First, thanks to my friend Stephanie Barbé Hammer for nominating The Saturday Evening Post for a Versatile Blogger Award last week.
I checked this award out on the VBA site, and apparently if you are nominated, you are a winner. Sounded a little like a Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, but I read on. As it turns out, there is no actual award (ah, so it really is like Publishers Clearinghouse), just recognition from one of your blogosphere peers.
In turn, I am now tasked to nominate 10 additional bloggers, whose sites I follow and respect. What we have here is basically an online chain letter, but one in which the result is not cash, but respect. Well in that case, the envelope please…
In no particular order, of course:
- Kelly Davio (smartest person I know, and also my boss at LAR)
- August McLaughlin’s Blog, (former star of stage and screen, now savoring the writing storm)
- The House of Sternberg, Stewart Sternberg (and you think I’m a curmudgeon)
- Averil Dean, (she of poetry, porn and petulance and “I just nailed a book deal” fame)
- The Circular Runner, Gabriel Cabrera (an existential journey)
- The Girl in the Hat, Anna Fonté (a hat, by the way, made of live crows)
- Abominations, Marc Shuster (now with 35% more ephemera!)
- The Wuc, real name unknown (a chick living in Australia, working for the man, who could write the rest of us under the table)
- Lori A. May (hardest working poet in the business)
- Thumbing Through, Ann Beman (because thumbs are damn funny)
Now the fun part: I am also asked to list seven things about me for the world to learn/judge/ridicule.
- I have been nominated as Poet Laureate for the Isle of Tonga, even though I don’t write poetry.
- I can throw a ball higher, straight up, than anyone I know.
- I can say the word “gluten” in nine different languages.
- Only one in a hundred thousand people can do a one-arm pull-up. I happen not to be one of them.
- While working my way through college, I held several of the following jobs: short order cook, rodeo clown, taxi driver, food taster, door-to-door shoe salesman, door-to-door door salesman (man was that samples case heavy), tattoo artist, butler, president of a major corporation.
- I drink wine through a straw.
- I once peed in a urinal next to Ralph Nader when he was running for president. (This one’s actually true. It was at the LA Times Bookfair.)
Only seven? I kind of wanted to do a few more.
Joe, I must admit to being impressed by your accomplishment of peeing in a urinal next to a running Ralph Nader. This particular feat of derring-do would be considered by most as definitely unsafe at any speed!
Posted by socalsoxman | July 21, 2012, 1:53 PMI did think it strange he was wearing a seat belt at the time.
Posted by jpon | July 21, 2012, 3:15 PMJoe, congratulations!
Posted by fpdorchak | July 21, 2012, 3:06 PMThanks. And thanks for your tip.
Posted by jpon | July 21, 2012, 3:14 PM:-]
Posted by fpdorchak | July 21, 2012, 3:17 PMThanks, Joe.
I can throw a ball roughly nine feet in a tailwind. My respect for you has shot up (see what I did there?) immensely.
Posted by Averil Dean | July 21, 2012, 4:33 PMDon’t get me started. I might have to list my bowling exploits.
Posted by jpon | July 21, 2012, 6:38 PMYou had me at rodeo clown….
Wonderful list. I wanted to nominate Kelly and Ann, but didn’t want my list to get too long — so I’m glad they’re winners! a crow hat???? awesome….
And finally, congrats on your blog which consistently delivers interesting information and inaugurates thoughtful discussion.
Posted by Stephanie Barbé HammerS | July 21, 2012, 5:50 PMThanks Stephanie. I’m glad someone got a laugh out of this.
Posted by jpon | July 21, 2012, 6:33 PMCongratulations to you– well-deserved, as I check in here weekly, reflexively, to tune in to the always interesting discussion, although the idea of drinking wine through a straw leaves me flabbergasted. Whaaaa?! (Thank you for the kind nod here.)
Posted by girl in the hat | July 21, 2012, 7:52 PMAll in jest, except for that last one. I would never drink wine through a straw. From a paper cup maybe…
Posted by jpon | July 21, 2012, 9:04 PMI’m glad you got the awards- you deserve them!
I keep ducking them like the plague ever since someone sent me a “meme.” I still don’t know what that is.
Posted by Rick | July 21, 2012, 10:58 PMThanks Rick. A sound strategy, if you ask me.
Posted by jpon | July 22, 2012, 4:55 PMBy all means, do more!!
Posted by miriamagosto | July 22, 2012, 2:24 AMThanks Miri. Maybe I should put these on my resume. What I’ve got on there now isn’t working.
Posted by jpon | July 22, 2012, 4:56 PMCongratulations. Well earned. I was especially impressed by your stint ( short-lived, I presume) as a rodeo clown.
Posted by Nadia Ibrashi | July 22, 2012, 5:15 AMYeah. One too many gorings.
Posted by jpon | July 22, 2012, 4:53 PMWow, thank you so much for the shout-out, Joe! Now I feel pressure to be smart… :)
Posted by kelly davio | July 22, 2012, 4:28 PMNo pressure. You got that covered. Just don’t slip up. :-)
Posted by jpon | July 22, 2012, 4:52 PMHa! I agree with JP, KD. you got that one covered, indeed.
Posted by Stephanie Barbé Hammer | July 22, 2012, 9:41 PMThanks for the mention! I’m definitely in good company!
Posted by Marc Schuster | July 24, 2012, 7:46 PMWHAT the WHAT? Joe, you are too cool. I will say this because I don’t think I’ve said this yet even though I think every time I read your blog: when I saw that you you included me in your blogroll, I was honored. And now, reading this post, I’m doubly so. Like he great Marc Schuster wrote above, I’m in good company. Thanks for including me.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s post.
Posted by the circular runner | July 28, 2012, 5:32 AMYou’re very welcome. And yes, Schuster deserves to be called “the great.”
Posted by jpon | July 28, 2012, 12:46 PM