The Responses Pour In
A few weeks ago we asked whether Houston was in the West. In response, David Crisp writes that "The East ends at the Trinity River. The West starts at Fort Worth." Crisp also comments on our team name discussion: "My favorite is from a Texas high school: The Hutto Hippos."
Referencing last month's discussion of tribes, Paul and Jacklyn Clayton write that George W. Bush seems to be serving as president of only his tribe, not the whole country; a very narrow sector even within the Republican party. Of course the political opposition always feels undervalued, but I think I agree: Bill Clinton at least pretended to be a centrist. He upset the left as well as the right (which caused some of those leftists to wonder if there was any difference between Bush and Gore -- I think we can now say the answer is yes.)
Big Sky Dave believes that this is not a genuine blog, since it lacks a commenting feature for responses like these to not be filtered through me. I respectfully disagree. I understand the value of the commenting feature: it creates community of people rather than a cult of personality. But blogger.com defines blogs thus: "The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly -- from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction." Obviously I'm doing news and mini-essays; surprisingly, their definition doesn't even address this sort of community commentary.
The blogs I love -- such as The Borowitz Report, Publisher's Lunch, Headwaters News, and WriterL -- are moderated. Similarly, when I worked for the email-based newsletter www.streetmail.com a few years ago, the company called for a strong editorial presence to guide the discussion. That's the same sort of online presence I'm trying to build here. I hope you'll continue to read, and to email your comments. I'll try to keep posting them.
What do YOU think? Drop a line to info@johnclaytonbooks.com. To receive these posts via email, write to johnclaytonoutreach-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (You need not put any text in the message.)
Referencing last month's discussion of tribes, Paul and Jacklyn Clayton write that George W. Bush seems to be serving as president of only his tribe, not the whole country; a very narrow sector even within the Republican party. Of course the political opposition always feels undervalued, but I think I agree: Bill Clinton at least pretended to be a centrist. He upset the left as well as the right (which caused some of those leftists to wonder if there was any difference between Bush and Gore -- I think we can now say the answer is yes.)
Big Sky Dave believes that this is not a genuine blog, since it lacks a commenting feature for responses like these to not be filtered through me. I respectfully disagree. I understand the value of the commenting feature: it creates community of people rather than a cult of personality. But blogger.com defines blogs thus: "The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly -- from links and commentary about other web sites, to news about a company/person/idea, to diaries, photos, poetry, mini-essays, project updates, even fiction." Obviously I'm doing news and mini-essays; surprisingly, their definition doesn't even address this sort of community commentary.
The blogs I love -- such as The Borowitz Report, Publisher's Lunch, Headwaters News, and WriterL -- are moderated. Similarly, when I worked for the email-based newsletter www.streetmail.com a few years ago, the company called for a strong editorial presence to guide the discussion. That's the same sort of online presence I'm trying to build here. I hope you'll continue to read, and to email your comments. I'll try to keep posting them.
What do YOU think? Drop a line to info@johnclaytonbooks.com. To receive these posts via email, write to johnclaytonoutreach-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (You need not put any text in the message.)
