for 8 DEC 05: A DASH OF BASIL
(BLOGGER'S NOTE: Schedule commitments require us to post well before midnight for the next couple of days. But you know what - you get fresh blog faster that way!)
You never know when a new competitor will show up -- in business or in blogging. One of them was polite enough to e-mail us the other day:
It's not really local in nature, since I'm not from around here (moved here in '96). But sort of.
A Columbus area blog is a finalist in the 2005 Weblog Awards....
These are the awards hosted by Wizbang, a large conservative blog, and not to be confused with the "Bloggie" Awards, which appear in mid-year and are dominated by liberal blogs.
Oh, which local blog? Hmmm. Let me think. What blog could it be?
Okay, yes, it's my little blog, "basil's blog" that is a finalist for Best New Blog (less than one year old).
basil
What a letdown! I hoped THIS blog would be in the running for something. Instead, I sometimes still feel like I'm running -- from gung-ho police officers.
If I read Basil's Blog correctly, Thursday is its first anniversary. So he's officially part of the regular wave of local bloggers -- as opposed to some of them who started strong, only to fade as the months go by. Some have posts, while others are toast.
I was unfamiliar with Basil's Blog until he wrote me, so I checked it the last couple of days . Only a few clues indicate he's based in Columbus -- such as a picture from a Catfish game, with big corporate logos on the outfield wall. Wait until the companies see that, and threaten trademark infringement suits.
From the topic list he displays, Basil must be a big Columbus Catfish fan. The baseball team has more than 100 mentions on his blog - which computes to one for every five fans at some home games.
(There's also a lighthouse at the top of Basil's main page. I don't think that's from Columbus - but Beacon University just added an electronic sign along Veterans Parkway, so it's possible.)
Large sections of Basil's Blog consist of links to interesting posts by other bloggers. Many of them have names only familiar inside the "blogosphere." But if Basil is as conservative as he suggests, Wednesday's link to the CBS News blog must be a terrible mistake.
Basil's Blog posts these links several times a day -- with neat divisions into breakfast, lunch and supper. There's nothing like reading a laptop next to your plate at the dinner table, to build strong family bonds.
So why do I say Basil's Blog is a "new competitor?" Because it also features "Headline News," with one-liners on various topics. This is why the "Weekend Update" on Saturday Night Live has lost its impact - lots of people are online, beating them to good punch lines by days.
Thankfully for me, the news items Basil mentions are from the national and international items. So this blog is left with the "local turf" to joke about Columbus. If Basil dares to cross that line, I'll meet him at a wireless hotspot at high noon....
I wish Basil well is his quest for a Weblog Award. But really now, do we need separate award shows for liberal and conservative blogs? They don't do this in Hollywood - where over the years, the Oscars have shunned Oprah Winfrey and Mel Gibson equally well.
(If the Weblog Award truly is for conservative blogs, the trophy had better be painted "red state red.")
BLOG UPDATE: The sightings begin! I saw a giant concrete chicken on 13th Street in Phenix City!! And it looked like it was about eight feet tall!!! Maybe the missing bird from Broadway was given massive doses of steroids....
It's no joke - there really IS a giant chicken statue outside an antique store, near the 13th-14th Street split in downtown Phenix City. I don't know if it's the one Robert Saliba lost from his downtown balcony or not. But it's SO HUGE, it could make the legendary "Big Chicken" in Marietta, Georgia jealous.
I passed this colossal concrete clucker Wednesday afternoon, as I bought a can of ant and roach killer. A colleague of my landlord actually gave me five dollars to buy it, after checking the ant problem in my bathtub [6 Dec]. That's why my rent remains so low - the landlord refuses to spend money for professional treatments.
"Ain't never seen this before," the colleague of the landlord said as he applied caulk to loose-looking tiles above my bathtub. The caulk flushed out another wave of ants - dozens of them crawling on the window sill. Maybe the caulk needed hints of lemon or orange peel in it....
The landlord's helper went for a can of his own bug spray, and sprayed it on the rush of ants. I was settling for water from the bathtub, to wash the ants away. Does this make me a humanitarian, or a weak-spined wimp?
The spray certainly worked, turning the ants into tiny rolled up balls on the window sill. No, I did NOT collect them and put them on my salad for extra protein....
As I write this, the ants have NOT returned to the bathroom - but I took the five-dollar bill from the landlord's helper and bought a top-dollar new can of ant and roach killer Wednesday afternoon, anyway. I thought of it as a man's version of "Clinique Bonus Time."
THE BIG BLOG QUESTION ended Wednesday night, with a rare unanimous decision. Every one of our voters say bounty hunters should be allowed to operate in Columbus (7-0). You might find them Thursday lined up outside bail bond offices - looking to make a fun second income.
COMING SOON: A visit to our Columbus complaint corner: what are people griping about?....
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