I'm not actually all that adventurous when websurfing; and it becomes so time consuming it's not a habit I like to indulge on a continuous basis. But there's no better way to tune the world out, and I've been in the mood lately to do just that. In fact, this represents two sessions of blogo-diving.
To recap the Rants'n’Raves index page, the second session started when I heard Terri Gross’ interview of Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist who does entertaining segments for her show, about his new book. After devouring the papers on his website, I went from there to language log, a linguistics blog and the only one on his page to which he publicly admitted making contributions. Sure enough, it has lots of lovely little tidbits in the same vein as Mr. Nunberg's articles, illustrating the fancies and foibles of human thought via usage we typically take for granted.
One of those tidbits praised another blog, rivka's brilliant respectful of otters; but it wasn't till I'd revisted an old favorite, web pages that suck that I became consciously aware on just how many levels otters works. As the linguist on language log noted her understanding of (American) English is superior (if not perfect); as a fellow blogger claimed, her analysis is incisive (he claimed it was the blog he wished he could write, if only he had 48 hours in each day); as a would-be web-designer it dawned on me that one of the things that separate this site from some other good ones is that it does a superb job of projecting its identity—at a glance.
Under the title, ‘Respectful of Otters’, the author gives a summary of topics, ‘Politics, HIV, health care, psychology, baseball, feminism, et cetera’ followed immediately by an explanation of the name: ‘ "Psychologists have a duty to be fair and respectful of otters." - noble charge from a student paper.’ This simultaneously tells you the author is a psychologist, is probably a teacher or at least steeped in the academic tradition, and has a sense of humor.
But just in case you were still in doubt, she's got a little bio on the right, that starts out with question ‘Who's Respectful?’ (nicely linking to the title) which she answers, ‘* I'm a psychologist working in HIV research and treatment in the inner city. Don't talk to me about "compassionate conservatism." ’ My quotes can't convey the way these various pieces of text flow, from top to bottom and left to write—it's so natural, so unobtrusive, that taken in these 4 pieces of info, before the rest of the page has even finished loading.
I'm not a journalist or a statistician, but it would appear she has a good understanding of the latter and it would appear she uses primary sources in her research. So, to put it all together, respectful starts with a focus on her areas of expertise, uses high-quality research to back up her experience, has powerful analytical tools to put that research in context, strong writing skills to convey her perspective, and excellent design skills to promote her site. It's an impressive feat.
In other words, her site is worth checking out.
Like many bloggers she links to number of other sites, many of which cross-connected. When I started seeing the same ones popping up over and over again as I followed the links, I took note. I like the conceit of Echidne of the Snakes—it reminds me of the Pagans’ characterization at science fictions cons as “that old-time religion”. Her essay On Shopping (you have to scroll down to the 25th) is a scream. Slacktivist also is another liberal site, but the author, Fred Clark, is evidently a devout Christian, who has any number of interesting posts on religion; I was particularly fascinated by his "criticisms of the Left Behind novels, such as the May 5th post on this page. I'd vaguely heard of these bestsellers supposedly based on the Bible, but had no idea what they were about or what the underlying appeal was. Now I do.
Alas A Blog is attractively designed, with cool cariacatures (evidently by one of the three authors, ‘ampersand’), and has interesting posts on a wide range of topics, particularly feminism.
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eric s. raymond http://www.catb.org/~esr/
At the rate I've been making entries, rejiquar.com is in danger of becoming a blog...so, to commemorate this, er, happy event, are some links I've been perusing lately. No doubt a lot of the links will rot in six months. And be warned, some of them are blogs.
It all started with an interview of Geoffrey Nunberg, the linguist, on Terri Gross's program, Fresh air. He has some of his quite entertaining essays linked to his home page;
He contributes to languagelog, which I found entertaining. One of the other contributors, while discussing passive voice, linked to rivka's brilliant respectful of otters; in turn, I enjoyed Echidne of the Snakes’ essay On Shopping (you have to scroll down to the 25th)
Naturally,
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
