Toddler C is Ambivalent About Blog Treatment

Toddler C and I went to the library tonight. We piled the books up on the couch and got ready to read:



She couldn't wait to read about Chloe's Rainy Day or how Pippo Gets Lost, but there was something she wanted to do first:



After grabbing the copy of Ohio Politics, edited by Alexander P. Lamis and Brian Usher, she flipped to the index and found a single entry for "blog," on page 481. There are three paragraphs, with sentences like:

Gubernatorial candidates such as Ted Strickland and Brian Flannery would sit down together in dingy coffee shops to debate issues and answer questions from people with such blog handles as Psychobilly Democrat, Plunderbund, and Writes-Like-She-Talks.
-from Sharon Crook West's chapter on The News Media and Ohio Politics.

Toddler C closed the book, and gave me a look that said "I can't tell whether the author thinks bloggers are romantic or cheesy. Either way, her treatment is typical in that it seems to describe what she decided bloggers must be rather than what any individual blogger is. Of course, any irritation I may be feeling is lessened by her choice of blogs to name-check, even if she couldn't tell the difference between a "handle" like Redhorse and a blog name like "Psychobilly Democrat." Oh well, there's some truth to the notion that it doesn't matter what they write, as long as they spell your name right... For Jill's sake, I hope that still holds true if they punctuate it wrong."

Before I had even had time to properly appreciate all of the nuances in that look, she had dismissed me, and Ohio Politics, and gotten back to more important matters.