Best of Our TU Community Blogs for June 20, 2013: Ten for Thursday

Sometimes I think that a little blog like mine won’t make a difference in this big wide world.  When the Times Union redesigned its print edition and eliminated the “Best of Our Blogs” featurette, it bothered me.  And it bothered many of my fellow TU community bloggers, who provide fresh, interesting, entertaining content on this blog portal.  It was almost as if what we did, what we wrote, what we provided to this publication… it was almost as if we didn’t matter.

So, about a month ago, I compiled a list of ten blog posts by the Times Union’s community bloggers.  And I posted it on my blog.  It got some favorable response.

I did it again.  And again.  And again.  I figured I’d write these posts every Thursday for the next twenty years, it’s not like the Times Union listens to me.  All I am is just a lowly little blogger with a keyboard and an internet connection.  Just Don Quixote charging at windmills.

And then…

As of yesterday…

Look what’s back.

In the print edition.

It’s BACK, people!  My post on “Facebook stalking” was picked up in the print edition as part of the new updated blog feature!

Yes, my little Thursday promotion actually spurred the Times Union to restore the “Best of Our Blogs” feature to the print edition!!  Okay, it’s now called “Observation Deck,” but hey our community and volunteer bloggers are now back in the print edition!  Yeah baby!!  Give out a scream like Howard Dean, bay bee!!!

So… I don’t need to keep doing this little ‘Ten for Thursday” bit any more.  Right?

I can spend my Thursdays writing about K-Chuck Radio and Collarworld and all the albums I want to be buried with and the movies I want to see on the Royale With Cheese Movie Club…

Yeah, I could do that…

And then I realize… I’m not doing this “Ten for Thursday” project just to get my blog back in the TU print edition.  I want the TU print edition to keep showcasing the talent of the community bloggers.  ALL the community bloggers.  This ain’t about me.  It’s about us.

And then I realize, there’s now people who visit my blog, just for the opportunity to find out what other well-written community efforts are worth enjoying and appreciating.

So guess what… Although my blog efforts have successfully restored a version of the “Best of Our Blogs” featurette to the Times Union print edition…

You’re still going to get ten of the best blog features from our community bloggers, right here, every Thursday, in this blog.

Including THIS Thursday.

So this week’s list of ten really well-written, enjoyable and informative blogs from my fellow community scribes include:

• Azra Haqqie’s “Muslim Women” blog, “Are you a Muslim or are you an Italian?“
• Stephanie Snyder’s “A Professor’s Wife” blog, “Good glucose, good waiter, good times.“
• Dan Lyons’ Classic Cars blog, “Rear View Mirror: 1940 Ford DeLuxe Station Wagon” (oh man, that’s a swank looking car…)
• Libby Post, “Menands Extends Domestic Partner Benefits.”
• Teri Conroy’s “Farmlife” blog, “PLY Magazine and My Yarn!“
• Megan Willis, “The Davenport Chronicles,” “1973 Me. Freckles, Fangs, Funktastic.“
• Prof. Rosemary Armao, “Losing the Guy in the Bow Tie.“
• Akum Norder’s “A History of Here,” “Pine Hills 1909: Leave Room for Pudding.“
• Richard Guthrie’s “Birding” blog, “Spring into Summer.”  (Welcome back, Richard!)
• Jen Smith’s “Austin Ben Connor” blog, “Winding Down.“

And when I think about whether there’s a chance to make a difference in this world… to effect change… to affect previously provincial thoughts…

Take it away, Richard Kiley! Sing me out!!