I've been bullied. Hectored. Ridden hard and put to bed wet. "Gently reminded." Cajoled. Spammed. Facebooked. Twittered. Tweeted. Retweeted. Feedburnered and Bloglined into a state of bruised digital aphasia. In short, my brain's been blog-battered, splattered all over Manhattan.
We're talking of course about the Weblog Awards, 2008 version. So many terrific nominees. So many friends. So many emails and coquettish dropped hankies. If bloggy self-promotion is a cause, then some of my best blogging buddies are "CauseWired." (Ha! That'll teach you to self-promote around here).
So please, do me a favor - go out and vote for all these worthies. They are all wonderful and deserving of the million-dollar prize that comes with finishing...oh wait...of the little blog badge bling thing that apprises the rest of the world of their worthiness. Seriously, I read these blogs on a weekly basis and I can't think of anything their authors would appreciate more (short of a five-dollar PayPal tip) than your vote.
And the Weblog Awards and its sponsor will appreciate the traffic - the contest is being underwritten, it appears, by GotSpot.com, a site that is searching for the "Sexiest Soccer Mom Ever!" - which will certainly be of intense interest to all the feminists up for awards!
First among equals is the redoubtable Robert Stein - because there's nothing so ironic and just plain entertaining as a legendary editor in his 85th year on this planet being nominated for "Best Up and Comming" blogger. Yep, Bob's getting the hang of this commentary thing. He's also one of several nominees who are also contributors at newcritics, I'm happy to say.
So please cast your ballots for the hilarious Jon Swift in the humor category (and give another look-see at his great round-up of best blog posts of 2008 whilst you're at it).
And try and go all Mayor William J. Daley for Blue Girl in the Best Diarist vote, will ya - so I can avoid being lumped in with her "lazy, apathetic and good-for-nothing friends." There's no one more deserving than Kathleen of Diary of a Heretic for Best Literature Blog, clearly. Uh-oh. Unless, it's the stylish Maud Newton. Better split yer vote there, fellas. They're both newcritics.
Go and vote for Shakesville for Best Liberal Blog - it's a great community of writers led by the awesome Melissa McEwen. Then come back the next day and click on my buddy Taylor Marsh, who never backs down. Then return the following day and vote for Digby's brilliant Hullabaloo, a guide to political sanity.
In Best Individual Blogger I voted for the clever Lindsay Beyerstein, and for Best Major Blog, I split my vote between Balloon Juice and The Moderate Voice. And for best blog, I went with my friend Ben Smith at Politico.
I've probably missed someone - and that person will undoubtedly let me know about it. So vote early and vote often. And get these (wonderful and talented and worthy) bloggers off my back!
