My love for Barack's love

Do you want to know why I love Barack Obama?
Yes, of course, he handily defeated Sarah Palin, who's the worst kind of woman since she thinks she has a right to speak for every single woman in the United States with her pro-life nuttery, but that's not why I love him.
I love him because he loves his wife.
Way, way more than I should, I hear boyfriends/partners/husbands make disparaging remarks about girlfriends/partners/wives. They tell intimate secrets that I would be mortified to know is out in the public domain and they make inappropriate comments to other women.
I don't ever want to hear again that it's OK for men to look as long as they don't touch. Yes, fine, look, but don't tell me you're looking.
What I rarely hear and see from men are public declarations of love and PDAs. Think about it: When's the last time you were out with a group of friends, and one of the couples just spontaneously kissed? Grabbed? Hugged? Gave the bum a little squeeze?
I think Obama's warm marriage makes him appealling to women. He looks like he wants to kiss Michelle, unlike the staged Al and Tipper Gore face smushings we had to deal with in 2000.
On Tuesday, a beaming Obama brought Michelle and his two daughters out on stage in Chicago to make his acceptance speech and within a minute or two, he was professing his love for all the world to see and hear: "... I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart, and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on the train home to Delaware, the vice president-elect of the United States, Joe Biden. And I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years the rock of our family, the love of my life, the nation's next first lady Michelle Obama."
Now, if Obama can get up in front of the world – the world – and declare that his wife is "the love of my life" can't you send your honey some flowers at work? Grab her as she's leaving the office for lunch and plant one on her? Send her a card in the mail, just because? Take out an ad on your local newspaper to say her short hair looks nice. Blog about her? And then, most importantly, boast about it to your buddies?
As Barack Obama would say: Yes, You Can!

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Crosbiemania in The Vancouver Sun

It has been years, years I tell you, since I connected with someone instantly.
The last gal I really fell for was a sweet little blonde thing, very pixie like, named Amy.

Amy and I instantly bonded.

I knew I liked her, and we'd be BFF, when she told me she'd just farted - just a day or two after meeting her.

Well, that was five years ago.

Today, she's a reporter, music reviewer and columnist at The Vancouver Sun.

She's a talent, I tell you. Someone give the girl a National Newspaper Award already, would ya?

Anyway. This week, on Tuesday, she wrote about blogging (and me) in her column, Match Point.

Here you go.


Headline: Humour, writing blogger's gift to all
Section: Arts & Life
Byline: Amy O'Brian


There was a time when bloggers baffled me. Not that I gave them much thought or felt compelled to either like or dislike them.

It was just that I didn't know any personally -- at least, none that I was aware of -- and I was a little confused by those who felt the need to post their venomous rants or details of their daily activities on a website for the world to see.

So it was with significant curiosity that I first ventured to my friend Sarah's blog. We'd been doing some sporadic

e-mailing while she was pregnant last summer, but after she had the baby and I asked for photos, she directed me to www.sarahcrosbie.com.

I was initially slightly offended because I wanted to think I was special enough to warrant a specially e-mailed photo.

But once I discovered her blog, I became hooked. I checked for updates almost everyday, feeling weirdly guilty, as if I was cyber-spying on her, even though she'd put all these rather intimate details of her life out there for the world to see.

I never bothered asking her why she did it. Before going on maternity leave, she had a weekly column in the Kingston Whig-Standard, where she wrote about the BF (boyfriend), wrote about her pregnancy, and shared light stories about love and life's annoyances with her readers.

But then, last week, I saw an article about a new book by University of Calgary Prof. Michael Keren, who argues that bloggers live in an isolated, lonely and mostly make-believe world filled with superficial relationships.

The not-so-positive assertion prompted me to finally insist on a live phone conversation with Sarah, rather than e-mails and blog updates. I was curious to see whether she agrees with the good professor.

"This is why I do it. This is the honest answer," she said in her ever-coy voice from her home in Kingston.

"Because there are people who can do great things in the world, like my mother, who's a genius teacher, or doctors who can save people. Other than being really good at being in love and baking a great banana bread, I don't have a lot of talent.

"But I think I'm sort of funny and I think I can write fairly well and so that's kind of my thing that I can do and give to people. Even though I get accused of being egotistical or full of myself or I just want to see my name in print, I actually think maybe there's a couple people who it makes them laugh, it makes them smile."

There are more than just a couple of people reading Sarah's blog. According to blog-tracking website Technorati, hers is about the 2. 6 millionth most popular of the approximately 55 million blogs out there. Pretty impressive.

But Sarah modestly says it doesn't matter how many people read her blog, as long as it brightens the day of one person.

One of her favourite e-mails was from a woman who wrote to thank her for making her transition to Kingston a little easier.

"She sent me an e-mail saying, 'This is going to sound quite silly, but I just wanted to thank you for your writing because you made me feel a little less lonely in Kingston because your life always seemed a little bit crazier a little bit more outrageous than mine.' "

She gets plenty of nasty comments too, but deletes most of them -- only posting the more moderate ones that she can respond to.

"I don't know if they hate me, but they dislike me strongly.

"Some of them are so ridiculously snotty and mean and depressing that I just delete them because I don't think it's doing anyone any good to put them out there. The misery on blogs just fuels more misery."

Luckily for Sarah, the interactions she has with her readers do not form the foundation of her social life. She writes when her boyfriend is at work and her baby is asleep, knowing that she has plenty of meaningful relationships outside of her blog.

But for those who don't -- for those who use a blog as a means to connect with others, why not? Why judge them when all any of us want is to be heard?

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Dooce It

So, there's this chick in the United States who has a website called Dooce.
Her blog is No. 14 out of millions listed on Technorati.
(We, the people of SarahCrosbie.com are 2.1 millionth. Sigh.)
Now, here's a glimpse of my super ego: Not too entirely sure why she's No. 14.
She talks about her life, Britney Spears and takes pics.
I talk about my life, Britney Spears and I look nice in pics.
One of these things is not like the other?

Anyway. She's a chick who's supporting her family with her site, so rock on, mama.

Ms. Dooce was recently invited to New York City to take part in CNN's discussion of Time Magazine's Person of the Year.

Ms. Dooce asked for comments from her readers about who they would have chosen. The responses range from Britney to Fed-Ex, to Donald Rumsfeld, to the Amish Community, to Michael J. Fox to Ellen DeGeneres.

I wanted to add my two cents (as I always do) except her site has stopped accepting comments at 299 posts, so I'm posting my own comment here.

SarahCrosbie.com would choose Diet Coke and Mentos as the Time Magazine Person of the Year.

The explosive combo has been the talk of science pages everywhere; YouTube has turned the science project into a web phenomenon. Search "Mentos" and "Diet Coke" and you get 3,583 hits. And that's just YouTube; There's a Diet Coke and Mentos performance art group; and, of course, the candy volcano has given more lipservice to the super company of Coca Cola, which is now bigger than Suri Cruise and Angelina Jolie and the country of Malawi combined.

So, that's my answer Ms. Dooce: I choose Ms. Mentos and Mr. Diet Coke.

I guess my choice is more a couple of the year than a person of the year:

Brad Pitt+ Angelina Jolie = Brangelina
Tom Cruise + Katie Holmes = TomKat
And, of course, the original: Ben Affleck + Jennifer Lopez = Bennifer

And Mentos + Diet Coke = Mentoke

I guess I chose them just for the taste of it.

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