The Star Ledger has discovered Bloomfield's A-list Mommy blogger Finslippy, aka Alice Bradley, whose chronicles of Henry, a world-weary kindergartener, draw as many as 15,000 readers daily to her site. That's a hilarious post on kindergarten insouciance, by the way, despite Bradley's backpedaling the next day: "I think I made my son sound more obnoxious than I meant to, in yesterday's post."
Poor Looky Daddy, though. Gets a call from the Star Ledger, only to discover he's only being called to comment on Finslippy's blog.
Comments (34)
We love Looky Daddy!!! You rock Brian!
ok. 2 hours and 50 minutes. get that????thats what kindergarten is in bloomfield nj. 2 hours and 50 minutes. we call it 1/3 day kindergarten in our house...
didn't know she was an a-list mom-just some cool woman who decided to move to bloomfield. good for her writing a blog and, well, writing at all!
After much number crunching and advanced spaghetti-theory cosmic modeling on my compact Cray CX-1 Supercomputer, I have determined that on May 9, 2010, at approximately 0741 GMT, every man, woman, and child in the USA will have (or have had) their own blog. This is roughly the same algorithm I used to predict when the number of reality shows airing on television in the US would outnumber accredited schools and universities, a prediction that came to pass some four months earlier than the model showed.
Don't cry for Looky Daddy; his day is coming. Meanwhile, he gets to live around the corner from me, and bask in my greatness.
Still just an egocentric mommy blog. Blechhh.
or a mommy-centric ego-blog.
or a ego-mommy centric-blog.
Maybe there's an audience for her but I echo..Blechhh...make that a double: Blechhh.Blechhh.
play nice.
no one is holding a toy dump truck over your head, making you read her blog...
That the Star-Ledger has "discoverd" anybody or anything in these, its own probably dying days, isn't all that much of a reommendation. now is it?
Just last week, the Ledger also introduced a stand-alone magazine, very similar to NJM in both content and design, called "Inside New Jersey." An odd decision at this point in the Ledger's fortunes, and I doubt very much we'll ever see a second issue. Certainly never a third.
Play Nice..on Baristanet??????? LOL
Ah, Baristanet commentors: Spreading happiness wherever they go.
Seriously, do you people wake up and think, hmm, the world seems to be too nice these days, what can I do to change that? I know, I can be a pisshead on Baristanet! There's bound to be something over there that I can denigrate.
Seriously, scruffycat, do you wake up these days thinking, hey, what can I do to make Baristaville a nicer place today?
And if your solution is to go read a "mommy/daddy" blog of overweening, somewhat cloying archness, do you then feel successful re your quixotic intention?
cathar, have you ever watched a debate, presidential or otherwise, and watched a politician totally dodge a question by throwing it back at the questioner? And have you ever wanted to call that politician spineless for not giving a straight answer?
Yeah, that.
She really does come across rather egocentric. I get enough of that working in NYC, I don't need to read it in personal blogs.
"...hmm, the world seems to be too nice these days, what can I do to change that?"
There's yer fatal flaw!
"Overweening". Great word, and certainly an apt description for any personal blog.
The only overweening I want to see is Ween in concert.
Her kid should be modeling for J. Crew.
Here's a worse mommy blog (from Gawker). It will make you ill.
http://www.babble.com/Unschooling-Why-my-kid-wont-attend-school-this-fall-or-maybe-ever/index.aspx.
(sorry, don't know how to post a link)
Todays cartoon says it all.
Agreed, Pokey. I can't believe the things people write about on their blogs. Seriously, who wants to read about pooping (or other bodily functions)? Yours, your dog's or your kid's? When did we become so scatological as a nation?
It's one thing to write in a private diary or journal but if it's on the web for the whole world to see, I don't get it.
3 Cheers for Finslippy and Looky Daddy!!!
Personally I love blogs, I love reading minute bits of information on every and anything and every morning while having my wake up coffee I have to religiously check my 8-10 regular blogs or my day does not start on the right track.
I feel sorry for people who aren't out there reading blogs like Anne and me!
It's a whole other world and a lot of fun to interact with people not only from all over the country but even from other countries. I read blogs from England, from Portugal (yes, in English, the writer is an English ex-pat), from Australia and Canada. It gives you perspective on how other people think about things and opens your mind.
I don't find it egocentric in the least. And I love Finslippy and Looky Daddy too!
Both Finslippy and Looky Daddy are super writers who deserve their large followings.
Somehow, Debbie, I don't think that self-conscious blogs like FinSlippy and LookyDaddy are the modern equivalents to great epistolary novels like "Clarissa," "The Screwtape Letters," "The Moonstone" and even "Dracula."
They are sometimes funny, sometimes not, capable of giving some warm, fuzzy feelings, capable of making others "fwow up." But comparatively, they
are also usually mere throat-clearings.
Cathar, no one is comparing modern-day blogs to classical literature (as if anyone in the younger generation would read those books nowadays without having to take an exam about them in school). I think blogs are more akin to columns in the newspaper (e.g., op-ed pieces or the Star Ledger columns like Kathleen O'Brien). You are comparing apples and oranges. Good writing comes in all formats.
This item falls under the Promote My Blog and I'll Promote Yours Dept.
I guess it is a generational difference --- people of my generation were (and are) usually somewhat embarrassed by gaps in their education. They'll admit that they never read a particular author or heard a particular piece of music, but they see that as a negative. Sometimes they'll make it a point to fill in those gaps even at this later stage of their lives.
But mauigirl seems to feel (and she is not alone) that these old, dusty books and poems and the like are not to be bothered with, and she encourages younger folks who have not read these works to wear their ignorance as a badge of honor. What could these old bastards possibly have to teach us, she seems to proclaim.
I think it sad, really.
Does anyone remember the late Erma Bombeck? Now there was a good writer. She was a syndicated columnist who wrote daily housewife humor but she also had a couple of books published; one was called "The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank." LOL!
I find a lot of today's mommy and daddy bloggers (Looky Daddy not included!) often run out of material and so they look for gross things (poop, vomit, etc.) to write about to shock their readers. Me personally, I have no desire to read about such things. But an awful lot of Americans apparently do.
I like reading about poop but not vomit.
Erma Bombeck was great..very funny without being egocentric or self-serving. She found the humor in the drudgery of your day to day lives.
"...very funny without being egocentric or self-serving."
Yes, and this is key. One could identify with her unlike some of the high and mighty mommy bloggers out there today.
Please, I must defend my honor here - I wasn't implying that the "old dusty books" are not worth reading. I love books and have always been an avid reader (including reading classical literature such as the ones cited, for FUN, when I was in my early teens). I just meant nowadays most young people (I'm 55, wasn't including myself here!) don't seem to have that interest anymore. I think it's a shame, believe me.
But I did mean it when I said good writing can come in other forms. Erma Bombeck is a good example of that, and so are the well-written blogs that are out there, which includes Finslippy and Looky Daddy, IMHO.