Posted 9:34 AM by Gene

Forbes.com runs a "survey" of war blogs which, more than its previous surveys, suggests spin the bottle or pin the tail on the donkey. Perhaps the five sites some editor chose are more "representative" than "best"; still, it is very disheartening to know that the attention a weblog needs depends almost solely on luck, and these five are very lucky. I can't vouch for their "quality" except to say they all manage to sound alike despite differing opinions, and they're all wordy. I'll say this again, too: How many people have limitless time for bloggers?

P. S. Back in 1925, when it was just starting out, The New Yorker ran a joke:

Johnny: What is an optimist, pop?

Pop: A man who thinks he can make it in par.

It's hardly a joke; what's more, someone transposed the lines, foreshadowing Jeopardy but without the nerds. Every year until his death the magazine's neurotic, obsessive founding editor Harold Ross ran the transposed joke in the anniversary issue, perhaps as a reminder of how bad The New Yorker was in the early days (and by many accounts it was bad indeed).

I go out of my way with this anecdote because The Number One War Blogger wrote this. He may yet be right; but if events go on as presently, I may occasionally post this as a prime example of the blogger's infinite wisdom -- and I will always give due credit to Forbes.com for unearthing it.

What is a pessimist, pop?