Wit is easy, much easier than writing a real joke. But wit, even more than poetry, may be the bright-line dividing mere knowledge from true fluency in a language. To unpack the very dumb headline of this post, you have to know not just English, by far the richest human language, but the lyrics of Bob Dylan. And the richer your cultural context, the better your ability to apprehend slippery wit.
(He did it again, this time with Latin: Hendo literally means I hold in my hand, I grasp.)
(Incidentally, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 is about amphetamine, not marijuana, as all your stoner friends thought. Likewise Subterranean Homesick Blues (obvious, now, in the age of meth labs, yes?) and Visions of Johanna.)
But: All that is beside the point. Here’s something I think is marvelous: In response to yesterday’s post about the de facto confiscation of Steve Job’s house, BloodhoundBlog was linked by a weblog in Estonia:
Apple’i boss Steve Jobs tahab oma kinnistul asuvat 1929 Hispaania stiilis villat lammutada ja krundile midagi v&228;iksemat ehitada. Pilt siin.
Huvitav lugeda kuidas &252;ks kinnisvarablogija USA muinsuskaitseameti t&246;&246;sse suhtub. Swann BloodHoundBlogist arvab, et muinsuskaitseamet on &252;ks m&245;ttetu amet.
Of course, I have no idea what this says — although I love that double-o with the double-umlauts — but it doesn’t even matter. The post ends with, “Nojah aga pikas plaanis, mees,” and, whether that means “Damn straight!” or “What a buffoon!”, I think it’s beyond cool that this conversation is not only multi-national but multi-lingual.
In other blognews, The Real Estate Tomato brings us 10 ways to get all defensive and paint yourself into a corner. We are positively crawling with weblogging advice right now, not alone because of Project Bore-From-Within.
It’s completely plausible to me that much of this advice is utterly useless, but that doesn’t even matter. Learning to write a weblog is like learning to drive — a huge number of rules that seem best adapted to making you nervous and flustered, which in turn makes you make mistakes. Get over it. In due course you’re cruising at 23 over posted, fishing for french fries with one hand and tuning the radio with the other, chatting on the Bluetooth the whole while.
How’d that happen?
One rule: Usus est magister optimus. Practice is the best teacher. Whatever rules you do or don’t learn, at some point you have to get down to business. Writers write. Bloggers blog. If you want to get better, get busy.
But: I would not feel so all alone. Everybody must get Estonia!
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Kris Berg says:
May 1, 2007 — 9:53 am
Greg Swann says:
Kris said:
>
Those are always the hardest words for me.
May 1, 2007 — 9:55 am
Kelly Kilpatrick says:
Your likening of learning to blog being like learning to drive is brilliant.
May 1, 2007 — 9:59 am
Jim Cronin says:
Greg,
You’re not the only one snoring over Project Bordem. I’d be surprised if anyone was still keeping track in 2 months. Seriously.
Where I’m torn on the whole judged training business is that I have already taken the time to write so much of this training down already… and now my continued participation has some bearing as to whether I can coach Jackie to blog or not… hence the umpteenth article on ‘what to do or not do on your blog’. We’re over it, I know.
Feel free to ignore anything that comes out of the Tomato that has a number in the title… unless I am calling you #1.
May 1, 2007 — 11:40 am
Matthew Hardy says:
Utterly useless doesn’t matter? Someone wise wrote: “write to the readers benefit”. This rule seems to subsume all others.
May 1, 2007 — 11:56 am
Kris Berg says:
Where did my ever so witty comments go?! Oh, well. It was something about pilt siin, those wacky Estonians, and the food fight I inadvertantly caused. See? You didn’t miss much. 🙂
May 1, 2007 — 12:00 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Feel free to ignore anything that comes out of the Tomato that has a number in the title… unless I am calling you #1.
Here’s the undisputed truth: The weblogs you are producing are beautiful. Up to the owners to rate you on performance, but for look and feel, TomatoBlogs are beyond excellent. So there!
May 1, 2007 — 1:31 pm
sirjeke says:
“Nojah aga pikas plaanis, mees,” was a friendly question about whether you will regret tearing down that Spanish villa in the long run, say in 500 years.
Anyways, I think Steve has another option – to remove the house from his estate to another place?
May 1, 2007 — 1:46 pm
Greg Swann says:
> whether you will regret tearing down that Spanish villa in the long run, say in 500 years.
I promise I won’t! 😉
> Anyways, I think Steve has another option – to remove the house from his estate to another place?
Not another option, that’s his only option — except no one wants to take the dump.
Glad to have yo with us, in any case.
May 1, 2007 — 1:53 pm
shaun mclane says:
Lavdem virtvtis necessitati damvs (We give to necessity the praise of virtue finding the benefit in what’s needful)! Outstanding post. Very catcy title for those in the know. 🙂
May 2, 2007 — 4:09 am