Welcome to OS Readers’ Picks
This week's RPs in the POST category go to:
Barbara Weicksel – Gay Parades Are about So Much More than Tight Shorts
Boanerges1 -- Last Call
Con Chapman – Bloggers Prepare for Worst – Stockpile Canned Goods
Crane-Station – The Jailhouse Bullying of Harry
Cranky Cuss – Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over (Repost)
Daisy Jane – I had a good day, & thank you for my lovely lovely comments
Damon Walters – California Dreamer Series: Song of Ann (Pt 1)
Dianne Schuch-Lindsey – The longest day of the year
Eva t made vaudeville – Coming Out Party in Church on Pride Sunday
Gerald Anderson – Who are You?
Greg Correll – Without Fear
J. P. Hart – Novella Excerpt
J. P. Major – Curiosity’s “Crazy Landing
Jaime Franchi – Thank you, Nora Ephron
James M. Emmerling – As Open Sinks…My Last Post
Joan H. -- Terra Firma Open Call Repost
Jonathan Wolfman – Beating the Hell Out of Johnny’s Bully, Then Mine
Judy Mandelbaum – UN Calls American Drone Policy War Crime
L in the Southeast – Sunday Mass in Neenah
Margaret Feike – Random Thoughts About Dads
Marilyn Sands – I Had a Dream Last Night…About Open Salon
Out on a Limb – Open Call “Re-Post” Give it a Try
Pandora S. Bach – Why Write? OS, Kurt Vonnegut, and the Field of Stars
Paul Fornale – More than an Incident on a Bus
Robert Fuller – Religion and Science, A Beautiful Friendship part 3
Roger Shuler – Are Millions in Oil Money Connected to Mysterious “Suicide”
RW005g – McJustice: Plea Bargains and the Breakdown of Justice
Sagemerlin – Let’s Take Over Open Salon
Scylla the Rock – The End of the Day
Toritto -- SCREAM
Zumalicious –Stay or Go, But Learn Some Classic Web Tricks First
This week's RPs in the COMMENT category go to:
Steven Bridenbaugh – for his comment on Linnnn’s Mr. Sadistic Public School Bus Driver
Tinkererthink69 – for his comment on Jacob Sugarman’s Hello Open Salon
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!
REMINDER: Please nominate your choices in the Comments section below. To assist our busy adminstrators, please remember to include the link to the post you are nominating.
Want to participate?
You are all used to Editor's Pick; this one is selected by your fellow bloggers.
For this blog to be useful, we have established criteria, both for recommending posts and for commenting on those recommendations.
To nominate posts:
- Choose posts based on quality of writing, interest of content, or particularly illuminating POV. We are more concerned about whether the blogger is good than whether the blogger is right.
- Explain/justify your choice
- Please avoid:
- Choosing a post based strictly on friendship
- Choosing a post just because you agree with its content
- Bringing a post to our attention for the sole purpose of condemning it. This isn’t Readers’ Pans.
- Choosing a post where most of what’s in the post does not consist of the blogger’s own work.
To comment on nominations:
- Please limit comments to reasons for supporting or opposing the recognition of a post. Comments about specific content belong in the Comments of the post itself.
- Particularly if you oppose recognition, please write about the post itself and write as little as possible about the blogger. Please avoid being insulting – rudeness can get a comment deleted following a PM warning.
To nominate a Comment on any post :
We have added nominations for Comments within a blog. Some OSers do some of their best work in Comments. Same criteria, same ground rules. When nominating, please give us a link to the post and how to find the comment - preferably the name of the commenter and the time and date the comment was made.
How this blog works:
Administrators will check on comments and at least one of us will check on recommended posts, then comment on them. If the rationale for inclusion is present in the initial comment, it is seconded by any OS reader, and the recommendation does not meet with an unusual amount of opposition, a link to the recommended post will be included in the next post on this blog. At this point, it is our plan to post once or twice a week.
We hope this blog proves useful in terms of providing recognition to those you think deserve it and introducing you to bloggers you may not be aware of whose work is admired by your peers. Thank you for visiting.
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Salon.com
Comments
http://open.salon.com/blog/starshine_roshell/2012/06/27/cool_or_not_cool
Neutron traces the word from African-American musicians dealing stoically with white insults to today's usage, which some say, by avoiding any expression of enthusiasm or passion, is a way of ignoring evil. A most enlightening comment.
i guess it was a false alar m , tho!
Regards,
Frank
http://open.salon.com/blog/jeff_howe/2012/06/26/a_bazillion_bugs_reading_the_encyclopedia_at_the_same_time#comment_2997528
...for Neutron's comment on Starshine Roshell's Cool or Not Cool? When I was a kid, the world "cool" was definitely used more in the way Neutron describes.
Lezlie
r.
Another great list!
I'm in such good company this week, too.
That's 1 off my Bucket List!
Yes, it feels good JUST to be nominated!
Thanks so much (you know who you are) & all the little people - that includes me...I'm 5'0. 5'8 in Heels!
