Got one under my belt

I must reveal that I am quite relieved to have published my first posting. When I decided to join this blog, I was both excited and terrified. My sweet husband said, "Write what you know." Such wise and simple words. And thus began my existential crisis.

Well, what do I know? And do I even know much about what I know? Suddenly, everything I know seems trite and petty. I know about growing up in the San Fernando Valley. Yawn. I know about being a child actress. I may as well join a blog on E! and start waiting tables.

And then my old journalism professors' voices spoke to me. "Always ask yourself, so what and who cares?" Uh, nothing and no one. Jesus Christ.

I should also reveal that this is not my first blog. Oh no. In 2005, I started a blog called The Critical Thinker. I entered one, yes one, entry. I turned on myself and started critically thinking about my critical thinking and it just wasn't meeting my expectations.

I recently checked the URL and it has been taken over by a college professor. Makes much more sense.

When I decided to join this blog, I came up with a few ideas that I quickly shot down. One was to get to the bottom of why razor blades and printer ink are so outrageously expensive. (I may get to that one day, but don't think it is worthy "first post" material.) I also thought of exploring why so many trees in the Fall smell like semen. But I think the title of that posting would scare people away. And then I remembered Eleanor Roosevelt's words that Maria Shriver quoted when she endorsed Obama: "Do one thing every day that scares you." Ooooh. That could be my ongoing theme. So today, maybe I won't use a paper towel to turn the doorknob when I exit the bathroom. Scary! In many ways.

You know when you write in your journal and you start editing yourself as though people are going to read it? That's what blogging is like, except people are going to read it.

What I am really asking is for myself to be kind to myself. That is when good writing emerges. Great. So THAT'S when good writing emerges. No pressure, Meg. Be f*%&ing kind to yourself.

(Oh, and thank you Sarah Palin for providing so much rich material and for making it a little bit easier to write my first posting.)

Sarah Palin is running FOR vice president

Call me a word-emphasis-snob but Sarah Palin's tendency to put the emphasis on prepositions infuriates me (among a bazillion other things she does and says). For example, watch her interview with Katie Couric. Mrs. Palin says, "My understanding is Rick Davis recused himself FOR the dealings in that firm." Nails on a chalkboard. Geez.

One of the most basic rules in Speech 101 is the speaker should always emphasize the words in the sentence that are significant. That word is almost never the preposition. So rather than saying, "It cost me seventy dollars TO fill my tank," one should say, "It cost me SEVENTY DOLLARS to fill my TANK." The word TO has no editorial significance.

Mrs. Palin does not do this by accident. By emphasizing the word that doesn't have significance, she distracts the listener from realizing that she is saying nothing.

I'll holler!

Hope you don't think the word 'girls' is problematic. I usually correct people when they refer to women as girls. But I meant 'girls' in the familiar "holla atcha girl. Get at me!" sense. If you still don't like the use, tell me in a comment or something. I won't be changing the site name, but I'd like your thoughts.

Now that that's out of the way ...

Welcome!

The point of this whole experiment is to see how many women journalists I can get to post to this site on a regular basis AND THEN how many women we can get to read and comment regularly. I'm reaching out to my five (or so) closest women colleagues and friends to start. (Hopefully) they will grace this site with their sharp minds, charming personalities, killer reporting skills and beautiful faces.

If they do, expect original reporting and opinion pieces on a range of topics.

We'll see where we end up, but I expect it to be fun.

In the meantime ...

In case you haven't heard, that Halloween Week / pre-election Sarah Palin effigy hanging from a noose in West Hollywood is stirring all sorts of trouble.

And the election is a week away! Joy. Shoot me an e-mail or comment here and tell me what's on your mind.

Holler!