Thinking Blogger Award

Hot on it. I mean it wasn't a day before I found out and went nutty. (So nutty I put an apostrophe in went: wen't. Cracker moment. It actually is in the water.)

The Marvelous Madame Meow has honored me with this dandy piece of bloggy bling.

The meme started with The Thinking Blog back in February, which makes it a pretty fast traveler. It would be interesting to see the tree. Exactly how many degrees of separation are we from any other given blogger? Or any of the first five "thinking bloggers"?

This reminds me of an old, goofy internet game. I can't remember whether it was from the early days of Wired, or from the "gone glossy" days of Details (I remember when it was a Club Kid rag! Am I dating myself? I was a baby, but have a great memory...) It's called "Web That Smut". Aw, I can't stand it. I have to look it up.

Okay, it was Andy Ihnatko, called Web That Smut!, and appeared originally in, well, golly, I still don't know. It could even have been Playboy given when I read it. (The articles...)

It was in reaction to some new (at the time) decency bill proposed (oh, maybe even passed) regarding the internet. The goal was to get the proponents into the hot water they created by finding how few clicks would link their websites to something compromising. Heh. I guess it was before spam bots threw the whole thing into the air for everyone.

There is always a thrill to being selected for any meme, it's a supreme moment of social cohesion in the blogiverse, a stamp of pre-approval, a fitting in. This meme is not really all that different, except it is a little more rigorous.

I checked the rules, and came up with these five to whom I pass the award:

1. Joe Huffman at The View From North Central Idaho, who graciously educated me and continues to keep me thinking

2. Jamila Akil, who's youth and brains combo makes me gulp from intimidation (my God, the potential!), and who needs to get back on the horse to Blogsville...

3. This may be audacious, since I've never even waved at him with a comment before (hello!), but I'm also going to go with Stuart Buck, at The Buck Stops Here. He offers much simple reason, eloquent humor and common sense commentary. Also, he gardens. (Of course he's got bigwig fans, and certainly doesn't need my endorsement, but why not be daring?)

Now it gets really hard, because there are the blogs that are just too big that I read all the time, and blogs that are funny, but they have their own funny awards, so I'm struggling with criteria, and now it's almost a week later, and "hot on it" has become a phrase that taunts me.

In my quest I have found Words and Phrases That Should Exist but Probably Don't, and that "crunchy" and "Republican" don't go together often but it really irks Paleo-Cons when they do.

I'm quitting while I'm ahead.

UPDATE:
I'm adding Carter Ann over at Figure: Demystifying the Feminist Mystique. I freely blame puppies and babies for her initial exclusion. Duh.

If you think I've been completely snookered by the one-two action of the puppy/baby combo, you've got me pegged.