The Darker Side of the Shade

I've been hesitant to recommend other blogs, fearing that if I sent you off to them you'd never return.

But the other day someone posted a "rant and rave" on Craig's List citing "The Scourge of Mandals," my grandfather's post outing me for wearing mandals. With hundreds of angry mandal wearers now descending on this blog, I can't hear myself think over the din and am willing to do anything to get them to leave.

So I've decided to start recommending blogs.

It makes sense for other reasons, too. Although I'd be reviewing blogs everyone already reads, if I don't get around to reviewing them soon I'll have a harder time taking credit for their success. And, to be honest, sometimes my creative juices dry up and I need to be able to post something automatic and easy like a blog review. (No, smart ass, that doesn't mean I'm doing nothing but recommending blogs from now on.)

After much tinkering, I think I've hit upon a methodology that will enable me to review other blogs in a manner that keeps them in their place while elevating me to mine.

I jumped the gun last week when I penned a paean to The Charlock's Shade on the occasion of its first anniversary. That tribute was far too saccharine to repeat here without serious risk of tooth decay. So consider that one recommended.

But I can't let it just rest there. I owe it to you, my non-mandal wearing readers, to note that occasionally Enoch Soames, Esq., the Shade's proprietor, disappears to points unknown, leaving his blog to gather dust as his last post stares at you for days, weeks and months, silently mocking you as you writhe and moan craving The Shade's unique form of sustenance. The last time Soames took leave of his blog, he left behind a movie trivia post devoted to Escape From New York. The fiftieth time I visited the Shade only to see that accursed post I was driven to draft the following pathetic plea for help:

Is the Shade but a shade, fading into the night?
A blog not yet written for readers not yet born?
I admit I'm afraid to venture to that site --
I'm starting to sicken of "Escape From New York."

When you consider that The Shade is directly responsible for what you just read, you may want to reconsider your plans to visit that site. If you nevertheless insist on clicking over there, despite my warnings, I will at least have the comfort of saying "I told you so" the next time Soames gets lost in the reading room and leaves you high and dry.