"Blargument." You heard it here first!

I humbly submit a new word and send it forth into the blogosphere: "blargument." Definition? An argument on a blog, especially of the substantive type rather than mere name-calling. Does an argument sparked by trolling qualify? Yes.

Update: as Emily Litella would say, "Never mind."

back in business

My post-election hiatus was fun, but if I don't get back on this horse soon, I probably never will. So, here goes--

I've spent the last ten days doing some editing (for pay, supposedly), and I'm exhausted with the whole idea of writing, and particularly with the idea of checking my work. But it occurs to me that, since virtually no one except perhaps a few close relatives and friends reads this thing, I really can dispense with the editing and the checking. Editing is the sort of thing that tends to get out of control anyway--I have no idea how anyone does it full-time without going stark raving mad. It reminds me of a day I once spent as a teenager weeding dandelions (stay with me here) for about eight hours. Weeding, weeding, weeding. When I went to bed that night and closed my eyes, all I could see were dandelions, and my hands, and the tool, and pulling them out of the ground, one by one, over and over and over. Like counting sheep, except that it wasn't the least bit restful (but then again, I never felt that counting sheep was soporific, either (see, I'm not even going to look that word up to see whether I've actually used it properly). And editing is like weeding dandelions--if you do too much of it, it can kind of take over.

At any rate, I think I'm finally beginning to decompress from Nov. 2, now that it's been over a month. I went to a party last weekend and I realized afterwards I was not on edge the entire time waiting for someone to make the obligatory "Bush is an idiot, of course, and anyone who votes for him is likewise" comment. Such a relief!!