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2 Memes In 1

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I have been pinged twice. First meme, from Julia:

1. “Your blogfather, or blogmother, as the case may be. Just one please – the one blog that, more than any other, inspired you to start blogging. Please don’’t name Instapundit, unless you are on his blogchildren list. “

As Julia noted, she has as good as claim to the title as anybody. Because of the pre-supplied answer, I’m going to go beyond the strictures of the meme (hey, I never claimed to be a strict constructionist!) and also note that if you look at the top of my favorites list (and our joint favorites list) you can see a lot of bloggers who were a particularly strong early influences–I’ll cite Roy, The Editors and S.Z. in particular.) It should also be noted that this blog would never have gotten off the ground without Rob both suggesting the idea and handling all of the up-front logistical work (I, conversely, did pretty much nothing but contribute the name, and still barely know any HTML…)

2. Include your blog-birth-month, the month that you started blogging, if you can.

May 2004. Wow, has it been that long? I was still a lowly grad student, as opposed to Madonna’s colleague. So much has changed, if not my standard of living…

3. If you are reasonably certain that you have spawned any blog-children, mention them, too.

My co-bloggers should feel free to edit here; none that I know of.

Second meme from Amanda:

1. Of all the books that you have eventually finished after many starts & stops, which one took you the longest and how long did it eventually take?

I’ll restrict myself to fiction here, since there are obviously a lot of academic books I’ve read parts of over long periods. I think the longest would be One Hundred Years of Solitude, which if you include the earliest start-stops would be well over a decade. Magic realism just isn’t my bag for the most part, I guess. (I am a big fan of Midnight’s Children, though.)

2. What great band (or album or song) have you heard so often, you wouldn?t mind never hearing again even though you still think the band (or album or song) is great?

Interesting question; I always think of “dorm bands”; bands that get played a lot because they’re marginally acceptable to most people, some of which you get quickly sick of, which tells you who your true favorites are; more than a decade of listening obsessively to Dylan and the Stones and the Clash (and, unlike Amanda, Nirvana), hasn’t dulled my ardor a bit, while (despite the fact that I’m more willing to defend them than most people of taste) I rarely play, say, Led Zep. (I’ve been thinking about a follow-up post to that Grad Year Top 100 meme, looking at the best albums of your grad year. Interesting to see what holds up, and what doesn’t.)

Anyway, after all that I think my answer to this has to be Bob Marley; there are many others, but he seems quintessential. Not just dorms; every party of my college days seemed to involve playing Legend, and he also seems to be the all-time favorite of roadies everywhere. So while I accept that in some objective sense he’s great, and I’m happy enough to hear “No Woman No Cry” or “Redemption Song” if they come on in a coffee house or something, I never play him on my own volition.

3. Which cliche or often cited quote needs to be placed in quarantine for a few decades?

To return to an old hobbyhorse, the phrase “x is like y on steroids.” All political dictums with the word “NASCAR.” If I can stretch a bit, the acronym “MSM.”

4. During the 1990s “Compassion Fatigue” received a lot of press, now the media is giddy with “Donation Fatigue”. What will be the next trendy fatigue?

I dunno; I can never predict trends.

5. What percentage of respondents will answer “meme fatigue” to question #4?

I’m going to say a surprisingly low percentage–what fun would that be?

Both memes passed to whoever wants to answer ’em.

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