Also, I would like to nominate John Blumenthal's post - Hanging Out with Nora in 1973. I feel like I get to hang out with them. How cool is he? And I mean that in a Starshine kinda way ;)
http://open.salon.com/blog/randomidiociesblogspontcom/2012/06/28/hanging_out_with_nora_in_1973
David McClain --
There Once Was a P
This wistful piece about a childhood haunt is a workshop on creating mood in writing.
Lezlie
And yay, Last Call is here too ...
Good work folks.
Jerry
http://open.salon.com/blog/harry_homeless/2012/06/28/glass_in_the_garden_chihuly_sculptures_photo_essay
absolutely stunning...
This is not a nomination. It's a suggestion of sorts.
A difficulty I've had with RP led me to write an Open Call, something I've never done before.
(In the past, when I've had difficulties with RP, I've arranged to fix them. I'm one of the two co-founders of RP. If my writing style looks familiar, look up. Including, oddly enough, the banner slogan, though not its layout. And I can't claim credit for the Xenophon quote.)
I read the work of a lot of people I didn't previously know. What I now know about them (in many cases, about you) is one post. We of course know a lot more about those we've followed for a while because we know their histories. How do we find out about you quickly? It's inefficient for us to go into your past work, see 75 posts, and figure out which ones to read. What's my solution?
You pick which ones we read. Pick a few posts which best represent you and/or your work, put links to them in your post (just like you do with a nomination here), and explain why you chose that post (just like you do here). I chose seven; the others who have taken me up on this so far have all chosen a few more.
This isn't the equivalent of a self-nomination because I'm not asking you to read my post or my past work. I may eventually earn that right here like many of you have. I am giving you a suggestion to both make your readers more familiar with you quickly and to give yourselves a forum to present what you consider to be your best past work.
A lot of us missed those pieces the first time around. Give us another shot.
Emily Rapp's June 28, 2012 - In preparation for a death
http://open.salon.com/blog/ronansmom/2012/06/28/june_28_2012#comment_2998853
I can't even tell you why, that's how much it got me in my plexus. And if it reached beyond my thinking mind, it's all good. Readers would do well to discover her.
A lot of that 2:30 syndrome going around. If it were my post you wanted to see, click on my name. It's the first one,
I would also like to thank those who are running this RP site. It's been a great resource tool for catching up on posts I've missed during the week.
R
lschmoopie -- The Long and Winding Road Trip
Ride along with schmoopie's family for their 2-week coastal car trip. The photos are superb and bring back very fond memories of my own similar trip.
Lezlie
For my suggestions, I'd say look at my RH feed, a feed that makes me proud!
john blumenthal - Hanging out with Nora in 1973
David McClain - There once was a place
lschmoopie - The Long and Winding Road Trip
Emily Rapp - June 28, 2012
And a second for Deborah's comment nomination....
I feel as if one of the requirements to being a Readers' Pick is participation in OS comments, which I completely understand. And maybe I'm just being narcissistic and paranoid, but I really feel the need to nominate myself.
Please see my latest entry, "Have You Earned Everything You Own?" I know I don't deserve your readership since I've commented on others' posts as frequently as Mitt Romney washes his hair, but please know that I do read the incredible art posted on this site.
Tim Haywood
aka "Reflections of a Shallow Pond"
fireeyes24 - To Alter A Life
http://open.salon.com/blog/fireeyes24/2012/06/26/to_alter_a_life
A very powerful piece.
Let's not wait for the editor's here- L'heure Blue's Immigrant story is stellar...tender, gorgeous.
http://open.salon.com/blog/lheure_bleue/2012/06/30/i_am_an_immigrant
...for L'Heure Blueu's I Am an Immigrant
A compelling story of the effects of immigration on a small child.
firechick-- Firefighting -- the Cold Fist in the Belly
With wildfires raging throughout our nation's west, firechick provides a very personal insight into the psyche of a firefighter that gives the reader a rare perspective.
Lezlie
Debra Mendez Wilson on I Think I Hear the Fat Lady Singing
http://open.salon.com/blog/stuartbramhall/2012/07/01/i_think_i_hear_the_fat_lady_singing
"I wish someone would make the connection between fracking and the prodigious amounts of water needed to extract oil from oil shale, and the uptick in wildfires in Colorado. Fracking and wildfires are both on the rise in the historically dry Western United States. Where are we going to get water to fight fires caused by global warming, which is caused by burning fossil fuels if they use it all up to extract even more fossil fuels through fracking? ... R."
Big Sleep os weekend fiction
Seth James again takes a one line prompt and turns it into a classic novelette,a detective story from the Marlowe/Hammer era.
http://open.salon.com/seth_son_of_umarth/2012/06/29 Big_Sleep_os_weekend_fiction
not sure at all bout this url
steel Breeze's Nomination of
Big Sleep- seth son of umarth
the url is
http://open.salon.com/blog/seth_son_of_umarth/2012/06/29/big_sleep_os_weekend_fiction
http://open.salon.com/blog/lea_lane/2012/06/08/my_immigrant_grandparents_reading_tattoos_omelets_love
John Guzlowski's stellar piece about the trunk his parents brought over from Europe, made from wood harvested at a concentration camp: http://open.salon.com/blog/john_guzlowski/2012/06/30/wooden_trunk_from_buchenwald
http://open.salon.com/blog/zanelle/2012/06/29/the_scary_woman_in_the_mirror
The honest clarity of Zanelle's prose cuts to the bone and into the marrow. Should I ever find myself on the brink of Alzheimer's I do not intend to live like that.
