Some Recommendations

I've revamped the blogroll some, adding a few, deleting a couple. The additions aren't necessarily new blogs, just ones that for whatever I hadn't really spent much time reading. The unifying theme between them all is that they generally have some insightful, unexpected things to say about their links. Most bloggers are linkers, and some bloggers say interesting things in an interesting way; however, precious few do both. In order that you don't make my same mistake and miss out on the fun, I thought I'd formally introduce you to the the newbies here at Silentio.

• The D-Squared Digest doesn't need my recommendation to feel affirmed and loved in the blogsophere. I've been a regular reading for months (only realizing today that he wasn't linked), and hell, from the looks of his Comments, most of the lefty bloggers of note also already frequent Daniel's site. However, it is so well-written, and often so deliciously funny, that I can't help but recommend that you join the masses, too.
  

• It's pure oversight that, prior to today, I had never checked out Patrick Nielsen Hayden's site, Electrolite. Less specific commentary than what I generally like in my blogs of choice, but his links alone are more than enough reason that you should make his site a regular haunting ground.
  

• I really like Kieran Healy's blog. Unless you don't believe anything you read online, which would probably go pretty far in making you a well-rounded, intelligent person, Kieran is a Sociology professor at the University of Arizona. So yes, he has smart-person credentials -- well, he has a doctorate anyway, for whatever that's worth -- and, far more importantly if you're the suspicious sort I just mentioned, he supplements this with a wonderful wit that cannot be faked. I've only been visiting his site regularly for the past few weeks, but this post completed my conversion.
  

• This next one is a very recent discovery, but it's also the one I'm the most excited about. It doesn't look like he blogs daily (which is good for those of you who don't read blogs daily either), but Timothy Burke's Easily Distracted is fabulous. He's also a professor (at Swathmore College), teaching Popular Culture and African Studies, and his posts reflect a down-to-earth thinker with thoughts worth reading. He doesn't have Permalinks yet, but check out his February 12 post ("In Which The Enchantments of Blogistan Fade and I Am Left a Pumpkin"), for a great introduction to the exasperating emergence of the blogging world's self-referentiality, and thus its bloviating sense of self-importance. (His take is not nearly as cynical as my summary of it.)
  

• Lastly, I'm going to repeat a recommendation I've made once or twice before. Scott Marten's site, Pedantry, is consistently filled with innovative posts. By that I mean he isn't just rehashing news stories or making fun of people, which, of course, we at Silentio take a certain pride in doing. Often, I have absolutely no interest at all in the topic that Scott begins with; but just as often, I surf away from his site thinking, "Wow, I wish I wrote that." (One might wonder at this point, if you're a regular reader here at all, if that's much of a compliment.) As of a couple of days ago, Scott started getting noticed, so if you're worried about maintaining the hip status that all you Silentio readers so obviously enjoy, you'd better hurry and jump on the bandwagon before it looks like you're there just because everybody else is. Be cool . . . go there now -- you know you want to.

So, there you are, some not-necessarily-new-blogs for you, the not-necessarily-regular-blog readers. For those of you who are regular blog readers, a thousand and two pardons for the probable redundancy. Incidentally, if any of you should come across a good-looking blog, which I'll loosely define as anything (with the exception of newspapers / magazines, online or otherwise) that looks like it's updated at least once a week, let me know. It doesn't need to be purely political or anything like that -- not all in my blogroll are, by the way, should you assume so. I will just trust that anybody who takes the time to email me probably by now has a pretty good take on my internet interests, at least until I'm proven overwhelmingly wrong. Don't let me down, muchachos.