Monday 20 August 2007

Thinks.....

Having been tagged a Thinking Blogger by Yankee Doodle [thanks again YD!] my brains fall apart when I endeavour to decide who to nominate in my turn. The rules say “five”, but as YD broke them I shall do the same and nominate six deserving bloggers who always make me think, and – more importantly - often make me laugh.


I begin with ZOLA. To me, Zola is the Prince of Bloggers. Always erudite, frequently whimsical in his own endearing way, often very funny, though always with an underlying seriousness, Zola beaming in from Northern Finland is caring, sometimes a little despairing, but never for long. A daily visit to ‘Zola-Ink-Spots’ is like a dip into a rich bran tub: you never know what you are going to find next. Long may he blog.


Next, JOSE. From his vantage point in the Canary Isles, Jose surveys the world scene with a questioning eye. His long life and travels have taught him that little – if anything – is what it seems. He looks beneath the surface to descry deeper causes. A passionate advocate of the welfare of the little people of the earth – which means most of us – against the scams and skulduggery of powerful corporate institutions both governmental and private, Jose can be relied upon to make you think, even when you don’t agree with everything he says. The title of his blog, ‘Respect’, reflects Jose’s attitude to his fellow human beings.


Ms MELANCHOLY brings the insights of therapy and the fresh air of the Pennine Hills, where she is lucky enough to live [as I once did], to her blog which is a delightful mix of domestic gossip and wise insights into the human condition. I always feel soothed when I visit her site, or see that she has commented on mine. She is a fount of calm wisdom, and not nearly as gloomy as her blogging name implies.


For sheer guts, industry, and dedication to a self-imposed task, Ken Frost of NANNY KNOWS BEST gets top marks. An inveterate foe of official and unofficial bossiness, Ken provides ludicrous examples of idiotic rulings and behaviour by tinpot jobsworths who alas abound in NuLab Britain. Some of Nanny’s offerings would make you howl with laughter if they weren’t so infuriating – and indeed, dismaying. Always something to think about there!


Finally, two American friends whose blogs always give food for thought. The inimitable WOOK [Emmett Smith] has a wide-ranging fund of knowledge and wry observation which he deploys both seriously and playfully. I suspect that Wook is pretty appalled at the idiocies of the human race in this day and age, and that being facetious is his escape route from furiously sallying forth and knocking heads together. A frequent commentator in both the Arena and the Burrow, Wook tickles and stimulates us with his folksy turns of phrase.


On a more serious level, THE BAREFOOT BUM [Larry Hamelin] philosophises bravely and eloquently in the causes of liberalism and free thought – scarcely mainstream American enthusiasms, alas – and argues his case vigorously with all comers. He’s always insightful, and often amusing. I enjoy debating with him and his colleague James very much.


So there you are, Lady and Gentlemen! I hope these awards will bring you new visitors and more comments – which is always gratifying when one has slaved away over a warm keyboard to impart one’s precious thoughts to an uncaring world.


And what’s more, you are each now entitled to nominate five more Thinking Bloggers!


The rules are as follows:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote. (It comes in Gold and Silver).


The Bugs:

Thinking Blogger (Gold)

Thinking Blogger (Silver)

5 comments:

Merkin said...

Well said, big man.

Bodwyn Wook said...

A Letter To Mr anticant:

Mr a cant, esq

The Snuggery,
JACKDAW CLOSE,
Burrow In The Great North Road,
Northhumbr.

20 August 2007 (OS)

MY Dear Friend:

ON Having been 'tagged' by you, Sir, as one of the 'on-line' scriveners you profess most to enjoy, it is therefore all the more embarrassing to tell you all that I know virtually nothing of /any/ of your respective /ouevres/!

IT Is, I fear, a loathsome confession & a matter of 'vanity, Madam, untrammelled vanity...'.

