On Blogging: Or, How This Site Got Its Moniker

Andrew Sullivan has a thoughtful essay on the blogging phenomenon in the latest issue of The Atlantic. Coincidentally, Sullivan and I share a similar inspiration and model for our respective sites, except, of course, the training part:

I had a few early inspirations: the old Notebook
section of The New Republic, a magazine that, under the editorial
guidance of Michael Kinsley, had introduced a more English style of crisp, short
commentary into what had been a more high-minded genre of American opinion
writing. The New Republic had also pioneered a Diarist feature on the
last page, which was designed to be a more personal, essayistic, first-person
form of journalism. Mixing the two genres, I did what I had been trained to
do--and improvised.

- John C.L. Morgan