Daddy
: Lileks explains kids to those who don't have them as his adorable Gnat enters into the wonderful world of conversation:
Imagine if your dog or cat began to talk. Imagine if you had rudimentary conversations. You'd love your pet if they didn't speak, but man! Imagine if they could! That's what it's like....
I’m well aware that I’m missing much in life because we have the Gnat. Travel, freedom, money, salty lingo - all are curtailed now....
Those of you who think that kids will come along some day, and wonder what that might mean, how it will change things - I can only note a moment today in the Mall of America with my Gnat. We always end our trips to the Mall with a cookie. A rare treat, since we don’t have cookies at home. (Jell-o Fat Free Pudding for Daddy, yes, but that’s another story.) We sat on a bridge over a stream as we snacked, alone in a leafy glade in the biggest mall in America. Gnat beamed as she chewed her ration.
“Num,” she said, grinning. “Nice. Cookie nice." Pause, chew, swallow, smile. "Daddy nice.”
I have never been happier in my life, or loved anyone more.
Beautifully said, of course.
I'll bet some kid will be born because of this. It's amazing how little it can take to inspire fertility: a blackout, a terrorist attack (yes, 9.11 led to a baby boom), even a TV show.
I used to be scared of the little beasts. But then a friend had one and I held him and I realized that he didn't know what to expect of me; I was safe.
And here's an embarrassing revelation: I actually give Bill Cosby some credit for my having a family. His old sitcom made having a family look like fun. Real and frustrating but fun. I liked his show then. Cosby and I ended up feuding later because I didn't like his later seasons; he sent me poison-pen mail of all sorts. Hey, I was a critic. I had to have an opinion. But I will always be grateful to him for making fatherhood look doable. I hope Lileks inspires others.
And as to you, Mr. Lileks: It only gets better.
9.11 show update
: I ran into David Friend -- the Vanity Fair editor who helped bring the great 9.11 show to CBS on the six-month anniversary -- in the elevator at work yesterday. After I congratulated him on his great show, he reported good news: They have deals to show the movie in countries around the world. And the show will be rerun on CBS on September 11, 2002.
Offtrak
: I'm heading off to vacation in my car tomorrow. We were going to go to Disneyworld but, as I wrote earlier, we decided not to; fear of flying, you know. I had thought of switching instead to the Amtrak AutoTrain. Glad we didn't.
If this train accident had happened a few months ago, we all would have wondered or at least asked whether it could be a terrorist act. I haven't heard that not.
Everything new is old again
: Nick Denton calls the feud developing between pioneer bloggers and warbloggers.
It's a simple case of the pioneers being jealous of the attention the newcomers are getting. The same exact thing has happened at every stage of the Internet's development -- with usenet (which started as a nice communications tool and soon became filled with the dogmatic blatherings of nerds without lives and then descended into spam) and with gopher and with the web and now with weblogs. The early adopters want it to be theirs; they don't like new neighbors; they also don't want to see their invention ruined by the clumsy. They become old farts at a remarkably young age. They can act just like old-media publishers who are fearful of losing control of the medium.
That's life. The Internet belongs to the audience. It belongs to the people. There is no way to control it. There is no way to own it.
Mind you, I love all the pioneers (except when Blogger is down; I was going to publish this last night!). They invented a whole new kind of commentary, reporting, publishing, storytelling. They did a great job. They're still doing a great job. They gave birth to a brilliant child. But now it's time for the child to grow up and move out of the house.
: One more thing:
On this warblogger thing. I don't get my knickers in knots about the word. No, everything here isn't about war. But that did inspire me to start. I had followed blogging for ages; I got my company to invest in Blogger; I have my blogging stripes. But I didn't blog because I didn't have anything to say... until 9.11 and then I had much I had to say. That started the addiction. I have no problem with acknowledging that genesis. Call me a warblogger or blogger or just an ass; I don't much care. I'll write about what I want to write about without editors; that's the joy of this, isn't it?
: Bennett is really pissed about this warblogger debate thing.
The War Blog Book project has a lot of the limp-wristed html technicians who falsely consider themselves the pioneers of the web all upset, over their presumed exclusion.
Call it BlogBurn: First,
Sarge called it quits (with all the credibility of the retirements of Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Michael Jordan; he's back already).
Now
Letter from Gotham flames out (going through about 100,000 gallons of jet fuel on the way).
Blogging is hard work.
