Odd Webfellows

I’ve always thought that the ultimate in celebrity is when a person is doing a crossword puzzle and finds his or her own name as one of the answers. We’re not in any danger of achieving that sort of fame, but I was reminded the other day that we have attained a certain niche notoriety. I stumbled across an article in Media Post that began:

IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS, it seems as if television executives have discovered one of the powers of the Internet: self-expression. What on earth is she talking about, you may ask? Well, let me posit, for your consideration, the following premise: every user-generated content site would cease to exist if people didn’t want to express their opinions in the form of video, audio or text.

Fair enough, I suppose. Later on came this:

And what about the Arctic Monkeys? Brookers? John Hinderaker? Do any of these names ring a bell? If the answer is no, it’s time for you to get with “the-value-in-being-able-to-express-myself online” program.

My oldest daughter says that the Arctic Monkeys are some kind of band. Brookers, I have no idea. Here’s the point, though: I would describe very little of what we do on this site as “self-expression.” Analysis, yes; commentary, yes; self-expression, rarely. In our earlier days, we were less narrowly focused. Now, the occasional soccer or music post is about as expressive as we get.

Which is long way of saying that today, if time permits, I intend to put aside economics and foreign policy, and recur to a more frivolous theme that we haven’t touched on for a while: a return to pageantry.

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