I am consumed by food.
(heh) In the past six months, I've spent a lot of time thinking about cooking meals that contain less chemicals and that result in yummy sounds from the kids. So, I've been venturing into the foodie blogs lately.
The Mommy Blogs are annoyed that the Food Blogs swept the Bloggie Awards this year.
Here are some good ones: 101 Cookbooks and Smitten Kitten. Cake Wrecks, which is more humor than food, won a bunch awards this year. I like Off the Broiler for tips on restaurants in Northern New Jersey.
Any other suggestions?
I've also been studying the food blogs, because they are fabulous bloggers. They all have well crafted websites that draw in tons of readers. I could do a better job here. I should probably have a tighter focus on this blog, but I'm not sure what I should focus on. I'm really not sure what you guys are looking for. For the first time ever on this blog, I'll take suggestions from the readers.
Apt. 11d 
Here’s my 2 cents: Blogs with predictable content are blogs I check once per day. Blogs that cover a wide range and you never know what you will get next are the ones I check a dozen times per day.
I say keep it diverse and damn the traffic.
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I agree with Mike. You’re a rare breed of blogger, Laura; a more-or-less random generalist (though you have your areas of special interest and expertise, obviously) who posts nearly every day, and nearly always succinctly and humorously, and who has a loyal following of conversationalists as well. Very, very few non-group blogs have that, I think. Why change?
Also, regarding the food blogs: my wife is obsessed with Cake Wrecks, and has gotten all our daughters addicted too. It’s the gossipy, “Go Fug Yourself” for the food set.
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One of my favorite food blogs is Wednesday Chef.
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“Blogs with predictable content are blogs I check once per day.”
I read the personal finance blogs and design blogs, but I only do it once or twice a day. Ditto thehousingbubbleblog.com (which is excellent on real estate, but teeters on the edge of turning into a political conspiracy blog when there aren’t enough tales of housing woe to work on).
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I come here all the time; in fact, you’re in my toolbar. I come ’cause you’re interested in many of the same things I am, and spotlight them (and post frequently). You also write about some things I don’t care so much about, but that’s OK, ’cause you write about so much that I do care about. I come because you’re a generalist whose sphere of interests overlap with mine enough to come regularly.
But, that’s me, coming over and over again. In the blog world, that might be like having a stable “friend” network. That’s a nice thing to have, but it’s not what, say, a politician needs to get elected. A politician needs a much broader group of acquaintances, and she needs the right kind of friends and acquaintances. Depending on what *your* goals are for this blog, you might get different traffic by focusing differently. You might need to have more important people coming here (I can’t particularly help you any career goals, for example). You might need more people coming here.
I don’t really have advice for what that focus might be, though.
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I like Pioneer Woman’s “cooks” section. Beautiful photos, good recipies — and fun commentary.
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The Wednesday Chef (made her cauliflower,potato and cheese gratin the other night), Orangette,and Simply Recipes are a few I use in addition to PW and SK. Even though I am not celiac, I love Gluten Free Girl for her writing and pictures.
As to your content, I enjoy your mix of personal, political, policy and higher ed.Eclectic might not have as big a stream of readers but it’s a good read! 🙂
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I cast my vote against ‘tighter focus.’ I like the variety.
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Every recipe that I have tried of Pioneer Woman has worked beautifully and tasted delicious. I also have done many recipies from Foodnetwork, especially Barefoot Contessa and Paula Deen.
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The two ideas I’m interested in are middle school and not saving for college. Another one (that might be too personal, although you could do it more public-service-messagish) would be how to do an IEP. An IEP post would be a nice followup to your recent post on what to do if your kid doesn’t talk. Yet another option would be to ask Katharine Beals (oilf.blogspot.com) to do a guest post talking about the online course she is doing to train special ed teachers to work with high-functioning autistic children.
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Simply Recipes. Elise is a wonderful cook, takes amazing photos of her creations, and she always has a nice story to go along with the recipe.
