Tagged

I have been tagged twice this week: once by Kate at The Clay Friar, who directs that I list five things about myself that I have not blogged about and tag five others; and second by Civil Truth at And Rightly So, whose tag of a thinking person’s award directs that I tag five other bloggers who make me think.

Anyone visiting because of these tags, I recommend you just hit an archive month at random on my sidebar.

The practical applications of this are annoying. I was going to tag Raven with Kate’s tag, but Civil Truth is from the same site. Tagging is rather like an intellectual chain letter, which some people clearly like and others don’t. As there is no commitment beyond tagging, it should take the sting out of it for those who don’t like these things. (It is amusing to imagine receiving a chain letter which tells you to send a new idea to the top person on the list, and you will receive thousands of new ideas yourself in the coming weeks, but I suspect that would work out like most other Ponzi schemes.)

I sense there are unwritten rules of what other bloggers you can tag. It seems not right to tag too far above your station in terms of traffic and notoriety. Otherwise, everyone would tag Instapundit. Neo at neo-neocon certainly makes me think, but it would seem a bit presumptuous of me to tag her. Perhaps I will anyway.

The “makes me think” part presents difficulties as well. My son Ben at 10-4goodbuddy makes me think, but his blog generally doesn’t; he does movie reviews and humorous commentary by design. D2 over at Neco Draconis gives me plenty to think about live and in person, but his blog just started, and to give him a thinking person’s award would be more predictive than earned.

I’m overthinking this, aren’t I? It’s not a seating plan at a wedding.

Tag five, with directions that they write five unblogged things about themselves. I tag the New Hampshire bloggers: Giacomo at Joust the Facts, D2 at Neco Draconis, Raven at And Rightly So, taggies back, sort of - Kate already tagged Bethany at Fair Trade Certified (and she's inside 128 now anyway), photographer and reflecter Bill Gnade at Contratimes, and Jerub-baal even though he’s inside 495 now. They could each have qualified as thinkers as well. Ex New Hampshirewoman Wacky Hermit at Organic Baby Farm is disqualifed – Utah is just too far away.

The five Thinker's Award tags: Greenman Tim over at Whorled Leaves, who I found through Tigerhawk, Maggies's Farm, OneCosmos, Albion's Seedlings, and Shrinkwrapped. I tried to mix it up, and not just send you to folks in an echo chamber.