Saturday, May 26, 2007

A Thinking Blogger Award

I've had a "Thinking Blogger" Award bestowed upon me by one of my favorite bloggers, Samurai Frog! And what's even better, I get to pick five Thinking Bloggers.

The other day, I was looking back at my first blog post and discovered that the first blogger who posted on Here Comes Johnny Yen Again when I first started it last August was Dale. I realize now how lucky I was; Dale sets the blogging bar high. Whether he's telling a story of a horrifying, unwanted Christmas gift, a trip to the opera or about a friend's mother discovering that the previous owner of her newly-purchased condo bought the farm, he's always eloquent, elegant and just damned funny. Dale is a blogger I always look forward to. He also happens to be a very nice guy.

What he doesn't know is that me and all the other bloggers who love "Passion of the Dale" are going to stage a "Wii intervention," as we've noticed the drop-off in his posting since he got his Wii.


Kudos for previous Johnny Yen Thinking Blogger awardee Bubs for bringing his relative Splotchy to us. If Splotchy had only done his brilliant Kafka meets Beatrix Potter spoof The Velveteen Cockroach, he'd already be one of my favorite bloggers. His cicada reports, his Lost spoilers, including a reference to one of the great comedy albums of all time, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," and his homage to Buddy Holly have all served to move him quickly into the "bloggers that Johnny Yen checks first every day" category. Splotchy's one of my Thinking Bloggers.

Another Yen Thinking Blogger Award goes to Kathy. Her ruminations on Rick Bayless, chocolate controversies, the deaths of Chicago Public School students and other subjects always give me food for thought.


Number 4 goes to Dead Spot On The Web. Okay, yes, he's one of my oldest and closest friends, and I risk violating the "friends and families ineligble" codicile in the Awards, but damn, I'm glad he started blogging, and I think a lot of others of you are too. My original rationale for pursuading him to blog-- that he's one of the smartest and funniest people I know, still stands. As Flannery says, he hasn't bored us yet.

And my fifth Thinking Blogger award goes right back to Samurai Frog himself. He's got a number of regular features I really enjoy: The Bible Summarized By a Smartass; his weekly "Throwdown," where he posts 15 observations; the Friday Five. He also has great observations on pop culture and some of the best historical and political posts I've read on the web.

Thanks for all the great reading, all!

9 comments:

Mob said...

I think the Wii may have been constructed by Satan, it's quite the timesink.

But then again so is the interweb, I suppose.

Congrats on the award sir, it's well deserved!

SamuraiFrog said...

Hey, thanks! It's nice to know we're both on each other's lists. You are most definitely one of the blogs I check every day.

SkylersDad said...

Congrats on the award, and Bob Newhart is a friggin genius!

Kathy said...

Thanks, Loyal Reader. . . .

And thanks for your blog & POV, too.

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Congratulations on the well-deserved recognition.

And I do think a Wii intervention with Dale is a good plan, if only so that we can check out his weird neighbours and fellow commuters.

Dale said...

Just in from a Wii break Johnny Yen. You're too nice. Thank God I didn't post second or I might have missed the honour!

As everyone knows, you're an excellent writer and spot for a bit of thinking on a lot of different topics.

Care for a game of Wii golf? I'm getting rather good (as long as I leave it on easy).

Johnny Yen said...

Mob-
Have you ever seen the "Top 100 Things I'll Do When I'm an Evil Overlord" list? It's pretty funny-- basically, it addresses the blatant stupidity of evil overlords in various sci-fi, etc. movies. Things like "I won't tell the hero 'Since I'm going to kill you anyway, I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do, which will allow you to escape and foil my plans..." and "All guards will wear clear plastic faceguards, which will not hide the identity of the hero in a guard's uniform..."

In any event, it's been added to over time, and one of the additions is that the Evil Overlord will provide free broadband to all so that they will be tied up surfing the net and too busy to plot my overthrow. Maybe a free Wii would also be an answer.

Hmmm... maybe there's an idea to get out of Iraq....

Samurai-
Hey, thanks to you for all the reading I've enjoyed.

Skyler's Dad-
Isn't he?

I had the shuffle on the other day, and the bit about Krushchev coming to the states came up. It was brilliant.

Kathy-
You've quite welcome!

Barbara-
He does seem to draw the weirdoes, doesn't he? I can see why he's sequestered himself with his Wii.

Dale-
Oh, you still would have won, even if you'd posted second, perhaps even third ; )

I knew the Wii was addictive when the eighty+ year old father of my wife's best friend got hooked.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step, Dale...

Splotchy said...

Thanks so much for the award, JY! Hopefully, it should be obvious to you that I am quite fond of your bloggery as well, and all that damned thinking of yours.

May this award will be an inspiration for me to continue thinking!

deadspot said...

Dammit, Johnny, now you've gone and spoiled my Thoughtless Blogger parody.

ummm.... I mean, thanks.