Some look at the weblogs here at Salon and find quality; but they are generous people.

Me? I'm not.

The Salon Blog Tour of Anxiety

Not "anxiety" in the sense Howard Bloom meant in his most famous work of criticism (though back in what now seems like this community's Mesozoic, Morgan Sandquist did riff on whether a weblog can be achieved anxiety over another weblog), but in the more literal sense: "A state of uneasiness and apprehension..."

All right, so some prefer to call a shovel a spade and, like Daniel Dolinov, talk instead about a state of reflection, but make no mistake: it is all about the anxiety of weblogs.

...I may be delusional, but I don't think that anything can obviate the need for a culture's bard or troubadour — that person who gains insight into a people or a tradition and manages to capture it in a very accessible, sometimes even primitive fashion. The utility of the bard's work is in the fact that he says what the "common" man cannot say by himself. So while we are saying a great deal and revealing a great deal in our blogs, I truly wonder at what we are not managing to express...

However we do have a rising bard among us, an inky quilled bird of learned prose and golden diction who may already be the source of many a weblogger's anxiety, if his own is any indication.

I once had the temerity to suggest that, all things considered, making an effort to avoid typograpical errors was probably a good idea. This outlandish opinion netted me the unenviable reputation of being some kind of linguistic fascist...

To which I have to say that being part of the language gestapo should be no cause of anxiety, simply of despair. But I digress. Consider instead Seamonkey, whose anxiety arises from the loneliness of the new weblogger.

Is it me? I guess I'm supposed to distribute my blog address like girl scout cookies, otherwise no one comes to my party? ...I'd bet I don't have 3 hits a day on this old thing. What's the point? So I got my privacy and I'm writing... to myself... which actually isn't very interesting after all and is the same reason my journals always die early.

Hang in there, little pet shrimp, for that solitude can be dealt with; it's what comes after it that'll really give you the jitters. Just ask Dave Pollard.

A comment I have received several times is that my writing is too "dense". That is, my posts are too long-winded and rambling, and my sentences are too long and convoluted. This is fair criticism. Complexity is often the enemy of brevity and conciseness. But excess verbiage and unfathomable prose can also indicate fuzzy thinking or laziness. In business, you learn that improvements can only occur if you recognize and articulate the problem, and then design, assess and follow actions to address it.

But truly, all this "anxiety" is nothing but the bargain basement variety for all its highfalutin concerns. For the real deal, drop by Michelle McBride's address.

I've gotten two comments from some person regarding gutting a fish and skinning a squirrel. Anyone have any idea what is going on with these? The person's link goes no where and I hate to email the person, who knows what would happen!!!

I wouldn't be concerned, you sexy mamma, you. This oddball may be down to nothing more than giving Steve Raker, Salon Blogs' commenter extraordinaire, a run for his money, though on a more verbose way.

See you around the... Better not.