In the San Francisco Chronicle, Alan Greenblatt calls attention to bloggers’ habitual “too busy to blog” excuses. He highlights offenders like James Wolcott, Alex Ross, Terry Teachout, Roger Simon, and me. (He’s right, of course. I just can’t shut up about my bad teeth.)
Greenblatt said “habitual excuse notes” bugged him:
until I realized that blogs perform much the same functions that personal letters used to, back in the days when the U.S. mail was associated with the agile pony rather than the pokey snail. After all, 98.7 percent of all personal letters ever written begin with the same apology. “I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write, but … ”
Even now, when no one writes letters, you still receive excuses through the mail — right around Groundhog Day, when a few of your friends send out their Christmas cards. They’re all apologetic for their late arrival, but once again, Christmas snuck up and caught them unprepared. (Dec. 25! Who knew?)
Your thoughts on bloggy excuses are welcome.