Heart of Canada

*sigh*

I miss blogging.

I like blogging.

I should blog more.

Hiatus

So, here's the thing...I just don't feeling like blogging, so I'm going on hiatus. Hats off to whoever wins the election, about which I feel rather ambivalent.

Cheers,
HofC

My Blog Heritage

Via Kate, I see that The Commissar is tracking blog lineages. You sign up, indicating what blogger was influential in your starting up a blog, fitting yourself into one of the blog lineages The Commissar has identified.

When I saw this, I chuckled.

You see, I first encountered blogging through a lineage The Commissar hasn't really acknowledged just yet: youth culture.

It went kind of like this.

One day, my teen said to me, "Mom, you should blog."

I said something like, "What?"

Her: "You should blog."

Me: "What the bleep is a blog?"

And it went from there. She already had a blog -- several, I think, at that point -- having learned about them from other teens. In fact, she was involved in a closely linked network of teen bloggers, some of whom have really creative sites.

She taught me how to blog. She taught me about html coding. She opened the door to blogdom for me.

Later, she came to regret this, given that we had to share the same home computer.

*snicker*

After I started up my own blog, Google, as well as other bloggers' blogrolls and links, pretty much guided me the rest of the way through the world of blog.

My daughter; my blogmother.

By the way, her blogs always look a lot better than mine.

Let's not degrade either students or "housewives"

It's an interesting article, but, really, how could anyone, in all seriousness, say that blogs cover "...everything from opinions on politics and pop culture to the menial everyday happenings of students and housewives."* Menial? I mean, really, I could understand someone writing something like "the menial happenings of life" -- that would be fair, but I think "the menial everyday happenings of students and housewives" is a remarkably nasty way of illustrating the concept of "unimportant" or the suggestion of "Whose life happenings could be any less important?" Besides, the entire sentence is redundant anyway. The word "menial" would have been adequate without the word "everyday" or the illustration at the expense of others' self-worth.

Yes, readers, that is the story that brought me out of my blog hiatus.

*emphasis added

A Musical Interlude

Clementi, Sonatina #3, 2nd Movement (Un Poco Adagio) by katiej

Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho

Away again...for a week this time.

Play nicely. Enjoy the U of A's Falcon Webcam -- they're incubating three eggs -- or the Positano Webcam on my sidebar at right (or at the bottom of the page depending on your browser layout).

No, I won't be in Positano.

*sigh*

Comment Conniption

Coyne has a little to-do over comments made on his blog. I kind of wondered why he allowed them at all, given the volume. When you get 1000 comments per post, it's time to hire an assistant. Tends to prevent hissy fits.

Gunter, As He Pleases

Lorne Gunter, the mainstay of the now-defunct National Post blog, Across the Board, has his own site, as Cosh points out. Really, this is a good NP idea. Gunter always brings a kind of Edmontonian common sense and pragmatics to a situation, backed up well by sharp, pointy edges. Canada probably needs more of that.

Unfortunately for Lorne, the NP insists on that hideously fogyish, mustard-yellow banner and isn't great at allowing reader feedback on blogs. Can't see why they don't, really, but Lorne is pretty good about e-mail, as I recall. Welcome back to my blogroll!

Site Readership

Sometime today, readership of this site will click over the 100,000 mark. As usual, welcome to all!

New Blogs

Here are a couple of new noteworthy blogs:

Intelligent Design in the Future: A new science blog about intelligent design in the universe, with multidisciplinary contributions, which always makes for excellent intellectual stimulation.

Canadian Expats: Quoting their description of themselves, the blog is "a collection of articles and observations written by Canadian Expatriates from around the globe." Cool.

Beautiful Ironies

Michael Gorman alleges that people have called him a Luddite. Michael Gorman is the president-elect of the American Libraries Association (ALA) and the Dean of Library Services for the Henry Madden Library at California State University, Fresno. Michael Gorman has succeeded in writing one of the most beautifully ironic commentaries that I have seen in a long time.

Here's an excerpt from his recent commentary in Back Talk:

A blog is a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web....Until recently, I had not spent much time thinking about blogs or Blog People. [Link]

Apparently not. [Editor: my goodness, was that a sentence fragment?!? Note to self: remind Gorman to revisit why he shouldn't use the phrase "is because."]  In fact, Gorman writes that he was not really aware of blogs until December 17, 2004. How fascinating. Where was he all this time?