Koshersalaami -- A Dozen Rules for Intellectual Integrity
In his trademark straightforward style, Koshersalaami lays out a easy to follow roadmap to civil and successful human discourse that not only applies for discussions/debates here on OS, but for any oral or writtten communication.
Lezlie
http://open.salon.com/blog/zanelle/2012/06/29/the_scary_woman_in_the_
jlsathre's Feeding Chickens with Grandpa
http://open.salon.com/blog/jlsathre/2012/07/01/feeding_chickens_with_grandpa
It hits all the buttons, immigration, family, personal insight. Wonderful!
http://open.salon.com/blog/procopius/2012/07/03/two_patriots_phillis_wheatley_and_george_washington
Do I hear a second? I had better be hearing one pretty soon or I will send Tim Haywood over to do the duty. (He owes me.)
~runs off into the thorn bushes~
http://open.salon.com/blog/jeremiah_horrigan/2012/07/01/tenderfoot#comment_3004069
It's way past my bedtime so don't know if it has previously been nominated. If it hasn't PLEASE SECOND! - A terrific piece.
http://open.salon.com/blog/greg_correll/2012/07/02/intake#comment_3004020
Again, I hope this is a second, but if not please read- A BRILLIANT LITERARY STUDY.
- an intelligent argument against a recent awareness campaign that smacks of misinformation and hypocrisy.
http://open.salon.com/blog/blinddream/2012/07/03/seventeen_charlie
This is a haunting poem of what Vietnam vets go through even today.
I also want to suggest that we add an addendum to the nominating qualifications that you cannot nominate yourself. This thing is going to clog up in a hurry if this becomes a trend.
http://open.salon.com/blog/libbyliberalnyc/2012/07/04/my_love-hate_cherish-fear_relationship_with_open_salon
While a political firebrand, Libby is also a gifted poet. I ordinarily avoid political discussions, but I try never to miss her exquisite poetry. I've a hunch many of us experience similar concerns about our relationship/involvement with OS and would benefit from Libby's eloquent discussion about its yin-yang push and tug on our sensibilities. I might have read three or four other posts in the time it took me with this one, but Libby's was well worth the time spent, to me.
Self-nomination was not anticipated by the framers of Readers' Picks and it is definitely not encouraged. Since the post in question was seconded by two people, it will stand. It is our hope that you will continue to seek and nominate other quality writers who are sometimes being lost in the shuffle.
Koshersalaami -- A Dozen Rules for Intellectual Integrity
http://open.salon.com/blog/koshersalaami/2012/06/28/a_dozen_rules_for_intellectual_integrity
for all the same reasons
...for Greg Correll -- Intake
It will literally take your breath away.
Lezlie
...for Jeremiah Horrigan -- Tenderfoot
A fascinating twist to an all too familiar story.
Lezlie
...for Libbyliberalnyc's My Love-Hate (Cherish-Fear) Relationship with Open Salon
I have never before read such an intense introspective analysis of one's motivations.
Lezlie
Jonathan Wolfman: The America I Want
http://www.open.salon.com/blog/jlw1/2012/07/04/the_america_i_want_--_independence_day_2012
Jonathan links the morality of Judaism and Jesus as it applies to compassion to the morality of real patriotism. Well done.
http://open.salon.com/blog/sparky_dashforth/2012/07/04/old_rural_station
A well put together poem with some eloquent language. Sparky Dashforth Old Rural Station
Herr Rudolphus der Rude on Kosher's post Rules etc.
comment is: Here
The post -- http://open.salon.com/blog/margaret_feike/2012/06/30/vbs_-_a_vaccine_for_the_soul
It's one thing to carefully craft a piece that incorporates (I hate that word, but what other?) economical wordsmithery, gaspworthy hairpin turns of phrase and an imagination so fertile with tortured images and basic thoughts and counterthoughts it surely will win her a seat at the left knee of The Great Prevaricator some day. That's just for the post itself. The comments summon forth an improv talent so good it would frighten Amy Poehler into therapy were someone to send her a link to OS. Every comment - every comment Feike posts in response to even the dullest, most sycophantic gush from her readers sparkles with deviant, inappropriate-for-immature-audiences wit. Were I as bold as Margaret I might suggest that she be nominated in perpetuity for an RP award for every post and comment during her time in the minors here before being called up to The Show. We could protect RP's reputation by insertting a clause requiring Margaret to return one of her RPs should she ever be so inconsiderate as to post a substandard piece or a less-than-stellar comment.
http://open.salon.com/blog/koshersalaami/2012/06/28/a_dozen_rules_for_intellectual_integrity#comment_3005169