Just me or is the Atlantic Monthly on fire lately? (Or rather, the Atlantic Monthly online, I should say, since I can't recall the last time I actually picked up a carbon-based version of the Atlantic. I'm getting images of me standing in Cody's on Telegraph, if that's any indication of how long ago it was.) Andrew Sullivan was my go-to guy, my daily bear, during the election and I've officially added him to my Morning Coffee, along with xkcd and Talking Points Memo.
Here's the thing about blogs I like: they reinforce other blogs I like. It's like having a conversation with my friend T in which we will suddenly find ourselves telling each other about the same thing that we read about in the same place. Up until that moment, it's the most genius conversation ever, like we've re-invented cafe society and have come up with the biggest and best ideas while sitting around having beers at Toronado. Think: cold fusion, re-conjured over Death & Taxes stout. All good.
Online, it's sort of the same but more passive and absent the beer (usually), and while Sullivan may read Boing Boing, and Xeni and Cory at Boing Boing may read Kottke, it isn't until I find myself jumping around all three sites, and finding they've all linked to each other that I think: I have read the entire internet. It's depressing, like swimming in the ocean and seeing the same goddamn clown fish every where you go.
Of course, the flip side is that sometimes the referenced link is just too awesome, like this - which I have unfortunately already internalized and will think about, no matter where I stay.
To the B&B in my future, I apologize in advance.
