Five Blogs that I Like by Jane

Nethermead: Prospect Park, Brooklyn



I read the 5 blogs assignment with horror; I don’t follow blogs. Why -- because I simply can’t. When I read online for more than a few minutes, I begin to flit about, scan anxiously, and jump to other things. Without realizing what is happening, I suddenly have several tabs open, my heart rate increases four fold and my stomach registers nausea. House keeping chores avoided for days, even months, get done: bathrooms cleaned, floors mopped, garden watered and drawers straightened. I always print out journal articles so I can read with concentration and depth, and make notes in the margins. Blogs have to be read on the screen.

However, having admitted my biological limitations, this assignment has changed my attitude towards blogging and bloggers. After five days of an intense anxiety provoking search of the internet and quizzing of friends and younger family members, I offer these five blogs that I like:

1. http://www.ayearinthepark.typepad.com/ The author’s name, Brenda Becker, does not appear on the blog, rather she names herself simply as “a writer, artist and mother in Flatbush, Brooklyn.” Subtitled “daily discoveries in the green heart of Brooklyn” it is a chronicle in words and pictures of Ms. Becker’s daily walks through Prospect Park. Each post carries at least one gorgeous picture of the flora and fauna that she encounters on her walk and few words. I find this blog well designed and visually pleasing, easy on the eye and calming to the heart. Thus, I have added it to my list of favorites. That it is about my favorite park and site of many rambling walks of my own is a major plus. Above is a picture from one of her May postings of the Nethermead, a meadow in Prospect Park.
2. http://brooklynheightsblog.com/ subtitled “Dispatches from America’s first suburb” keeps me posted on the daily news, events, complaints and happenings in my neighborhood, Brooklyn Heights. The creator and frequent poster is John Loscalzo a.k.a. Homer Fink. A post on July 4th entitled “Heatwave Claims Two Fish on Joralemon Street” brought our attention to the lovely fishpond on the corner of Joralemon and Henry. Evidently the owner was away and the water filtration system had been turned off. With the temperature climbing into the 90’s, the water was heating up. The fish were in trouble, two dead, perhaps three so alarms were sounded and an alert to all readers to try and contact the owner. This is the main reason I love my neighborhood; it is so like a small town. If you seek to know the fate of the fish, sign on and question the Fink. The pond which is really very lovely and a quiet pause on many a hot walk home from the subway. It is also one of my grandson’s favorite stops when he visits. I like this blog because it is about my home, my neighbors and my community.
3. http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/ A friend, and Episcopal priest, led me to Nicholas Kristof’s blog, “On the Ground.” Kristof writes a twice weekly Op-Ed column for the New York Times and, according to his bio on the main page, was the first blogger on the Times website. On this blog, Kristof expands on his Op-Ed columns and sometimes responds to comments, questions and criticisms. I like Kristof’s pieces because they are well written, erudite and speak to current political issues in a manner that stretches me intellectually and leads me to step out of my comfort zone and walk in someone else’s shoes.
4. http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/ Already a reader of Lisa Belkin’s column in the NY Times, I just discovered her blog, Motherlode which is about “Adventures in Parenting.” A post for July 2 speaks to the issue of how to teach children to apologize and is a spin off of her piece in the NY Times Sunday magazine, “Unforgivable: Why is it so hard to say you’re sorry—and sound as if you mean it?” Belkin’s pieces, both on her blog and in her column, are well written and insightful. Although her focus is on parenting and how we raise our children she also touches on the issues that impact on our personal and professional interactions as we go about our daily lives. Today I posted a comment for the first time on her blog. I said, “I believe the best way to teach compassion and accountability for one’s actions, is to model it. When we wrong someone, especially one of our children, we should own it, apologize and strive to do better.” Advice of course that is easier to say than follow. As I said, I have enjoyed reading her pieces; now I am pleased to be able to join the conversation. This must be what blogging is about!
5. http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ A neighbor and fellow parishioner, Claude Scales, told me at coffee hour after church one Sunday that he writes several blogs. Suitably impressed, I however secretly wondered if blogging is the current past time for the nothing-better-to-do crowd and thought the blog aptly named. For this assignment I finally read some posts on his blog. Although his writing can be challenging to my attention span, as one of his readers evidently wrote fondly, I find it thought provoking and often humorous. In Scales’ most recent post, “Jefferson ‘Freudian slip’ in draft of Declaration of Independence?” he reports a recent discovery (article by Lauren Frayer on the July 3 AOL News) that apparently Jefferson wiped out one word before the ink had dried and substituted another while drafting the Declaration of Independence. The change was from “subjects” to “citizens.” Not really a Freudian slip as Scales pointed out but a mindful correction.

All in all I feel this assignment has been a learning experience and I have gained some modicum of knowledge of and control over another form of digital literacy.