Overreacting to bloggers' criticisms, Gorman defends his claim that "The Google phenomenon is a wonderfully modern manifestation of the triumph of hope and boosterism over reality...that gives you thousands of "hits" (which may or may not be relevant) in no very useful order." He goes on thus:

In the eyes of bloggers, my sin lay in suggesting that Google is OK at giving access to random bits of information but would be terrible at giving access to the recorded knowledge that is the substance of scholarly books. I went further and came up with the unoriginal idea that the thing to do with a scholarly book is to read it, preferably not on a screen. It turns out that the Blog People (or their subclass who are interested in computers and the glorification of information) have a fanatical belief in the transforming power of digitization and a consequent horror of, and contempt for, heretics who do not share that belief. [Link]

How foolish. Criticizing Google for not priorizing its entries (or not priorizing them as Gorman would do so, perhaps with Aristotle coming as the first citation in every Google search) is like criticizing a card catalogue for not classifying beyond alphabetization and topic. Gorman seems to have forgotten the golden rule of research: the researcher makes judgments about the quality of a text, not the librarian.

By the way, if you type "Michael Gorman" into Google, his own homepage at CalState Fresno comes up. I wonder if that's going to change as a result of his comments about bloggers. Perhaps he would like his homepage to be first up in Google, but sometimes the actions or words of a person are more impactful than the face they choose to represent to the public, causing Google search results to change. For example, I also found in that same Google search this ALA member's worthwhile blogpost about how Gorman has recently distinguished himself.

The wonderful irony embedded in Gorman's text is that, while he complains that bloggers don't read enough scholarly works, he clearly has not read enough blogs. If he had, he would know that bloggers come from all walks of life, including the scholarly ranks. Furthermore, he does not seem to realize that, if you want to be a excellent blogger, you have to read -- a lot -- both online and in print. Certainly not all bloggers are scholars, but neither are all those who are published on paper, a point he might do well to remember.

I might also remind him to revisit readings on soiled fish, lest he judge texts by what they are printed on rather than what they actually say. Gorman's yammering about having to read monographs printed on paper is, well, strange. On the other hand, his commentary is such a poignant example of why overgeneralization remains the worst offense among bloggers and non-bloggers alike. So does overreaction, by the way.

If this is the person the American Library Association wants to represent its vision for the future of libraries, then I'm disappointed. Space has always been an issue for libraries. Obviously some librarians have not recognized the value of virtual space. While holding the First Folio right in your hands provides its own unique thrill and scholarly value, sometimes you just want to read the text, which can be just as authoritative in digitized form. Of course, so can a blog post, although I don't expect Gorman will be starting his own blog any time soon.

Oh, and one more point. Someone please remind Gorman that he shouldn't quote bloggers without back-linking to the source. Plagiarism is a serious issue, even in blogdom.

[Via Exploded Library]

A Different Drum

Bitch, PhD notes that Drum has revised his view of women bloggers. I love it when she uses the word "smackdown."

Here's a small, tantalising excerpt of Drum's new post:

No wonder so many women got pissed off at what I thought was a fairly unexceptional post last month. If this is the crowd I'm part of, I don't blame them. [Link]

Props all around.

Wonder what Kate would say.

Femme Fatale

Kate calls b.s. on claims that many male bloggers don't link to female bloggers, using her own blog as an example. I would dearly like to know what some of the lead writers on this topic, like her and her and her and her, and, of course, her, and definitely her, and her, and her, think of Kate's claim.

All of the bloggers I've mentioned in this post are first-rate, and it is interesting to ponder why some might be linked to more than others, particularly by men. I've often thought that the more racey and outrageous, the more in-your-face, your blog is, the more people will link to you, often out of sheer incredulity. This isn't true of all popular blogs, of course.

It's a little difficult to track down my Technorati links because I have to search under the various and sundry domain names that lead to this blog. Nevertheless, I think I have a good distribution of both men and women linking to me, including a number of top male and female bloggers. Plus, there are others I know who read my blog but don't link back, as well as some men and women in the mainstream media who have dropped me a line from time to time about what I write.

