Today In Painfully Obvious Note-Fodder
Do you want to write a must-read? Sure, we all do! Guess what? It's not as hard as you think! Here are some tips from your buddies at Wonkette:
* Write for either theTimesor thePost.
* Be friends with or write about friends of The Note.
It's that simple! Let's take a look at two people who did it right this weekend:
Adam Nagourney's Sunday piece on THE INTERNET (you know, "Wireless Telegraphy Injects Sweeping Change Into U.S. Politics") was an insightfully boffo paradigm-shifting look at how THE INTERNET makes things DIFFERENT in NEW and EXCITING ways! Bam! Note link.
And in the snake-eating-its-own-tail-while-participating-in-the-biggest-circle-jerk-ever department, Campbell Brown maid-of-honor Anne Kornblut's piece , "I Only Have Twenty Minutes to Write the Most Obvious Column Ever, Quick, Lemme Quote Everyone Else at the Palm," was, according to some observers, crafted in a sterile, state-of-the-art laboratory staffed by scientists working day and night to perfect the Note must-read formula. It features:
* OED Citation
* Merriam-Webster expert quotation
* Safire with the political/historical context (and a "nattering nabobs" ref!)
* Halperin with the color
* Gang of 500! Gang of 500! Gang of 500!
* Further evidence that quoting Kos = the new quoting Carville
But sometimes, even platonically ideal obviousness isn't enough -- both of these pieces got their deserved links today, but the Note decided to go "quirky" and lead with a list of Bush's first pitches. Like, baseball-wise. Ok, this Daylight Savings Time thing has thrown us off our A-Game too, guys, but seriously? And "NC2A"? THAT ACRONYM IS NOT ANY SHORTER THAN THE UNIVERSALLY ACCEPTED ONE, GUYS. YOU'RE JUST DOING IT TO BUG US NOW, AREN'T YOU.
Politics Faces Sweeping Change via the Web [NYT]