -- I'm sure Bob's intention is to answer each poll's question definitively, overwhelming it with votes in one direction or another. Kinda like the Powell Doctrine in that sense (also in the sense that you don't need a strategy for getting out of the poll once you're finished with it). For instance, there was this poll on November 20:
Among the subtler pleasures of Harris's still nascent blog is, well, the -- values alert! -- simple humility with which he approaches the act of blogging. His posts often allude to his gratitude that anyone is even visiting the site, let alone -- as many do -- like it and actually participate in building its content.
Do your sanity a favor and make "Bob" one of your regular lefty watering holes!
Why do I say "wonderful"? Harris is a funny-as-hell liberal and professional writer. I first encountered his work in the pages of The Funny Times (about which, more anon); it was trenchant, laugh-out-loud, sometimes simply goofy. It was like someone had reincarnated James Thurber (at his best), or E.B. White (at his wittiest), and turned him loose to comment on matters political. So I was delighted when I found out he'd set up his own blog. (Previously he'd been a frequent guest contributor to Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World blog.)
While you're at Harris's site, be sure to check out the poll-of-the-day feature, at the top left (current question: "What's the creepiest thing about this year's National Christmas Tree?"). (There's also an archive of previous polls.) You don't have to be a registered visitor to participate in the polls -- I'm sure Bob's intention is to answer each poll's question definitively, overwhelming it with votes in one direction or another. Kinda like the Powell Doctrine in that sense (also in the sense that you don't need a strategy for getting out of the poll once you're finished with it). For instance, there was this poll on November 20:
How does the prospect of Mad Cow disease brighten your day most?Boy, doesn't that sound like a more meaningful question -- and one less amenable to manipulation -- than "Can you please tell me who you just voted for?"
- Think long-term... red states eat waaaay more beef than blue states: 244 votes, 51.5%
- Catatonic torpor is better than watching four more years of Bush: 129 votes, 27.2%
- Takes my mind off all the deregulation-related other things I'm probably already dying of: 71 votes, 15%
- Suddenly this Tofu McGriller With Extra Gluten seems kinda tasty: 30 votes, 6.3%
Among the subtler pleasures of Harris's still nascent blog is, well, the -- values alert! -- simple humility with which he approaches the act of blogging. His posts often allude to his gratitude that anyone is even visiting the site, let alone -- as many do -- like it and actually participate in building its content.
Do your sanity a favor and make "Bob" one of your regular lefty watering holes!