Of course, some male bloggers will never link to me, due to their overtly declared and rather silly anti-feminist reasons, but their stance is largely irrelevant to me anyway: best they don't link back. Even still, I support what Trish and others have said about elite bloggers and reiterate what I've said about some elite bloggers before. I don't tend to link to many elite bloggers, generally preferring original and well-written substantive thought to meandering daily link-wh*ring.

Employee Blogs

The issue of employees blogging about their work is a hot one in blogdom, with most people worrying that they'll become dooced if they say anything about work. What's a employer to do, though, if many, even all, employees start contributing to a blog discussing issues and problems at work? Here's an example from the Los Alamos Nuclear Lab's employee blog:

One of the issues facing Los Alamos from the beginning has been the cultural clash between science and military viewpoints (Groves vs. Oppenheimer). It’s obvious that a good cultural match will be critical to our success, and the LANL culture has proven very resistant to change. Looking forward, what we need to know is what corporate life might be like under the cultures of the various bidders. Is there anyone out there who has worked for these folks and can share some first-hand knowledge? [Link]

I'm a very big believer in the benefits from and power of transparency in maintaining a healthy work environment. While competitive work secrets and confidential information obviously should never be shared online, worker's feelings about, hopes for, and responses to non-confidential issues in the workplace are important experiences personal to the employee, which they should be allowed to discuss, particularly if they work for a publicly funded organization.

Should they be curtailed? In my opinion, the best work places would use a blog like this to improve their work atmosphere. Of course, these would be the same kinds of workplaces that are not afraid of worker feedback or criticism of management. In fact, one of the purposes of the LANL blog is to permit discussion and publication of information about LANL in an uncensored forum.

Of course, if the workplace had excellent communication and feedback between management and employees, the employees probably wouldn't need a blog on which to air their views, although, admittedly, a blog -- even a private company blog -- can be a good forum for dialogue. Question: Now that the LANL blog has been picked up in the mainstream media, how long do you think it will take before the blog owner is dooced or the blog gets shut down? POGO hopes it doesn't. Me too.

I don't believe blogs should be used for illegal, harassing, or inappropriate vendettas against individuals. On the other hand, if the complaint is legitimate, blogs can be very effective devices for communication...anybody remember the "bitch hit my truck" blog written by the guy who was a victim of a hit-and-run but who had pictures of the person who did it? That was an interesting example. Maybe the LANL employees really do have something to complain about, and their blog might be the only way they can successfully and safely do that.

Blog Tag, West Coast Chaos Style

Pei Yusie is proposing a little game of blog-tag, wherein you spot a website belonging to contemporary Christian culture.  This game is not cheesy. In fact, here's someone who takes his cheese and his Christianity quite seriously. However, if you want something truly befitting the theme "contemporary" Christianity, it would have to be this.

You're it!

Trish's Subversion

Trish has been contemplating the dominant link hierarchy in blogging, whereby many male bloggers don't link to many female bloggers. So, in honour of her birthday, she's requesting a subversion of the dominant link hierarchy:

In honor of my birthday, I'd like to do a special something related to women bloggers and women's issues. E-mail me your posts, with links, and on my birthday I will link to all of them in one post. Either post about a women's issue, or if you are a woman blogger yourself, write something that is meaningful for you. Or both.

Trish's birthday is March 14. I think I'd like to participate, considering this a great addition to the XX Femirounds that started up recently. By honouring Trish's request, she, in turn, will honour us all and have her birthday wish.

I Love This Idea

Citizen's Rent wrote a post about Bell Canada's appalling use of women to advertise their parental control service. In the post, the blogger mentions a number of online discussions of the ad campaign, including one by yours truly. While I appreciate bloggers who link back and also give credit for sourcing ideas and information, I love the way Citizen's Rent did it:

In further news with a curtsy to Heart of Canada for the tip, it looks like Bell Canada is pulling the ad, has apologized, and may send the women behind the creation of the ad to sensitivity training [emphasis added].

Bloggers traditionally offer a "hat tip" to other bloggers from whom they have sourced material. I've never like the term "hat tip" because, for me, it's male. OH STOP THINKING I'M A RADFEM. I'm not a radfem; I just have never tipped my hat to anyone. I grew up with the socialized learning that women do not "tip their hats."

Therefore, I just loved Citizen Rent's referral language: a curtsy. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I used to positively hate giving curtsies when I was younger. When I think of curtsies, I think of piano recitals. I had to practice elegantly placing my hand on the edge of the piano keyboard, whilst the other hand would gracefully hold my skirt, after which I would execute the perfect little dip, one ankle behind the other, to the people in the audience. I think it was Sr. Agnes who first taught me that.

