Balloon Juice

Haven’t done reader blogs in a while so here goes:

• War is over if you want it: Random Detritus reports on the end of the Punic Wars…in 1985.
• He’s a hippie, hippie Billy: Bill Thomas salutes the hippies.
• Gluttons for punishment: Chimpanzee Tea Party adds a riff to this excellent piece on “foodies”.
• Weather report: Running Down the Voodoo reviews a performance by the great Wayne Shorter.
• You’re my favorite work of art: Standard of the Day (not technically a reader blog) writes about the song that represents the high-water mark in American civilization.

What’s going on on your blog, if you keep one?

Reader blogsPost + Comments (51)

I’m doing my reader’s blogs a day early, because something very exciting is happening: Can’t Explain will announce its number all-time pop song of all time tomorrow. I also wanted to get this post up before he announces his number 2 song, because that way I am twice as likely to have one of my picks (below) show up. You can see the list so far here. I have a bad feeling that it will be something by the Who based on the blog’s name. If it were up to me, given what’s on the list and not on the list so far and the general aesthetic being praised here, I would go with either something by Aretha Franklin (probably “Chain of Fools” or “I Never Loved A Man”) or something by Smokey Robinson (“Tears Of A Clown” or “Ooh Baby Baby”) because there’s nothing of theirs on the list yet, or possibly “Walking On Sunshine”, “Blue Eyes Crying In the Rain”, or “She’s Not There”.

In other reader blog activity:

• Athenae has a new book out about Irish pubs of Chicago.
• This isn’t a reader blog in the usual sense, but James Joyner comments and links here, and he has a very good post on the question of whether libertarians do, or should, care about corporate abuse of power.
• Moderate Urban Champion has one of the most interesting pieces about architecture and lay-out in a mid-sized American town that I’ve ever read (I may be biased because it’s in the same general area where I grew up).

Who have you been blood-libeling on your blog? And what do you think will/should be Can’t Explain’s pick as the number one pop song of all time?

Reader’s blogs a day earlyPost + Comments (31)