Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Maybe I'm not "droll" enough.

This month's issue of Washingtonian magazine features a page about Amy Storch, who does a weblog called Amalah.com. Her claim to fame? She writes about her current experience at being pregnant. She has a reported three thousand readers each day: "Fans come for her droll takes on the minutiae of life, like getting the Burger King jingle stuck in her head. Or scouting daycare centers... She doesn't shy away from talking about her pregnancy, marriage..."

On the other hand, what's been MY fan base for the last few weeks?

"Hey I just love your blog. I also have a love dating blog/site. I mostly deals with love dating. Please come and check it out..."

"How Would You Like To Know How YOU Can Live In A Beautiful NEW House That Is Custom-Designed To YOUR Specifications..."


But most of them start out with "Your blog is awesome!" before going into some schtick they should know good and damn well I'm not the least bit interested in. I erase them every chance I get. I can tell these people go out of their way to be annoying, because they will often leave their crap in an entry from several weeks ago, thinking I won't go to the trouble of purging it.

It's as if they are convinced that being a jerk is the best way to sell their dumb-ass product.

Until I figure out how to block these idiots (and I'm in consultation with a fellow-St Blog's parishioner as we speak), my sidekick Jack has come to the rescue:

"Why don't we all go to the URLs listed and leave reams of inane, thoughtless, less-than-favorable comments on their sites & see how they appreciate our endeavors? Sure, that would be vindictive in nature, but imagine bein' able to giveth rather than receive-eth?

"I beleive the ol' Seinfeld series had at least two or three episodes that dealt with consumers (i.e., his fellow actors) lashing out at businesses that bothered them. Remember the one where Jerry asked the tele-marketer for his/her home phone number so he could return the annoying call at his leisure? Or, how about when Kramer decided to return 'junk mail' to a certain store that was flooding him with unwanted ads?"


Now, I never got into that TV series. Mostly because I found the characters as annoying as my recent visitors. So I'm calling on my legion of fans in the blogosphere to join me in a new initiative I call...

Revenge of the Black Hat

If all of us will simply heed Jack's timely advice, I can get back to engaging the people truly interested in intellectual engagement, which is only now starting to pick up a bit more. Even if you don't count the dim bulbs who want me to get into betting at the race track.

You know who you are.

(PS: Amy had her baby yesterday. Nice pictures. And some great advice from her cat: "Ceiba would like to tell you all that IT IS THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. PEE ON THE CARPET AND THEN RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.")

3 comments:

Mr. Nixter said...

I noticed the comments above this one aren't too pithy or thought provoking. As a matter of fact, they appear to be advertisements.

Why don't we all go to the URLs listed and leave reams of inane, thoughtless, less-than-favorable comments on their sites & see how they appreciate our endeavors? Sure, that would be vindictive in nature, but imagine bein' able to giveth rather than receive-eth?

I beleive the ol' Seinfeld series had at least two or three episodes that dealt with consumers (i.e., his fellow actors) lashing out at businesses that bothered them. Remember the one where Jerry asked the tele-marketer for his/her home phone number so he could return the annoying call at his leisure? Or, how about when Kramer decided to return "junk mail" to a certain store that was flooding him with unwanted ads?

And, what's the story with receiving telemarketers' call on my cell phone, using up MY minutes? Thry seem to be clver enough to make sure their phone numbers don't show up in my received calls listing.

Oh, well. I guess I could make a career out of reacting to unscrupulous advertisers, but rant time's over & I gotta get back to work...

Mr. Nixter said...

Just read the kind pat on th' back DLA gave me for my idea of giving back to those bloggers who opt to place their ads on this site in the guise of favorable commentary.

As Ralph Kramden of (Honeymooners fame once uttered, "I am humbled(d)."

Anywho, remember that the last few word of Ceiba the cat's quote ("It's the end of the world as we know it") are "...and I feel fine."

Perhaps Ceiba is wise?

David L Alexander said...

When my son was born, our own cat had a similar reaction (which I captured for the album with the rest of the baby pictures); she ran away from home a few weeks later.