*shudder*

Dip is a good synonym for curtsy because I always felt a little like a dip when doing one.

On the other hand, curtsy has a wonderful connotation of feminine courtesy to it; therefore, a blog curtsy, for me, is sweet, polite, and rather charming. So, a curtsy to Citizen's Rent for the tip on how to acknowledge a blog source in feminine style.

By the way, I spent a little time reading Citizen Rent's blog. Besides writing about politics and other social issues, there also are some pretty funny posts about other matters, including this funny excerpt:

I'm tired and cranky. I've been sleeping poorly for unknown reasons. And I have a stupidly busy week. I have to clean, clean, clean. I'm out of town Thursday and nieces will be feeding my sweet and recently spayed kitty, Olive. So I've got to raise the bar on what qualifies as really clean so these kids have the environment they deserve. (And thinking that, don't I deserve it too? Geez, get out of my head, Dr. Phil.)

I also have tons of laundry to do. Which would have been done today BUT THERE ARE BIRDS NESTING IN MY DRYER VENT PIPE THINGY. I don't understand why this means my clothes won't dry. But I ran the same load twice, despite occassionally creepy bird sounds. And the clothes still aren't dry. The birds are winning. [Link]

I'm pleased to add Citizen's Rent to my blogroll.

The Amazing Hawco

A some point during the week, I enjoy a clicking over to Ed Hawco's blog to see my weekly present, at least that's what it feels like when I visit his Monday morning feature photo -- like he leaves us a little gift to open, and it's always a pleasant surprise. I especially loved last week's photo of the rather adventitious depanneur.

This week's photo of Montreal is particularly striking in the way that he has captured so many aspects of that city in one shot. The composition of the photo intially seems ordinary, until you start to study the background detail. If you click over there, check out his description of the photo.

Conservative Club

I find it a little rich that the Conservative party is highlighting Monte Solberg's blog in their newsletter today, when a lot of excellent Canadian bloggers have been blogging-to-the-bone on political matters for quite some time now. While I like Monte's new blog (I linked to him) and the style he's starting to develop (but he has no blogroll), the Conservatives aren't going to garner a whole lot of blog-points in my books by ignoring the rest of the Canadian blogosphere -- especially when a number of rather high up Conservatives have talked to, er, some bloggers face-to-face about their blogs. I could swear I heard echos of blog posts I had read or written in some of the party's PR during the last election....

No matter. Some of us are waiting to see just how radical things get at that policy convention before getting too comfortable with the new party, anyway.

Molluscule Humour

I told you he has a rapier wit:

The Liberal Cabinet are like octopodes, using squirts of black ink to distract you from the fact that all eight arms are still in your pockets.

This kind of wit, of course, is born of true pendantry, a quality I much admire, if I do say so myself. Go read the whole post.

No Coy In Coyne

Andrew Coyne has made an impressive comeback to blogdom and has skewered Lord Voldemort. Welcome back. By the way, much better format, Andrew. Much. Better.

Welcome Susan and Pamela

I have come across two outstanding new blogs, one highly introspective and the other highly observant, but both with dashes of brilliant wit. The first, No Turner Left Unstoned, is written by Susan Turner. Here's a little sample:

I think cutting up dead animals is depressing me. I have unwelcome fantasies -- brief flashes really -- of fileting a certain co-worker everyone calls T-Bonehead (don't worry, I would never act on these!). I've had several 'butchershop' nightmares. I've heard of this sort of thing happening to some slaughterhouse workers -- guys who actually do the killing. But I'm embarrassed to ask my fellow butchers if they have this sort of experience too.

The second, Thomasburg Walks, is written by Pamela Martin. Here's a little sample:

Yesterday the rabbit corpse was still there where I found it, no sign that anyone new had been by. I worried that my tracks coming and going would bring a domestic dog to the scene....There are many problems with tracking humans travelling on foot. They might do anything, as might their dogs, making it harder to get a set of working assumptions.

I've added Susan and Pamela to my list of W-League Blogs, which expands the repertoire considerably beyond Lord Voldemort. These two blogs, plus Jackson Junction, noted in a previous post, make for interesting new daily reads.

