The Blogora’s Jim Aune writes of
joining the CCCC, and in
doing so, he refers to a blog "they’ve" started, aptly titled
CCCC. I saw Jim’s entry
yesterday and hurried across the a-href to see the blog to which he
referred.
It is, uh, something to see?
The 14+ subscription buttons are especially peculiar, considering that the
blog sports just two entries–one from September and one from October, perfectly
timed for the NCTE Convention, I suppose. And in November, it appears to
have given out–kaput. I don’t know what to make of it. It’s the sort of oddity
I’m tempted to stare at for a few minutes to see whether it breathes or blinks.
This is the CCCC blog?
Now I feel low for taking shots at it, for poking fun. Still, it’s
striking. Where did it come from? Why the blogspot ethos? The footer, too,
is surprising with its official-seeming protect-repel bureaucratic
contradiction–a copyright paradox as it both taketh and giveth away (Ours? Not
ours? Yes!):
1998-2006 National Council of Teachers of English. All rights reserved.
Opinions in this blog do not represent official policy of the National
Council of Teachers of English.
And the most recent entry, the one from October, goes on about membership.
Membership. I’m for membership, and I’m a member. But sad as I am to say
it, this is the blog of an organization on vacation. A real puzzler, this one.
"Opinions…do not represent…NCTE," but the blog itself, pains me to report, does.
Ya know, I did the same thing. Clicked on over and then said, huh? Weird.
The best part, though, is this blog entry of yours, which gave me a good chuckle. It’s funny. Because it’s true.
Averting my eyes…that is worse than the WPA Technology Plank “blog.”
Yeah, I had mixed feelings about posting this because it’s such a sitting target, and I didn’t want to seem mean-spirited in my fun-making. But it’s also professionally embarrassing to have such slapdash spaces purporting to represent anything as formidable as a national organization’s PR or as (potentially) consequential as policy statements.
My favorite part of the WPA TechPlank blog is the side menu: Link 1, Link 2, under the defaultest of the default section headings: “Links.” Heh. Gotta have “links.”
Also weird about this blog: it’s hosted at Blogger. Doesn’t NCTE own a domain? Why use Blogger?
Also at the WPA site: it’s now full of penis spam.
Wait. So the WPA isn’t promoting payday loans?