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If you’re interested in sustainability and food production, I recommend food.change.org. Very nice blog.
As for your variety of topics, I have the same problem on my blog. I think these days, even if you focus, it would take a few months before the people interested in that focus would drift in, and you might lose the rest of your audience in the process.
I read most of what you write, though I sometimes skip a few political posts now and again, mostly when it’s super detailed. I’m a big picture person. 🙂 Probably, the family issues, juggling work, a special needs kid and what the workplace/government should do about those issues resonate the most for me (and are common topics on my own blog).
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For food, Tigers and Stawberries. Really good, clear instructions for Indian food in particular. (Lots of non-Indian food content, but I have used the Indian food info the most.)
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I’m mostly here for the family, feminism, and disability posts. But when you have a blog community, you may as well not mess with it.
Yours is unusual in being a good mix of men and women, and political and not. Those things tend to sort themselves along firm lines.
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I enjoy mykitchencafe.blogspot.com for accessible family-style home food—plenty of baking recipes, quick dinners. She’s especially good on breads.
If you’re taking requests, I’d love a post on Ivy League obsession. I was raised in California, and Ivy admission was never valued in my home although most of us siblings probably had a decent chance. I wonder what it is that east coast elites value so much about their Ivy experience that they would go to such extraordinary lengths to provide the same for their kids. And I wonder whether I ought to encourage my own kids, who will probably also have a decent chance of admission if their current academic performance is a reliable indicator (which, of course, it may not be, as they’re still quite young).
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I don’t really have suggestions, but I will say I like it/comment here more simply because the commenters I tend to disagree with more often aren’t frothing kneejerk Teabaggers. I really do not want to hang around and chat about political stuff with people I agree with all the time (groupthink is a real danger), nor do I want to fruitlessly bang my head against a brick wall discussing things with people who have absolutely no principles or thoughts other than “Obama is a socialist” (or more likely “Obama is black”) and thus he must be opposed at all costs.
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I like the variety. There are plenty of food blogs out there, as people have noted, and I do visit many of them. But I can’t think of another blog where we discuss how we feel about extracurricular fees at school, or whether orthodontists are gouging us all.
And as Wendy notes, I also love the comments. I too visit the site multiple times per day and am just as likely to check on who’s commenting as I am to check on any new posts from Laura. In this way I view this blog as much as an old-fashioned salon as anything.
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“Teabaggers.”
Wendy, could you clean that up? “Tea partiers” is barely any harder to say, and you avoid the pointless innuendo. It’s not really possible to wave the flag of civility while simultaneously saying “teabaggers.”
Also, while I’ve got my PC hat on, a public service message to everybody: if somebody doesn’t call herself a fundamentalist, don’t call her one. It just looks historically and theologically ignorant. You’ll look smarter if you find some other way to express the thought.
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“Teabaggers” fits perfectly well with “frothing” and “kneejerk”. It’s a deliberate insult. Maybe not Australian-grade political invective, but surely serviceable.
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Doug,
The fascist octopus has sung its swan song!
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All of what the others say, except that we’re not the ones you need to ask, if you’re trying to attract a different audience. You already have us in your pocket :-).
You could ask what would make us leave, and I think that’s what we’re really answering. I’d still come here if, say, I think, if it were a more focused policy/political blog, but I wouldn’t come as often.
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“but I wouldn’t come as often. ”
But, that might be good for me
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It’s not really possible to wave the flag of civility while simultaneously saying “teabaggers.”
I wasn’t waving the flag of civility. I actually don’t mind incivility or, as I call it, a bout of good name-calling. 😉
I mind stupidity and a lack of any defining principles. It’s really hard to have a discussion with someone for whom the goalposts are always moving because the only goalpost they have is that OBAMA=BAD (meanwhile, they insist they are principled and virtuous–ugh). Obama could adopt the entire GOP platform and the Teabaggers would still froth and complain because they don’t give a crap about the ideas or policies; they care that Obama is black.
