Kudos and embarrassment for Josh Marshall

I get asked on a regular basis what my senior colleagues think about the blog. The truth is, I try not to mention it — because I don’t know if all of them either know about or understand the concept of a blog. Oh sure it’s the trendy thing, but academics, particularly those ensconced in the University of Chicago, delight in ignoring trends and fads — or at least pretending to ignore them. If people are familiar with blogs, then it’s easy to discuss mine — in the blogosphere I can hold my own. However, if someone is not familiar with the blog concept, then it’s like trying to explain the virtues of first class air travel to someone who’s never heard of or seen an airplane. Which is why the following anecdote is so damn funny. To put it into context — The Week magazine held its first annual Opinion Awards, which included a Blogger of the Year. For descriptions of the awards — held at Harold Evans and Tina Brown’s apartment, no less — go see Jeff Jarvis or Editor & Publisher. The Blogger of the Year — chosen by Jarvis, Glenn Reynolds, and Daniel Radosh — was Joshua Micah Marshall (to whom congratulations are most certainly in order). Now comes the funny anecdote, from Marshall himself:

Early on I noticed that one of the folks there was Arthur Schlesinger, Jr…. Schlesinger is a rather big deal to me. So toward the end of the whole event, after most folks had left, I saw Schlesinger and two women standing off to one side. And I thought, this is my chance. How can I let it go by? So I walked over to where the three were talking and planted myself there like a schoolboy and waited. And I waited, and waited a bit more until they, a touch awkwardly, turned their attention to me. When they did, I introduced myself and told him what a great admirer I was of his and what an honor it was to meet him and so forth. When I did this I explained that in addition to my semi-reputable work as a blogger I was also a trained historian with a Ph.D. in American history and the works…. To be polite Schlesinger’s wife asked me to explain to them just what a blog is. And though I get this question pretty often, it turns out to be a rather challenging one if the people you’re trying to explain it to don’t necessarily have a lot of clear web reference points to make sense of what you’re saying. I ended up telling them that it was something like political commentary structured like a personal journal with occasional reporting mixed in. Now, as I was explaining and watching the looks on everyone’s faces it was incrementally becoming clear to me that this was playing rather like saying that something was like a washing machine structured like a rhinoceros with the occasional sandwich thrown in. And, as Schlesinger himself had said rather little through all this, it was also dawning on me that being one of the four guests of honor at this little event was providing no guarantee against making a bit of a fool of myself….

Read the rest of Josh’s post for the denouement — it doesn’t end too badly for him.