Yay! I'm It!

I'm not sure how I feel about the Huffington blog project. My first thought was, "Great, another megaphone for famous people. Just what we all need." But that's not very charitable. Maybe they'll have something to say that's still valuable/interesting after it runs through their career-protection machines. It's worth a shot. I think the best we can hope for is a kind of interactive salon. I'll bet you right now that the comment option doesn't last a month.

One good thing has come from the announcement though: Dylan of Something Requisitely Witty and Urbane has come up with a new game of blog tag inspired by the idea. Even better, he tagged me to play. Here's the gist:

So, Arianna Huffington is starting a blog to which she has invited many big name celebrities, writers, politicians, and pundits to join in.

Among those signed up to contribute are Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

Not bad. It got me thinking, and thinking led to blogging, and blogging led me to start this meme. Who would be your top 5 people, living or dead, that you'd want to see blog?

Dylan's picks are at the link. I'm in grave danger of overthinking this because you're allowed to pick dead people, which really opens up the field and activates the God Complex I harbor. And there's no rule that the people have to be famous. But Huffington is going with famous people so I will too, which leaves out someone like my great-grandmother on my mom's side or my grandmother on my father's side, about whom I'd like to know more.

Eleanor Roosevelt: This is a no-brainer for me. I'd like her to be leading the Dems right now, but failing that, I'd like to read what she thinks about the dismantling of the social saftey net she helped create. I want to know her suggestions on how to fight the power now.

Edward R. Murrow: He'd take a look at politics and the state of reporting today and wouldn't stop typing for six months. He told McCarthy that dissention is not disloyalty. What else do you need?

Douglas Adams: I'm re-reading the Hitchhiker series in anticipation of the movie this week and I miss him. He'd write a brilliant blog.

Martin Luther King, Jr.: I want to read how he'd reconcile all the civil rights issues going on right now with his faith. The joke would be on me if he couldn't. I almost picked Jesus because a blog by him would be like the Marshall McLuhan scene in Annie Hall, but I don't read Aramaic.

Will Rogers: If Will Rogers were around, we'd have the genuine article and BushCo's carefully crafted good natured political savvy would be exposed as the Elmer-Gantry sham that it is. Molly Ivins is an able successor to Rogers' throne, but she can't throw a rope.

UPDATE: In my excitement I forgot to tag three people. I'll pick Kathy at Citizen's Rent, Mick at Arran's Alley and Riggsveda at It's My Country Too.

UPDATE: Don't wait to be tagged if you want to play.  Leave your list in the comments or trackback here if you put one up at your blog.

Comments

[Dylan]

Everyone's coming up with good stuff... Martin Luther King would certainly be a good, currently topical blog. And Mrs. Roosevelt... Crap... I should have thought of that one...

Thanks for playing along!

[Dylan]

Personally, despite the fact that it will be Huffington's PR arm, I really think that this celeb blog has potential, not because it is "celebrities... REVEALING IT ALL" but because the quality of the people that have signed on so far is pretty decent. I can't wait to see what David Mamet has to say (although I may not understand it unless Adam Sorkin or William H. Macy reads it out loud to me).

[eRobin]

Or Joe Mantegna - or Ricky Jay! I love them. I just watched the Deadwood first season ep that Jay wrote and I can't stop thinking about it.

[amy curtis]

Robin Williams:blogging was invented for him.Quicker and funnier and more immediate than almost anyone else out there