Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

An Oral History of Blogging     --fictional Tuesday; I'm just teasing here

Marsha T. Smith:

It was back in aught-three ['03] when I was reading "The Beat" by James Lileks and I thought: "well, doesn't this beat all? I can write about the mundanities of daily life and not get paid for it!" I knew I had a lot of daily experiences - or vignettes as another blogger fancily called them - and so I started my blog the very next day. I've learned that a lack of exciting experiences is no reason not to write.

TS O'Rama:

I guess my first experience of the possibilities inherent in blogging occurred shortly after receiving what is commonly referred to as "spam". Back in my day "Spam" was an unidentified form of meat, something you had for dinner as a last resort. But beginning in the late '90s it began to refer to unsolicited emails promising drugs, low market rate loans and Russian brides among other things. I was struck by the poetry of many spams, how they had a sort of disconsolate abruptness and non-sequitorness. By stringing and arranging many spam subject lines together, it seemed possible to bring some good out of what most considered a pain. I sent my "spam poetry" to co-workers and friends, but eventually realized that blogging was more efficient than sending poems to long distribution lists.

Jack "Steinway" Rogers:

I write poetry but have found to my utter dismay that my art has not yet been formally published. My first poem was written at the age of ten. It was about marigolds and was written for English class, but I was accused of plagiarism by a fellow student because it was so good. She said I'd copied it out of a book. I didn't know what plagiarism meant at the time but thought it meant the same as 'perjury'. This was about the time of the Clinton-Lewinski scandal and I was especially upset to be lumped with Clinton. Blogging has given my poems a larger audience and allowed me to explore avenues previously unexplored due to the harsh editing and selective process that most publishing houses nefariously engage in.

Sal Minelli:

I'm a liturgical turd. At least that's what my wife calls me. I complain about the abuses of language in the texts of the wretched Novus Ordure. The only problem I have with being labeled a RadTrad is most of my fellow "radicals" are far too obsequient to modern "popes", nor do most of them recognize the real article, Pope Sylvester of Hazard, Kentucky.

Bob and Betsy Reed:

I think the first time we said to each other "we gotta get our own blog" was when Betsy's friend Kathy began posting pictures of her darling cat Alex. [Turns to Besty] Remember that one of Alex 'boxing' their Boxer mix, honey? It was priceless since Alex had been declawed. We were ROTFLMAO (ROTFLOAO?). We knew our Ralphie would give us a lot of blog material, and I don't think our readers are disappointed.

Jonathon Simmons:

I've always been interested in writing. As a child I dreamt, like Johnboy Walton, of seeing my own byline. Blogging has given me that chance and I try not to take it for granted. I post nearly every day. It never gets old to see my name in print below my posts. The daily deadlines and pressure to produce has been a challenge but it's no different than what professional writers go thru every day.

Sean Reynolds:

I'm a political operative working undercover for Bob "ED" Dole. I took up blogging as a way to get my message out since it's a particularly potent form of communication with a potential to penetrate market segments heretofore inaccessible. I call it the little blue pill of the technological age.