Happy Birthday

Happy Bloggy birthday to me! Happy Bloggy birthday to me! Happy Bloggy birthday Heart of Canada! Happy Bloggy birthday to me!

This blog is now one year old! Thanks to all the readers and commenters who make it so fun to write.

Theresa

Slogging Along

Not much extended blogging because I'm mired down in indexing my book. Who would think that any task could be so mind-numbingly boring? I thought the subject index took a long time, but the name index is at least as extensive.

*sigh*

It's going to print in a couple of days, so I'd better hurry up and finish it. More blogging after I'm done. Soon, my pretties, soon.

RosenPundit

"I was country, before couuuntry was cool."

Stephen D. Antler (EconoPundit) has words of wisdom for Instapundit. Now, far be it for me to tell Glenn anything (because I'm quite certain he wouldn't care what I had to say anyway), but I had Milt, radio talkshow host extraordinaire, blogrolled the second I had a blogroll. I mean who wouldn't blogroll Milt Rosenberg?

By the way, did you know he's a psychologist? I'm fond of my eye teeth, but I think I might actually give them in order to be on faculty at the University of Chicago.

If you don't listen to Milt's show on the radio during the evening, well, you really need to clue tune in. It's where it's at, plus it's from that ol' town that stole my heart.

By the way, Econo and Insta, you should check out this Rosenberg too -- one of Milt's "blog children."

Online Oogling

Imagine this. You're getting on the net for your nightly dose of voyeurism or titillation. You go to Google and type in a search term, such as one of these real search terms retrieved from my visitor stats:

girlie pics
cumwhore
eye candy theory
hooters outfit
miss hooters canada
[Canadian politician name deleted] nude photos
canada nude girl
pussy pitchers
little girlie pics
blog, nude, girls, canadian
canada porn
oogle jugs
oogle
girls pic canada
lingerie pictures before edits
canadian xxx
eye candy lingerie
shell oil girls [oh, come on!]

You get the search results and find a link to a site called "Oogle Blogs," plus a bunch of other links containing one or the other of the search terms you entered. So, excitedly you click on the link, and it takes you directly to heartofcanada.ca, where you find a number of blogposts discussing what's wrong with oogling. Of course, that's not what you were expecting, but you got the lesson anyway. By the way, you'd be surprised how many people search just for the word "oogle." Strange.

Just in case you found this post, too, by entering one of the above terms, or something equally disgusting, I'll just remind you that oogling is still a night-voyeurish, nasty habit, and you should quit. Based on some of the terms I've listed (and some that were too nasty or bad to list), not only is the habit nasty, but some of it is downright illegal.

The same thing happened, by the way, when I posted about why you shouldn't watch the Nicholas Berg videos. People are still looking for that video, and daily they come to my blog, only to find a post on why they shouldn't watch it.

Gee, I love Google.

Nah, Not Me. Snarky?

One of my daily reads, Dr. Monger, kindly posted a what-kind-of-blogger-are-you quiz today. Turns out he's a snarky blogger. Plus, he linked back to me (he's so thoughtful)...something about anime thighs in the quiz image. I guess he likes anime.

Anyway, I took the quiz. Turns out, I'm a snarky blogger, too!  Must be all those years we both had in higher education ; )

You Are a Snarky Blogger!

You've got a razor sharp wit that bloggers are secretly scared of. And that's why they read your posts as often as they can!

What kind of blogger are you?

Mark But This Flea

Bloggers, mostly Red Ensign bloggers, are struggling with my commentary about the Flea. Trudeaupia, whom I don't typically read, replied with what looked like a fine form of defensiveness, himself posting a girlie pic in very nya-nya style. He thinks I'm an anal academic feminist *snicker* but probably should read my blog more before he says things like that. He was offended by the woman breastfeeding her puppy. That's funny, well, to me, anyway.

The Monger, whom I read daily, likes the Flea and doesn't think posting pictures of pretty women is a form of sexual objectification. Neither do I, necessarily; however, talking about them as they are talked about on the Flea's blog takes the issue far beyond just posting pretty pics, or "pitchers," as some like to say. I don't ever remember People Magazine writing something like "Check out the jugs on Jennifer!!!" or "Can I get syrup on that?" Even they have more sense.

