The Laugh Out Loud Blog Award

Thank you, Brownie, for the Laugh Out Loud Blog Award that you created and gave to me yesterday.

I appreciate your time, your effort, and your thoughtfulness. I am pleased that you enjoy my blog so much that you created this award. In the future, I am interested in upgrading to cash awards, so I will shortly publish a link to my PayPal account. Feel free to pass the hat.

After reading Brownie’s post, I see the need to clarify my position on blog awards. I had commented to Kathleen that when I gave her an award I was just “playing nice.” In writing that, I violated a writing precept that I often told me students: Write What You Mean, and Mean What You Write. So, here is my official position on blog awards:

I like them.

The thing about blog awards that bugged me IN THE PAST was the fact that everyone had the same award. One person received the award and passed it along to all of their friends, who passed it along to all of their friends, and like a Faberge shampoo commercial on steroids, absolutely everybody who blogged about anything, from political bloggers to the guy who shared pictures of his toenail clippings collection (click that link at your own risk), had the award. If everyone had same award, it wasn’t very special.

That and all the rules. Write sixteen things about yourself that you wouldn’t tell your therapist and DON’T repeat anything that you wrote after the last seven blog awards that you’ve received. Paint your naked body with symbols from the runic alphabet and run naked through your town square shouting “Beware the Jabberwock, my son!” Once you’ve posted bail, blog about your experience in jail next to the five hundred pound lifer named “Sugar Britches” who translated The Elder Futhark and told you that the prophetic writings on your buttocks meant that the two of you were to be wed in a prison ceremony at midnight. Post a link to your mug shot on Photobucket.

I don’t feel that way anymore. Over the years, I’ve had a change of heart. I’m enlightened. At least as enlightened as the man who wrote the previous paragraph can be. Now I understand that most blog “awards” are not true “awards” as much as a means of recognition. Awards are a vehicle for telling other bloggers that they are appreciated and enjoyed. They also provide fodder for those days when writer’s block stops blogging in its tracks. I learned to look past the fact that awards such as the “Stylish Blogger” award don’t have anything remotely related to the blog in question, and they don't have to. In fact, everyone who received the “Stylish Blogger” award from me had the same reaction that I did. “Who, me? Stylish? You’re daft!” Maybe that should be a new award, with the text superimposed over a picture of Alfred E. Newman. I could have given the “Best Use of a Gerund” award and accomplished the same task. I let other bloggers know that I enjoy their blogs.

It’s nice to be noticed.

I now have two unique awards. The Boss gave me the “You Crack Me Up!” award. I won’t be sharing that with anyone. The next time I read someone who consistently makes me laugh out loud, whose blog makes it hazardous to drink while reading, I will pass along Brownie’s Laugh Out Loud Blog Award, and help her fulfill her dream of having something she made be enshrined in the blogosphere.  If anyone has any suggestions for the next recipient, send them my way.  Maybe we can turn this into a contest.

Brownie, Thank you.