Five Blogs That Make Me Think

So I was having a perfectly nice Saturday evening contemplating a world without The Simple Life and the way that the PTC will spin things to make it look as though decent honest basic cable subscribers are still subsidizing this horrible show when I decided to check my comments and discovered that I have been tagged by Captain Incredible with another meme (apparently, my dear Captain, it's pronounce "meem" – I had always been pronouncing it (in my head) as "mem-ay", as though there was an accent aigu over the final "e" that had been dropped by the foolish Americans, but that's the influence of living in a bilingual country). This one though comes with a cute logo type thingie and the word "Award". And you know, I a sucker for awards – probably has to do with me not winning any as a kid.

Okay, so the rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.
   
2. Link to this post so that people can find the exact origin of the meme.
   
3. Optional: Proudly display the Thinking Blogger Award on your site with a link to the post that you wrote.

Well, I've done #2, so that leaves me with #1 and a minor conundrum. There are a number of blogs that make me think but with several of them I'm likely to get absolutely no response. I mean let's face it, if I tag Lydia Cornell or, Mark Evanier, or Alan Sepinwall at best I'm going to get a "huh, what?" and almost certainly I'll be ignored. And let's face it, what's the point of doing something like this and taking it seriously if you don't want to see what works for other people. Fortunately there are blogs that make me think that I know – or sincerely have a hope – of getting a response from.

1. Ivan at Thrilling Days Of Yesterday. His recent departure from the employ of the La Quinta hotel chain has sadly deprived us of some of his great stories about working as a night auditor, and dealings with such people as Slappy the "Security" Guard, but even without that, his long form ramblings on nostalgia are a joy. His reviews of old radio shows, movies and TV series that fly under the radar of the people at TVShowsonDVD.com make me want to buy them, though I never will. His recent post on a listing of the top 100 films (in which he participated) has some great commentary on such lists. Here's just one of Ivan's six points (and I agree totally): "Unless you can absolutely, positively convince me that Steven Spielberg is as underappreciated today as was Alfred Hitchcock at the peak of his powers, stop putting films like Jaws, E.T. and Raiders of the Lost Ark on these lists. You're embarrassing everyone.
   
2. if charlie parker was a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats. Tom Sutpen was so upset with me the last time I did a meme and said that I wasn't going to bother tagging him because I knew he wouldn't reply that I figured I'd better include him on this one. And besides, the blog, which tom does with Stephen Cooke and Richard Gibson does make me think. The use of large form images with usually sparse text (usually no more than a title and a brief caption) has a significant impact.
   
3. Bill Crider of Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine. Bill has an incredibly eclectic mind and this blog shows it off. Whether it's his fascination with alligators and crocodiles, books, "she who must not be blogged about" (Paris Hilton), Big Foot, books (the ones he has written and the ones he has read), and basically whatever the hell interests him, Bill's aggregation of assorted news stories is a joy. Where else would you find a link to a story with the headline "Killer hippo poo is enemy number one"?
   
4. Sam Johnson of Yours Truly Sam-A-Rama. Sadly, lack of filthy lucre means that Sam doesn't post as often as he used to but when he does it's good. It may be a memory of Tom Snyder working in Savannah, or highlights from ComicCon – despite the fact that he didn't attend (too bad about the Iron Man preview clip) – or a rather heart-felt obituary for Tammy-Fay ("Throughout her entire life, from The PTL Club to the scandals to becoming a sort of cult hero, Tammy Faye faced it, mascara and all. When it came down to over a ten year battle with cancer, she kept on living with the grace she was given.") Sam almost always produces good stuff.
   
5. Ronniecat and her blog Hearing/loss. I've known her from rec.arts.comics.strips, since before we both discovered blogs. What was originally a blog dealing with her adult loss of hearing and the cochlear implant that has restored it, it has mutated into her personal blog with posts about her work with recent immigrants to Canada as an employee of an NGO, her cats, her family, her politics and plenty of other subjects. Currently Ronniecat is experiencing a bit of a computer problem but she'll work it out. Still, I sort of hate to do this too her.