Damian, whom I read daily, apparently made one of the jugs comments in the first place, so, obviously he likes free ice-cream, Flea-style. He didn't like my fine writing on this issue. Oh, by the way, although it is quite true, as Damian and some of his commenters have been saying on his blog, that the Flea referred to his entire blog as "free ice cream" (as any blog is, actually) it is equally true that the "free ice cream" title was above a revealing picture of a woman (as one of Damian's commenters pointed out) and also true that the Flea later talked about this woman "a la mode" in his comments. So, technically, she was dessert, not ice cream. Pie, perhaps, or another dish of some sort. Of course, the Flea has commented on Damian's post, but not here on any of mine. Maybe he thinks I'll delete him.

The Flea also wrote in Damian's comments that I object to the Flea deleting comments he doesn't like on a blog for which he pays. Um, Flea, we all pay for our own blogs. Some pay by cash and effort, and some just by effort, so you're not really unique in that regard. As for telling you to censor your post, I didn't do that. I said I didn't want to read them any more, and that is, entirely, my own prerogative. Perhaps you feel that fewer people would read your blog if you didn't publish the girlie pics. Maybe you are correct, or maybe more would read it if you didn't. I don't know, but I do know, as does everyone else, that it's your blog, and you can do what you like -- you can stop reminding us of that now. By the way, was it my blog you were thinking of when you wrote about "boring Canadian-content blogs for voices-of-the-silenced that nobody reads"? My readers aren't nobodies. *smile*

I can appreciate that it is difficult to see something that you enjoy critiqued. I, too, enjoy the Flea, but not entirely, and the girlie posts were wearing me down. I've had enough of that now, and I'm likely not the only one. However, many of Flea's readers really like the girlie posts and certainly get upset if you call the posts out for what they are. Let me remind you that, for some of your worthy readers, words like jugs, hooters, pitchers, and all the rest of what is freely available ice cream on Flea's blog demeans and degrades moreso than even the pictures, themselves, might or might not. In other words, the pictures aren't nearly so degrading as the talk about them. Of course, I don't surf "cumcam" sites, like the Flea apparently does, judging by one of yesterday's posts, so perhaps he's just a little more desensitized to these issues than I am. Then, again, he probably doesn't work with the kind of people I work with either.

About the Flea's profession, I don't know how he conducts himself in class; however, his online theories certainly don't seem to match his blog-talk. Given his profession, I would and do expect him to be more sensitized to the effect of women's sexual objectification. You guys out there who don't like the fact that some women are and do feel objectified can keep calling us unhinged or anal retentive or hyper politically correct or whatever else helps you to feel justified in your titillation, but you might also remember that you're degrading us in the process. Instead of respecting other bloggers, you're scoffing at the impact of your words on us in the blogosphere. I'm going to ask you whether you've ever felt objectified.  Ask your mothers, sisters, wives, or daughters if they have, or do you even care?

Like I said in earlier comments on my own blog, lots of titty-blogs and blog-porn exist on the net. I don't read them, although, at one point, I read Ali Davis's journal, called True Porn Clerk Stories, about her experiences working in a video store that also rented porn. Her experiences were pretty fascinating. Here's a small excerpt:

The only thing we can do is use the hand sanitizer. I use it so much that I lose all finger traction and can't open our plastic bags. I've had days when I've used it so much that I can't even make fingerprints on the glass countertop. It freaks me out, but the thought of not using it is worse.

Sometimes people get animalistic about the tapes. For the real addicts (I'm convinced that porn is like alcohol: some people can stop at just one every now and then, some people just binge on weekends, and some people get genuinely, horribly addicted) the reptilian brain kicks in. They hit the magic portion of the tape and they're done. They pop out the tape and slam in another one, and the next day the stack comes back, unrewound and covered in goo.

Repeat offenders get a note on their file that says "LUBE WARNING". Management policy is that for $6.50 an hour, clerks should not have to deal with the bodily fluids of others. The first time we discreetly but firmly remind the customer that the tapes need to come back clean. The second time we hand him the tape, the Windex, and the paper towels and tell him to clean off the tape in full view of whoever else is at the counter.

Anyway, I'm not protesting porn on the net or discussion about porn on the net, and I'm not calling for regulations or whatever other hysteria the Flea or others might be waxing on about. I'm just saying that, given the otherwise high quality of his blog, and given his profession, I don't like the girlie posts and comments, which sexually objectify women.  By any stretch of the imagination, I'm more than entitled to that opinion, and I probably stand in some pretty fine company.

