Bryan Joiner

This is good news. I like the Smoltz.

I think people in Detroit would tell you what a “disastrous season” looks like, Judy, and it’s not 9-7. Mangini will be good on the Browns. Two winning seasons with the Jets is no small feat.

Inspired by the knowledge that trees are good for you, I made a poster.*

*and put it next to my computer at work

Describes recently-joined health club as, if nothing else, “a birthing pool for blog fodder.”

Just had this for the first time. Let’s rate it for fun:

As a soup species, we’ll give this three soups out of five. That is to say, I think this is a decent soup, but even the best CoB would be 60% as good as the Greatest Soup Of All Time (GSOAT).

As a soup specimen, this particular soup receives two soups out of five, however, this makes it only 40 percent as good as the ideal CoB, not 66%, because it is 40% of maximum CoB soup deliciousness. These are two different star scales, basically.

The surprising thing to me is how much it’s like clam chowder, even the clam chowder you get at ‘spensive places in resort towns. I always found the clams to be a little squishy but to have their taste basically overwhelmed by the cream soup. When my not-technically stepfather made us clam chowder though he just used condensed milk, and that gave it a different taste.

For the record, the greatest soup I ever had was the chicken noodle soup on the ferry from Nova Scotia to Prince Edward Island, but that is not necessarily the GSOAT. I would have to taste it again for it to even be nominated. The best soup I’ve had in the last four years or so is a squash soup, but I can’t remember where.

The lesson is that soup is good. You should eat more soup. I feel comfortable telling you that. If you see me, please offer me soup, I will enjoy it and we’ll both be happy. In return, I’ll write you a story. This is an actual offer.

Does it ever.

I read a lot of blogs, but I’ve made a command decision to stop reading blogs that aren’t by friends of mine. I just don’t see the point in reading a random person’s random thoughts, and this might be because my friends’ blogs pretty much cover everything I want to read about, aided by two new ones and one I’m just learning about:

My Checklist — 2009 things to do in 2009 by Ben

BizNass Review — the sublime, the absurd, and the sublimely absurd in hip-hop and pop culture from, the master, the Biz

Roby’s Intermittent Thoughts — I haven’t even written my college friend back to tell him I’ve started to read this, so don’t tell him yet, but this is a blog from a friend who’s a doctor now and it’s generally great. He just went to South Africa to work in a hospital.

These, of course, just supplement my normal roster:

Donkey Hottie — from Moacir, an English PhD student, and this can cover pretty much anything

Cleveland Frowns — sports, sports betting, political/social/philosophical stuff from Frownie

banana nutriment — esotericism from PTB

fivethirtyeight.com — a ragingly popular blog from N.R. Silver

Jeremy Blachman— inside L.A.’s TV and film industry, with writerly stuff

Mik Awake — A sample:

Hey, S–

Just wanted to let you know I had a really great time kicking it with you outside of work. One question though: why do you remind me of my mother so much?

BTW, I mean that as a compliment. A sexual compliment.

Curious,

M

The one exception to “I must know them”: the guys at Surviving Grady, the best Sox bloggers out there.

This is what I read. Links to be updated on the right correspondingly at some point

Company:	The Bryan Times
Position:	Reporter
Location:	Bryan, Ohio
Job Status:	Full-time
Salary:	$20,000 to $25,000
Ad Expires:	January 27, 2009
Job ID:	865289
Website:	http://bryantimes.com

Description:
This job requires a little bit of everything; court reporting, feature writing, layout skills and managing a small weekly newspaper. You’ll be expected to take photos and handle PR at the weekly which needs some TLC to improve its circulatin. We want somone who can do it all. Send resume, writing samples to teresa@bryantimes.com or Teresa M. Melcher, The Bryan Times, P.O. Box 471, Bryan, OH 43506. No phone calls.

I’m fairly sure GWB is not human.