By: Chuck Miller
What's Up in the Neighborhood

7 and 7 on Saturday: June 3, 2017

Background.

For many years, while I blogged for the Albany Times Union, I set aside one day a week from my blog to focus on sharing the posts and ideas of my fellow community and independent bloggers at the TU portal.  I did this because the Times Union spent an inordinate amount of energy promoting their staff bloggers – Kristi Gustafson Barlette, Steve Barnes’ “Table Hopping,” Shannon Fromma’s “The Shopportunist” – and completely ignoring the great talent that existed right under their noses from the community blogging team.

Trust me, even today the Times Union’s main web splash page has a section devoted to Kristi’s blog banalities, Steve Barnes’ Table Hopping “What’s closed and what’s open” recap, and maybe a section that encompasses everything else.  This is why it always amazes me that the TU feigns surprise when Kristi and Steve finish 1-2 in their annual “Best of the Capital Region” votes for best blogger … hmm…

I’ve always thought that the TU offered that “special treatment” for the staff bloggers at the detriment of promoting their hard-working community blogging team, and so during that time I compiled a “Ten for Thursday” recap of ten (or more) of the TU’s best community and independent bloggers.  I felt that my fellow bloggers’ best works deserved to be read by my readers, in an effort to introduce those who normally read my blog to read these other blogs.

Now that I have this new independent portal, I’ve enjoyed lots of freedom away from the shackles and restrictions of Big Hearst.  But in doing so, I felt that my interaction with my fellow bloggers and writers was drifting away.

That’s not my goal and that wasn’t my plan.

So I’m going to try this out today.  Instead of a “Ten for Thursday” blog recap, I’m going to do a “7 and 7” blog recap on Saturday.  Seven blog posts by community Times Union bloggers, and seven posts by non-Times Union bloggers who also deserve your attention.

Oh yeah, and if you think I’m adding any TU staff bloggers to this list … they can screw off.  Let Big Hearst promote them like they always do.   It’s what they want, it’s how they operate.

So let’s start this recap, shall we?

We’ll start first with the TU’s community and independent blog posts, which include:

  1. Heather Fazio’s blog, “Opinion: Come on Trump-lovers.  It was just a figure of speech!” (Read this first.)
  2. Rob Hoffman in the “Hoffman Files,” “A handshake that ‘Trump’s the rest.“
  3. Rabbi Matt Cutler’s blog, “Open letter to my president.“
  4. Jaye McBride’s blog, “Not-so-motivational posters.“
  5. David Kalish’s blog, “Nearly 400,000 views later, reflections on a viral post.“
  6. Jess Winans’ blog, “When I told my parents I wanted to be a journalist, I didn’t know being body slammed was a possibility.“
  7. Susanne Marie Poulette’s blog, “Sturgie, expert on friendship.“

And now for the other part of the “7 and 7,” seven blog posts by bloggers that I follow and that you should follow as well.  You can see their links on the blogroll at right, over in that section that says “FRIENDS OF MINE WHOSE BLOGS YOU SHOULD READ.”  Yeah, that section.  This week’s crop of goodies includes:

  1. Daniel Berman’s “FUSSYlittleBLOG” blog, “In Memory of a Local Chef.” (Read this first.)
  2. Rob Madeo’s “Keyboard Krumbs” blog, “The Bear of Voorheesville.“
  3. Stephanie Snyder’s “Draft No. 3” blog, “Hard as a mother.“
  4. Roger Green’s “Rambling with Roger” blog, “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good.“
  5. Silvia Lilly’s “DelSo” blog, “PS L+L V2.“
  6. Aaron Bush’s “Aaron Knits” blog, “Ten Years of the Men’s Spring Knitting Retreat.“
  7. Beverly Seinberg’s “Elsie and Me” blog, “Nature’s tree lighting ceremony.“

So what do you think?  Does a Saturday morning blogroll make for your weekend reading enjoyment?  And if you do enjoy these posts, by all means let the writers of these blogs know that you do enjoy them.  I’m sure they would appreciate the comments.

Meanwhile, have a great weekend, everybody!