I Have been doing /Bodwyn Wook/ and 'Old Uncle Crow' only since the Spring of 2006; and, thus, the most of my headlong obliviousness to the work of others -- /your/ work, alas! -- has to do of course with the fact that I am still at what the advanced Sufis would call the 'unloading phase'. A practical consequence is that when I do undertake to peep in on Mr Yankee Doodle for instance, or M Merkin, straightaway I am laid by the heels by an idea; and, waylaid by ambition; and, snotty as it may sound, I think to myself: 'Well, sink me! /This/ is too, Too, TOO good a line of thought now a-borning to abjectly surrender here, to oblivion in some wretched dyspeptic commentary-welter, nor ever to be read, and un-beheld ever again, by one single human eye! Nay...no! I may as well anyway go about getting lost in mine own pp, where at least (one of) my name(s) appears at the very top! Humph, hah..ah, just so!'

INDEED, Sir, you can attest the unlovely truth for yourself; and, I have too too-often abused the hospitality of /your/ graciously provided comments-spaces; but to rehearse some phenolic notion or other only of my own; and, then, to grease it all up only for some subsequent bow, in /BW/.

THAT Is it in a nutshell & 'it /is/, Madam, /precisely/ untrammelled vanity'.

I May say, however, that I do form a positive initial impression of Mr Yankee Doodle over all, his steadiness of tone & temper; and, do see that he is, truly, an american patriot; and, /not/ some laothsome /sic/ and sweaty, texican, nationalist. He is a serious man.

IN Quite the same way, Mr The Barefoot Bum is entirely worthy of respect; although I may say, Mr Bum, that not the least of the /attractions/ of imprecatory prayer for me is the ludicrous spectacle of -- the imprecator! But then I was raised amidst protestant farmers in the american upper Middle West, all of whom have latent in their psyches, as Old Jung said, the figures of old jewish and mohametan patriarchs; so, I've had the advantage, I suspect, of having beheld /imprecation/ at its most moving & eloquent, side-splittingly funny...and, drearily hopeless & pathetic; and, all lost as a little boy without his Mam in the rain, in a Devon church-fair.

AND That is that, I fear, Sir.

'TIS A /gaffe/ of some proportion truly, well I know it, as I've not even so much as looked in on Mr Zola, or Sr Jose, or many others of you; whereas you've all been more than kind to me & my fulminate meditations. And, so, in closing if I may, I should wish respectfully only to request that /you/, Mr a cant, pray do /withdraw/ your kindly -- and, most embarrassing! -- nomination, oh, for the balance anyway of this Parliament; and, we shall await how matters may stand on the occasion of some more worthy future when, perhaps, all may be deemed amended in your gracious kindness & favour, Sir, and /cet/ & /cet/, I have the privilege /etc/ & I am & /ceterea/,

B Wook

Wook's farm,
In The Hammerhead Road,
HAIRBRAIN TOWN,
Squawbunion county,
Old Federal Minnesota

(SYD, You bastard sot, carry this into town to the post in the morning! With the cream! And damme! They MIGHT have asked about...BOOKS!)

Bodwyn Wook said...

GUILTY For sure -- and, /yet once again/, one of Mrs hendeson's fully-coiffed and thrice-oiled (!) Windmill Theatre /danseuses/ appears...in the /other/ pp! Nude AND rude, alas! Naked ambition....

http://bodwyn.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/i-am-ashamed-of-myself/

Larry Hamelin said...

Thanks, dude!

Jose said...

Oh, Anticant, you are always the kind one. I don't know how to thank you for having remembered me on this occasion. You are a good friend, indeed.

My way of reasoning depends very much on the way of reasoning of others, much wiser and erudite than me without any comparison possible. You are one of them, as are other blogger friends I exchange views with in this new world of communication and whose opinions I always digest in an attempt at clarifying my own.

Receiving awards does not therefore seem to me as befitting my way of thinking as I always consider myself to be interdependent with others everywhere.

I have friends that deserve those awards much more than I do and I consider a kind of betrayal to them if I accept this now.

I don't want to sound rude to you by any means. On the contrary I would very much like to keep relying on your friendship and wisdom if you have no objections to it, of course.

To me and to others, too, you are a priceless source of history and knowledge.