There cannot BE a next year for Ken and Nick.

They’ve blown it. They’ve shown they cannot be trusted. They had their chance and it turned out their leftism made it just that little bit to much to expect that they could run the competition in good faith.

It not room for improvement you are right of the planet here.

It was a sick fucking disgrace. Not an underperformance but a Marxist coup.

Isn’t the best blog post one that asks a rather loaded question, and thus encourages a witty, informative, and contentious thread conversation? So, Madame de Stael, what exactly did you say to make Talleyrand carry on like that? And you, Sylvain Sylvain, what power chords did you play to get Johnny Thunders to shred like a madman? Who asked Dorothy Parker to use the word ‘horticulture’ in a sentence? Nobody remembers, but the reply is worth remembering.

Not to diminish any of the talented and committed writers who were nominated, but I read a random sampling of the various “Best Of” writings… While they were all perfectly good writing in their way, still, on their own, out of context and without the thread conversations they inspired, they mostly struck me as decent self-published essays of variable quality that had simply not found a home in the lap of a good editor and a good magazine. Whatever else that might be on its own merits, it’s not the genius of blogging. I wouldn’t dare to define what the genius of blogging might actually BE, however. But in next year’s go-round, that question might with profit find itself uppermost in the minds of those doing the judging. If it does, then maybe the next crop of “best” will be more surprising and stimulating.

I do hope, however, that the crop of sour grapes that flourishes in response remains as marvelously bitchy and highly entertaining as we’ve seen to date. On its own, it’s already better blogging than any of the nominees. Excelsior!

What made Sincs’ contribution stick in my mind was that he went out of his way to nominate some posts he thought worthy of inclusion.