Here's the thing. A certain kind of Flea reader likes the girlie posts. I'm not one of those readers. The Flea doesn't want to hear from me (or dialogue with me), and he seems to love "atta boy" comments. It's too bad, really, because most of the Red Ensign isn't really like that, which is why I wondered about their thoughts regarding the posts, in the first place. Of course, now I see at least some of them. Anyway, don't mind me. Go ahead. Enjoy your tits and ass. Just keep your keyboard clean. By the way, here's a site about a flea who's getting more than its share, extramaritally. Careful, though, there's a nudie picture on it.

Entomological Communications: Theory and Praxis

"...many of our prejudices are irrational and founded on assumptions that may never be consciously thought through"
- Nicholas Packwood

Is it true that Nick of the Flea is the same Nick who teaches Communications at Wilfrid Laurier University? Here I thought the Flea simply was unaware of the impact that posting girlie pics on his blog could have on readers, sexual objectification of women, and popular culture, in general. Au contraire, he would appear to know quite a bit, I surmise, about that kind of communication:

Nicholas Packwood teaches in cultural studies and anthropology at Wilfrid Laurier University and courses in pre-Columbian archaeology at the University of Toronto. His dissertation, "Communicating objects: mapping inter-organizational relationships through the flow of material assemblages" is based on four years of field research in the United Kingdom with firms in civil engineering, construction, auto manufacturing and defense industries. Nicholas edited a commemorative issue of Space and Culture (Sage: London) on the life and work of Pierre Bourdieu as part of his ongoing interest in social space, power and virtuality. He publishes his blog "Ghost of a flea" as a daily meditation on pop culture, current events and the life and thought of Kylie Minogue.
From Into the Blogosphere.

Oops, I think they meant the body and lingerie of Kylie Minogue. Want a cultural studies piece about Kylie Minogue? Read Melissa Campbell, from whom you'll receive schooling, not drooling.

The Flea's apparently into the study of social space, power, and virtuality, as well as the study of communicating objects. Too bad he treats women like sexual objects in his social space. Wonder what he'd theorize about my g-string flea as a "communicating object"? I bet he'd kick me out of his class.

Then, again, maybe the Packwood at Laurier isn't the Flea. I'd be happier if't'were so, although they both seem to overfocus on pussies of various types. How very Freudian and creepy. Note how the long Soviet bayonnet penetrates the large, furry, er, kitten. Packwood goes on at length about Freud, but I wonder if he's ever thought about his own images.

While the Flea blogs on about human rights, dignity, and the shame of racism, his brand of Red Ensign victory doesn't seem to include respect for the rights and dignity of women. To him, it seems, women are eye-candy, and many Flea readers willingly buy into the merchandise.

Yes, the Flea has his supporters. If you read comments on his blog (the ones he doesn't delete), even women thank him for his "free ice cream," including pics of ladies in lingerie. Instead of being the circus master, I think Professor Low-Brow would be a better fit. It's "eclectic cultural cuisinart," indeed: high on queasy; low on art. In 500 years, when people are escavating the ruins of the blogosphere, what will they take from the Flea's droppings?

Here's what I see:  he deletes my very innocuous comment about whether he prefers the tomato sandwich or the girl in the ad (as well as other mildly critical commentary from at least one other reader who contacted me) but doesn't delete comments like this:

This is crap.  Why isn't that girl nude!

I, for one, am grateful for your work, Nicholas. (And grateful for the nice eye candy every few days. Like today. Gracias.)

She's hot, but not that hot. But I like sinewy.

For those not following: 'pitchers' (as in 'jugs') instead of 'pictures'.

Ok. So that's an order of Jessica Alba in a chocolate tipped waffle cone, some butter brickle and Scarlett Johansson a la mode. No wait, that last one was not a la mode.

Of course, don't forget those stunning pics on his blog of Avril Lavigne, reportedly intoxicated at the time, in a Hooters outfit. Very professorial -- he just had to post that. Then, again, he makes his opinion clear:  "This is not a forum and I am not interested in debating my views."  Yes, sounds like much of academia to me, especially with regard to women.

I hope he doesn't teach like that. What does this say about the Red Ensign? Surely they must condone this fleabag stuff.

