No Hitter

Recently, I was informed that this blog, or whatever the hell it is, is up for a Koufax Award in the category of Most Deserving of Wider Recognition. 'Course, when I got to the polling place, I found that Red State Son is listed as Red Grange Run which, as you regs know, was me fucking around with the title out of boredom. Not that either title really matters, for as I scrolled down beneath the list of nominees, I discovered that I've received zero votes. Not a single bite. A complete shut-out. Even Dennis Kucinich is laughing at me.

Frankly, I dunno who nominated RSS in the first place. I'm not the award-grubbing type, and I don't see the point to these things. It's nice to be appreciated and all, but honestly, must we ape the larger culture to such a literal degree? It's been said that bloggers, primarily the political ones, are the new pamphleteers. If so, then giving each other awards undermines what real cultural effect we might have, to the extent that we have any (though I believe Thomas Paine won for Best Incendiary Prose, 1777, and he still made a dent). It's little more than blog branding, which is fine, I suppose, given the present corporate environment. Maybe it delivers overlooked thoughts to newer audiences. Who knows. But the idea that the stuff I write should be up for an award seems extremely absurd to me. And judging from the lack of turn-out on my behalf, many of you out there thankfully agree.