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This has always been a blog about nothing. I don’t make any money off of it, and I don’t see it getting me anywhere career-wise. I dash off posts while the kid watch TV. I post on topics that I talk about with my friends. Usually the posts start off as telephone conversations. I enjoy the writing process and I enjoy getting feedback from you all. If I kept to any one topic, it would very quickly bore me to tears. (Example A — my dissertation) So, that’s what you get here, guys. Random thoughts. It’s a blog about nothing.
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Obama could adopt the entire GOP platform and the Teabaggers would still froth and complain because…
the GOP platform is, to the extent that it exists, also wrong. I want a new elite and I’m all for poorly directed rage as a first step.
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“So, that’s what you get here, guys. Random thoughts. It’s a blog about nothing. ”
Great. That’s what I want. I worry sometimes, though, that it’s something you’re providing for us, rather than that you’re just having fun, so it’s good to hear that you’re having fun.
(Kind of like being invited to someone else’s house all the time and not reciprocating. But, I guess you don’t bake us cookies, so I won’t feel bad about not reciprocating).
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MH, I was going to re-word it as “Obama could adopt the entire Teabagger platform” but then I realized the Teabaggers don’t have a platform. And it’s really unbecoming for a president to adopt poorly directed rage as a strategy. So we’re at an impasse.
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“the GOP platform is, to the extent that it exists, also wrong. I want a new elite and I’m all for poorly directed rage as a first step. ”
You don’t really mean that, or you’d be just as likely to join the Greens.
I think that these splinter groups/random raging groups have the concept of politics, especially in a large and diverge nation, confused. The reason that everything is so messy on the national stage (including the “platforms” and behavior of the major parties) is that there are no simple solutions. Running this nation is a messy business. Pure ideology won’t lead the way.
“On Earth, the only land ahead is the compromised land. Politics means satisfactions and dissatisfactions, not redemptions. There is this truth: We are condemned to share the Earth with people we dislike, even despise. In a democracy, we are condemned to share power with them. A large party — any large party — is a coalition of interests. . . .
Consider the choice uninspiring, but there it is, and will not be wished away . . . .”
Todd Gitlin, October 2008
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Oops, sorry, that was October 28, 2000, for the Gitlin quote, from Salon.
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They just started. I’m more than willing to give them time to settle down before making a judgement.
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“Obama could adopt the entire GOP platform and the Teabaggers would still froth and complain because they don’t give a crap about the ideas or policies; they care that Obama is black.”
Or maybe that unemployment is nearly 10% and will stay that way for the foreseeable future. Or that the US debt is around 90% of GDP and is headed up, possibly into the rarified zone where default on national debt becomes likely.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703382904575059543284356382.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Either the 10% US unemployment or the 90% ratio of debt to GDP is unfortunate, but together they are an extremely unfortunate combination, because combined, it means that as continued borrowing becomes more and more expensive (as it does for countries with high debt loads), there are no bullets left in the Keynesian elephant gun. And the recession elephant continues to charge.
I’m personally doubtful as to the efficacy of Keynesian stimulus, but if you do believe in it, not being able to borrow for stimulus has got to be pretty scary. At that point, there really aren’t any options aside from praying hard.
“the GOP platform is, to the extent that it exists, also wrong.”
As MH points out, you have to make a distinction between the Tea Party movement and the GOP. The Tea Party people are in the process of storming the GOP hierarchy, both ideologically and by doing the boring work and actually going to local GOP meetings, running for office and taking on responsibilities.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20100130/NEWS0108/1310329/Tea-Partiers-aim-to-remake-local-GOP
I think there are going to be a lot of changes in the faces of the GOP, and there’s most likely going to be a new Contract with America for the 2010 elections. I have a lot of items on my wish list (as I’m sure MH does).
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You don’t really mean that, or you’d be just as likely to join the Greens.
I haven’t joined anybody. In the last several elections, I think I voted for every Green party candidate on the ballot (2 or so). I have no idea who they were, it was a pure anti-incumbent vote.
The reason that everything is so messy on the national stage (including the “platforms” and behavior of the major parties) is that there are no simple solutions.
While it is true there are no simple solutions, I don’t think that is what has made everything messy right now. Things are messy because of an often well-founded breakdown in true of elites at nearly all levels.
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I have a lot of items on my wish list (as I’m sure MH does).
For starters, I’d like Congressional incumbents losing in 25% of the cases, the PA legislature losing in 100% of the cases, and somebody going to jail over BofA. And a pony.
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“Obama could adopt the entire GOP platform and the Teabaggers would still froth and complain because they don’t give a crap about the ideas or policies; they care that Obama is black.”
I’ve noticed an odd thing over the past year, namely that I don’t hate Obama. On reflection, I think the reason is that there isn’t enough of him to hate. There isn’t a lot there, aside from a small and well-worn bag of rhetorical tricks. If the Republicans take Congress this year (or even just pick up a few more seats), I think he will find it very tough sledding, because he’s been depending on Congressional Democrats to do all the hard stuff for him.
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“For starters, I’d like Congressional incumbents losing in 25% of the cases, the PA legislature losing in 100% of the cases, and somebody going to jail over BofA. And a pony.”
The most likely thing is the pony.
And, *who* should go to jail about the BofA thing? That’s the problem with the fulminating. It attacks the ether and not the reality. Let’s pick a name to blame the “BofA thing” on and think about whether we can send them jail, you know, using the standard we have for that: that a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt.
I personally want to send someone to jail for having committed torture and for having stolen private telephone records. And, I don’t care if they were following orders. I think if someone released a name, that we could convict a torturer. But, I’m not going to base my votes on that (unlike some of my compatriots who are suffering Obama fatigue ’cause they wanted him to do those things).
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Amy: You seem to be calling the Tea Party movement an anti-government spending, anti-tax movement (rather than an Obama hating movement, as Wendy calls it). That’s a goalpost I can understand. Is there somewhere that “platform” is followed through? For example, does the Tea Party platform include cutting Social Security? NIH funding? Weapons development?
What does the beautiful NY Times graphic on the budget look like, written by the Tea Party?
(And, why is “Tea Partier” OK, but not “Teabagger”? Is it what people call themselves? I mean, neither of the terms have any obvious content)
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And, *who* should go to jail about the BofA thing?
Thain, Lewis, various fed officials, and/or Paulson. I’m sure a trial could sort out which ones.
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(And, why is “Tea Partier” OK, but not “Teabagger”? Is it what people call themselves? I mean, neither of the terms have any obvious content)
I’m going to assume this is a serious question springing from having lived a very sheltered life.
“Tea Partier” calls to mind the Boston Tea Party and standing-up to taxes and British people. Slangly, “Teabagging” refers to a form of sexualized hazing.
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“And, *who* should go to jail about the BofA thing?
Thain, Lewis, various fed officials, and/or Paulson.”
On the last go-round, mindless left/liberal rage insisted that Mellon, Insull et al. should go to jail for not preventing bank failures. But the American judicial system requires a little more than mindless political rage, and I think it’s a safe bet that a criminal prosecution of Paulsen (or Thain or Lewis) wouldn’t go any further than FDR’s Mellon escapade.
Amy P., I like the Orwell allusion!
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“Amy: You seem to be calling the Tea Party movement an anti-government spending, anti-tax movement (rather than an Obama hating movement, as Wendy calls it). That’s a goalpost I can understand. Is there somewhere that “platform” is followed through? For example, does the Tea Party platform include cutting Social Security? NIH funding? Weapons development?”