I've had enough. I can't keep overlooking or shrugging off the girlie posts. I just can't read the Flea.

The quality isn't there.
The magic's gone.
We don't go to the circus any more.

Update here.

Flea Ice Cream

Inspired by the circus master.

Postscript here.

Flea-Bitten

OMFG. Can you believe this? I mean, can you really believe this from the "great" Ghost of a Flea, from the editor of the Winston Review, from the editor that listed one of my posts in his inaugural edition???

After banning heartofcanada.ca from his commenting function and then totally, in my opinion, overreacting to my comment by posting TWO pics of lovely ladies today (and calling one "free ice cream"), this is what the FLEA writes (sorry that it's a sentence fragment -- his prose, not mine):

You know, when you have 50,000 people visit your blog in a month some of whom were presumably entertained in some way, attract precisely zero dollars in donations (just as the month before) and then yet another ingrate decides s/he has the right to direct your editorial policy while using your comment feature to advertise their blog.

First of all, leaving a comment (an incredibly innocuous, even irrelevant, comment) is hardly directing someone's editorial policy. Talk about touchy. Second, yes, Flea, you get 50,000 people in a month on your blog (since 2002), as opposed to my 50,000 in the last few months (since 2004). However, when you have a URL feature in your comments sign-in, other bloggers use it, or are you so out of touch with blogger etiquette not to realize that, oh self-important one?

What are you afraid of, competition for some of your 50,000 (as if that's how blogs even worked) or a wee bit of criticism about your lame-o photos, criticism which might then be read by your hovering, yet apparently ungrateful, masses?

Grow the f**k up. Oh, and yes, Flea, we all know it's your blog and you can cry ban if you want to.

Advertising their blog on his comments. What a maroon. I'm not even going to bother dignifying his prose with a link back.

Oogle Blogs

I like reading Ghost of a Flea, well most of the time. The thing is that he frequently posts pictures of alluring women and then comments on them. I find these posts to be boring, which usually causes me to post a *yawn* in response. It's not just because the posts are about women, either. Doublecool used to post attractive men, and I used to find those posts boring, too. I'm glad he stopped doing that.

My disdain at seeing oiled flesh on people's blogs makes me realize that, for me, blogs are intellectually stimulating, funny, even juvenile, at times. However, I don't go to people's blogs to become stimulated in other ways. For me, there's nothing worse, really, than going to some great blog and then seeing an oogle-post -- oooh, look at this babe's hot bod or check out this sultry guy. Sorry, I find it uninteresting, even irritating, especially when the people are sexually objectified.

So, yesterday, I was reading Ghost of a Flea and came across a post about the some new McDonald's tomato sandwich. I clicked the flea-links and watch the commercials -- one of which was yet another look-at-me-I'm-so-sultry type of ad for the sandwich. Now, first of all, I couldn't really tell what was so great about this sandwich. It looked, to me, like every other burger ever sold. Okay, maybe the tomato slice was a little thicker than usual; otherwise, it was just a burger. I started thinking, what was the big deal about this sandwich?

Then, reflecting on the high number of girlie posts Ghost tends to put up there (there's another lingerie-ish photo up there today), I got to thinking maybe it wasn't the burger so much as the girl, whose picture he featured on his post. In my impish way, I commented about whether it was the sandwich he wanted or the girl. He must have gotten ticked, because he deleted my comment and banned heartofcanada.ca.

Heh.

He can dish out about the "dishes," but he just can't take it. Maybe he only wants male readers or maybe only readers who just love looking at leggy women and discussing whether all their parts are real. Maybe he's more interested in real parts of women than real women. Oh well, in the words of the inimitable Happy Bunny, Ghost of a Flea,

Update: Read about how the Flea bites back here.

We Interrupt Regular Blogging For This Important Activity

Mired in chapter editing for my book...detail after detail...chapter after chapter....

Back to regular blogging soon.

Busy, Busy

Home Star Runner

This week, I have a lot to do, plus I'm feeling pretty under the weather. My employment lawsuit's heating up big time, and I have a lot to prepare. Details, details. Plus, my book is in final edits before print, and I'm reviewing chapters. What this all adds up to is that I have to take a few days off blogging.

Have a great week! For fun, check out Home Star Runner.

Days Off

Takin' a few days off to maximize the last bits of my vacation. Back next week. In the mean time...do whatever you want.