First, let me say thank you. Thank you for reading my blog. I enjoy writing it and I hope you enjoy reading my random reflections here on Cold Coffee Writer. Feel free to share my posts with friends (or even enemies).
I recently read that there are almost 600 billion blogs in the world today. Yes, 600 BILLION! In the United States alone, over 31 million bloggers post at least once a month on their blog and over 77% of people who use the internet regularly read blogs.
You know how the pilot on an airplane says near the end of your flight, right before they try to convince you to sign up for another MasterCard, “We know you had a choice, so thank you for choosing to fly with us today.” So, I say (and I am not even going to try to get you to sign up for a credit card), out of the 600 billion choices you had today, thanks for taking a few moments to read MY blog.
I want to share a few of my own favorite blogs and perhaps you might share with me other blogs that you read on a regular basis. I am providing a link to the blog and also, in some instances, a link to one of my favorite recent posts on the blog. Just trying to make it easy for you to explore—think of it as a blog-tasting menu.
Letters from an American Heather Cox Richardson
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com
Back in September 2019, this brilliant historian began writing a daily (yes, daily!!) synopsis of political events. It is usually one of the first things I read each day. Even before I read the NY Times or the Washington Post, Heather gets my attention. She also does two video lectures each week on her Facebook site; the Tuesday session is at 4 pm and and focuses on current politics and the Thursday session is at 1 pm and explores a specific political history topic. (Heather has tens of thousands of subscribers to her blog; to put that in perspective, I have 70!)
Men Yell at Me Lyz Lenz
https://lyz.substack.com
My daughter turned me on to this blog and Lyz Lenz is honest, bold, funny and sometimes offensive (but in a good way). If you only read one of her posts, read her recent “What Has the School Year Cost America’s Children?” I wish every member of Congress would read her blog so maybe they would have a clue about what it is like to live in the real world.
https://lyz.substack.com/p/what-has-this-school-year-cost-americas
Agents of Reason Bill Clontz
https://agentsofreason.com
This comes out twice a week and I never miss reading Bill’s posts. Always intelligent, well-written and interesting, he states his mission as “a sane space to examine political issues;” he also takes an occasional look at popular culture, science and technology. His recent post about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of the best I have ever read.
https://agentsofreason.com/this-blog-began-because-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict/
Fire Escape Bonzai Max Falkowitz
https://fireescapebonsai.substack.com
I discovered this blog during the pandemic and even though I have a most decidedly brown thumb, I do love bonsai as a spectator sport. I love how he spent the pandemic learning to create bonsai out on his tiny fire escape. How could you not love a blog that’s most recent post was titled “A tree can break your heart”
Hope and Stone Bill Jamieson
https://hopeandstone.org
Bill is very clear that he believes a major transformation needs to happen in our culture if we have any hope of overcoming the major obstacles, such as racism, gun violence, misogyny and economic inequality.
His recent post “Life, God and Guns” is one that I will keep in a folder for a long time.https://hopeandstone.org/688-2/
The Bulwark Charlie Sykes, Founder and Editor
https://thebulwark.com
Their self description is this: providing political analysis and reporting free from the constraints of partisan loyalties or tribal prejudices.The Bulwark is a news network, a source of podcasts and a daily newsletter with a lot of interesting articles. You can do the free subscription (it’s what I do) but it won’t give you full access to all they publish; what you do get is always insightful, sometimes challenging and quite enough reading volume for most. They have multiple writers but I especially enjoy Tim Miller’s posts.
So there you go: six blogs to explore and if you count mine you will now be up to seven. Only 599,999,993 more to go!
So many blogs wow. Who knew. Glad people take the time to write down their thoughts and share them and we live in a world and an age where this is relatively easy to do. Thanks.