It’s only been one year. I expect things will become clarified over the course of 2010. As it stands, the Tea Party is a mass movement with lots of people with lots of different ideas going in different directions. If it has to create a unified message, it may lose a lot of supporters. Also, as time goes by, every successful revolutionary group starts caring mostly about preserving privileges (Soviet communists, the Mexican Institutional Revolutionary Party, the Republican class of 1994, etc.). But even knowing that every promising movement eventually goes stale and selfish, I think it’s healthy for incumbents to be frightened.
“And, why is “Tea Partier” OK, but not “Teabagger”? Is it what people call themselves? I mean, neither of the terms have any obvious content”
I actually don’t know what is the most popular term used by Tea Party people (never been to a Tea Party), but “Teabagger” definitely isn’t it. That’s a rude slang term for something else entirely.
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Newsweek has an interesting take, from someone who “consider[s] [him]self a conservative and arrived at this conference as a paid-up, rank-and-file attendee, not one of the bemused New York Times types with a media pass…”
For example: “Sure enough, in Nashville, Judge Roy Moore warned, among other things, of ‘a U.N. guard stationed in every house.’ On the conference floor, it was taken for granted that Obama was seeking to destroy America’s place in the world and sell Israel out to the Arabs for some undefined nefarious purpose. The names Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers popped up all the time, the idea being that they were the real brains behind this presidency, and Obama himself was simply some sort of manchurian candidate.”
If these are your people, Amy P, have fun.
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I think it’s a safe bet that a criminal prosecution of Paulsen (or Thain or Lewis) wouldn’t go any further than FDR’s Mellon escapade.
Fortunately, it is illegal for a public corporation to hide adverse financial news from shareholders. There is hope for an indictment there. It is also illegal to use a government position to threaten in certain ways and there is some evidence on that count.
Also, I fail to see how ire at this is particularly “liberal”, you yuppie nerf herder.
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“Thain, Lewis, various fed officials, and/or Paulson. I’m sure a trial could sort out which ones.”
OK, start building the case — of which laws they broke (or has someone already?)
And, you don’t get to use a trial to sort out which ones. You have to indict someone (a particular person) of a crime in order to start a trial. Pick one and we can try to do it.
I know I’m being technical here, but I believe that the technicality of laws is what our country is based on. Perhaps you mean you’d like to hold a hearing of some sort? Like a congressional hearing or a financial malfeasance panel?
(OK, and I didn’t know about the slang usage, and agree that we shouldn’t use it for the Tea Partiers. Boy, I’m apparently naive, left-wing curmudgeon. Should have done a google search before I asked about the word).
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Doug, any conservative who gets invited to write for Newsweek or the NYT is immediately somewhat suspect. It’s well-known that writing “I’m a conservative, but even I’m shocked by XYZ” articles is a reliable gravy train and a career-building move. That said, that may be unfair in the case of Jonathan Kay, who seems to have played a rather heroic role in the struggle to protect free speech against the Canadian Human Rights Commissions.
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“It’s only been one year. I expect things will become clarified over the course of 2010. ”
Is that a promise? or a bet or something? Will there be a “Tea Party” roadmap? I got a hint that there’s a republican one out there now (Ryan’s Roadmap), and would love to see it in the NY times graphic.
But, that’s the difference between fulminating and leading — the leader has to have the map. The guy on the outside can keep shouting “You’re going the wrong way” but it doesn’t change anything without an alternative route.
I think Ryan’s plan is an alternative route — one I wouldn’t support, but it’s a route that we can analyze and discuss (so, incidentally, is Obama’s). But, as Krugman complains in his most recent column, it’s not one that’s compatible with broad politician soundbites like “Don’t cut medicare. . . This is wrong.”
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MH,
Have you seen this yet?
http://thinkbigworksmall.com/mypage/player/tbws/23088/1162246
I’m not sure how reputable this is, but it looks interesting. It’s a description of the financial side of what happens to an Indymac foreclosed home.
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