A "Featured TypePad Blog" R us

Thanks to our sis for suggesting the message we inscribed on the vellum tipped inside our Christmas cards: "Comfort ye, comfort ye my people" from Isaiah 40:1 (King James Version).

"We chose your blog because of its unique subject matter, thoughtful posts, and engaging design -- everything we look for in a Featured TypePad Blog," emails Six Apart PR Manager JoAnn Peach, informing us that sisu "has been selected to be featured on TypePad’s homepage one day in January." They probably say that to all the bloggers they feature, but even so, it's nice to be noticed:

All you need to do is reply to this email with your permission to feature your blog. We’ll take care of the rest, including posting a write up of your blog with links to recent posts, photos from your blog, and perhaps a small bio. If you have an alternate photo or logo you’d like us to use with your write up, please send it to me and I’ll do my best to incorporate it!

"A suitable head-and-shoulders shot -- 'something with beautiful lighting like your signature tabletop photo/logo,' as Jill Stewart of Pajamas Media suggested the other day," we captioned this self-portrait used in our PJM Contributor Profile published late summer, 2005.

Perhaps a small bio? Two came to mind, our ghostwritten Pajamas Media Contributor Profile and The normblog profile 109 of two years back. Excerpts [British spelling and punctuation]:

Norm Geras: Why do you blog?

We: Putting the old media's feet to the fire and having a say in framing the national/international debate are right up there, together with 'the importance of being noticed' in the Rowbotham sense (see most influential non-fiction question below). Plus the opportunity to showcase my photography and other artwork . . .

NG: Who are your intellectual heroes?

We: Charles Darwin, Niccolo Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, The Founding Fathers, Friedrich Hayek . . .

NG: What is your favorite poem?

We: I love William Blake's "The Tyger." Dazzling imagery red in tooth and claw makes mincemeat of the peaceable kingdom paradigm.

NG: What is your favourite movie?

We: "Moonstruck" - Shakespearean grasp of the glory and despair of human striving. And the MUSIC is to die for . . .

NG: What philosophical thesis do you think it most important to combat?

We: Utopianism of every stripe. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

NG: Can you name a work of non-fiction which has had a major and lasting influence on how you think about the world?

We: Dr. Peter F. Rowbotham's 1992 essay - I stumbled upon it in Person, Place and Thing, an anthology of essays in cultural geography, while doing a grad school paper on neighbourhoods and networking - 'The Importance of Being Noticed'. It's an all-encompassing theory of the universal Darwinian quest for approval amongst one's peers, however defined. It makes sense of everything from Islamofascist death cults to teams of astronauts reaching for the stars, and I've had occasion to cite Rowbotham's thesis early and often on sisu.

Sounds like a keeper.

Comments

[pam]

Congratulations! :D

[Gayle Miller]

I don't think you realize just how influential your blog has been, Sissy!

[Teresa]

Yay! It's about time they noticed. *grin*

[GreenmanTim]

Well done!

[goomp]

A wonderful combination Birthday and Christmas award.

[poetryman69]

Consecrating a Holy vessel for my eternal consciousness.
A renewed body and a refreshed mind.

Be thankful. Blessings unto you and yours.

Of Angel hugs and of love and laughter

and of happily ever after.

Of kind words and healing balms.

Of buzzing bees in the tall, green grasses.