Daddy
: Lileks explains kids to those who don't have them as his adorable Gnat enters into the wonderful world of conversation:
Imagine if your dog or cat began to talk. Imagine if you had rudimentary conversations. You'd love your pet if they didn't speak, but man! Imagine if they could! That's what it's like....
I’m well aware that I’m missing much in life because we have the Gnat. Travel, freedom, money, salty lingo - all are curtailed now....
Those of you who think that kids will come along some day, and wonder what that might mean, how it will change things - I can only note a moment today in the Mall of America with my Gnat. We always end our trips to the Mall with a cookie. A rare treat, since we don’t have cookies at home. (Jell-o Fat Free Pudding for Daddy, yes, but that’s another story.) We sat on a bridge over a stream as we snacked, alone in a leafy glade in the biggest mall in America. Gnat beamed as she chewed her ration.
“Num,” she said, grinning. “Nice. Cookie nice." Pause, chew, swallow, smile. "Daddy nice.”
I have never been happier in my life, or loved anyone more.
Beautifully said, of course.
I'll bet some kid will be born because of this. It's amazing how little it can take to inspire fertility: a blackout, a terrorist attack (yes, 9.11 led to a baby boom), even a TV show.
I used to be scared of the little beasts. But then a friend had one and I held him and I realized that he didn't know what to expect of me; I was safe.
And here's an embarrassing revelation: I actually give Bill Cosby some credit for my having a family. His old sitcom made having a family look like fun. Real and frustrating but fun. I liked his show then. Cosby and I ended up feuding later because I didn't like his later seasons; he sent me poison-pen mail of all sorts. Hey, I was a critic. I had to have an opinion. But I will always be grateful to him for making fatherhood look doable. I hope Lileks inspires others.
And as to you, Mr. Lileks: It only gets better.
9.11 show update
: I ran into David Friend -- the Vanity Fair editor who helped bring the great 9.11 show to CBS on the six-month anniversary -- in the elevator at work yesterday. After I congratulated him on his great show, he reported good news: They have deals to show the movie in countries around the world. And the show will be rerun on CBS on September 11, 2002.
Offtrak
: I'm heading off to vacation in my car tomorrow. We were going to go to Disneyworld but, as I wrote earlier, we decided not to; fear of flying, you know. I had thought of switching instead to the Amtrak AutoTrain. Glad we didn't.
If this train accident had happened a few months ago, we all would have wondered or at least asked whether it could be a terrorist act. I haven't heard that not.
Everything new is old again
: Nick Denton calls the feud developing between pioneer bloggers and warbloggers.
It's a simple case of the pioneers being jealous of the attention the newcomers are getting. The same exact thing has happened at every stage of the Internet's development -- with usenet (which started as a nice communications tool and soon became filled with the dogmatic blatherings of nerds without lives and then descended into spam) and with gopher and with the web and now with weblogs. The early adopters want it to be theirs; they don't like new neighbors; they also don't want to see their invention ruined by the clumsy. They become old farts at a remarkably young age. They can act just like old-media publishers who are fearful of losing control of the medium.
That's life. The Internet belongs to the audience. It belongs to the people. There is no way to control it. There is no way to own it.
Mind you, I love all the pioneers (except when Blogger is down; I was going to publish this last night!). They invented a whole new kind of commentary, reporting, publishing, storytelling. They did a great job. They're still doing a great job. They gave birth to a brilliant child. But now it's time for the child to grow up and move out of the house.
: One more thing:
On this warblogger thing. I don't get my knickers in knots about the word. No, everything here isn't about war. But that did inspire me to start. I had followed blogging for ages; I got my company to invest in Blogger; I have my blogging stripes. But I didn't blog because I didn't have anything to say... until 9.11 and then I had much I had to say. That started the addiction. I have no problem with acknowledging that genesis. Call me a warblogger or blogger or just an ass; I don't much care. I'll write about what I want to write about without editors; that's the joy of this, isn't it?
: Bennett is really pissed about this warblogger debate thing.
The War Blog Book project has a lot of the limp-wristed html technicians who falsely consider themselves the pioneers of the web all upset, over their presumed exclusion.
Call it BlogBurn: First,
Sarge called it quits (with all the credibility of the retirements of Frank Sinatra, Cher, and Michael Jordan; he's back already).
Now
Letter from Gotham flames out (going through about 100,000 gallons of jet fuel on the way).
Blogging is hard work.
...
