“Go to sleep my weary travelers..*”

                              
A blogger, who has been working hard to develop an “equilibrium theory of anonymous blogging” (espoused here), suggests that juicier posts are the product of blogs that maintain greater anonymity. As I understand the theory, less juicy post are an eventual outgrowth of the blogger’s inevitable acquiescence to the demands of popularity: the shedding of the protections of anonymity, ergo, leads one to become boring.
 
If his theory is correct (and I have every reason to give him the proverbial sociological benefit of the doubt – or is it the benefit of the sociological doubt?) then indeed, you, the reader might as well just scroll to the bottom and check to see the one or two photos and then kiss the blog good night, because I operate under no pseudonyms. Indeed, I am the only one of the UW fac bloggers who hasn’t even bothered to create a separate EMAIL account to capture those illicit, torrid and lascivious  EMAILS that must surely come if you just dare yourself to be RACEY enough.
 
And so here’s the truth: most of my posts are not even PG13. They are above the Disney standard of violence and potty-mouth language. And there’s no sex. In fact, I dare say I implied quite recently that I thought a conversation between two people with high chemistry (movie: Before Sunset) was more sexy than a visual undressing and explicit groping and touching.
 
Still, I am all for truth in advertising and so on the days I remember to do this, I will post the rating that correctly classifies my immanent paragraphs. I start (and with my memory of late, possibly end) with tonight:
 
THE POST THAT FOLLOWS IS APPROVED FOR GENERAL READERSHIP OVER THE AGE OF 5 (under 5 – well, you really don’t want them up late enough to understand what a sunset is). 

Post now unfolds:
 
It should have rained tonight (100% probability – the main weather website said this; yet, how can it be 100%?). But it didn’t rain. Oddly it didn’t. So the organizers of Wednesday Concerts on the Square got it right when they called the shots at 3pm today announcing that “the show will go on.”
 
The clouds were ominous, then less so, less so, until finally, just around intermission, I looked up and saw the sun declare its victory.  What a lustrous, tantalizing night! (No visuals -- it's all in the mind, for God's sake, it's all in the realm of the imagination!)
 
* from “A Hobo’s Lullaby” – rated G

the first and last rays today 

Reports from the trenches

A Madison reader and fellow blogger writes:

State Street has free wireless Internet! yes, it does! I am at Steep and Brew, outside, and ONLINE. if there was any doubt about this street's permanent utopia status...

In the same hour I read (today's WashPost, here) that every incoming freshman at Duke U will be receiving a free ipod in the first days on campus (though 'free' is a term that has to be regarded with a degree of skepticism given that Duke has one of the highest undergrad price tags in the country).

It all seems a bit overwhelming to me. Today I went to the Law School with my laptop JUST IN CASE I would feel compelled to post a photo (I cannot do that from my office computer). I turned around half way there because I realized I'd forgotten to pack my camera-attachment cord (needed for photo transfers). I was late for an appointment (only by 5 minutes!) because of this (the traffic was unusually slow, I'm telling myself). Cords are dangling from my bag, my D-link card is an essential item, my camera is getting travel fatigued.

The Q is -- should I take my laptop to the Concert on the Square tonight? To catch up with blog reading? Will they steal my shoes (read about it here) if I click click click at the sidelines? What am I saying, what has become of me, I'm one of the listeners! I go for the music! Still.. music, blogging, blogging, music.  Temptations in your face... Free wireless, eh?

Serious political commentary: On the campaign trail

From the Washington Post (here) I read about the sophisticated strategy employed by the Bush team to win over the media: