You know, I really got taken for a chump ride with that whole Ginkgo Week thing. Understand this: I thought we were doing it because Ginkgo is a terrific artist, an interesting writer, and in need of a little extra encouragement. At no point before the event was it made evident that this was part of some stupid online diary spat. Sandra Posey sent me an email asking if I'd like to help buck up Ginkgo a bit and link to her website. I went and read what she put up here, and said sure, I like Ginkgo's site. What a sweet thing to do. Link me, baby.
It wasn't that simple at all. And I do not appreciate the careful obscuring of the real issues with a superficially excellent motive. It was a rotten thing to do to Ginkgo, for one thing. She deserved unbiased support, not childish grandstanding between opposing sides of the spat. This is why I stay out of diary-l, this is why I don't write about other journals, this is why I don't read many journals anymore, and this is why I feel about 1200 years older than the vast majority of online diarists.
I still think Ginkgo's site is beautiful. Fuck the rest of it. *
Much more interesting is the first appearance of my new travel column for Planet Amazon. I'm all happy and stuff. I had a ball writing it; I've wanted to do a travel column somewhere for quite a while. Planet Amazon promotes sites of interest to women, exhibits a great sense of humor, and is beautifully designed to boot. Don't forget to read Kymm and Sandra's columns as well.
It's a jolly good thing I was 15 minutes early to the train this morning. None of the three regulars were at the station! I would have flipped out if I'd arrived at my usual time. As it was, I had time for coffee and a quick read through the front page of the Chron. I was much taken by the article on Nina Burleigh, ex-White House reporter for Time, who said she would have had sex with Clinton if he'd asked. This had something to do with his mesmerizing effect on women, even hard-hitting Washington correspondents, apparently. I can't quite wrap my mind around it but I guess nothing succeeds like success. Big time politicians must exude he-man pheromones because they sure don't seem to have a problem getting laid. Except Jesse Helms and Newt Gingrich. I hope. It doesn't bear thinking about closely.
* Since this was posted, Sandra has written me a detailed explanation of how and why Ginkgo Week came about. She thought she had sufficiently separated her response to the alluded-to spat from her altruistic desire to show Ginkgo how much her community appreciates her, and is not best pleased at being cast as nefarious manipulator.
