A never-ending torrent of advice pours down on the web about how to build a popular website, and aspiring writers are not spared this flood of counsel.
Afflicting far too much of this advice is a truly obnoxious blogging personality disorder: positive-thinking conformism. I’m talking about that sunny-faced variety of aggressive social pressure, typified by hypocritically griping about everyone else’s griping while pretending to give out positive, “expert” advice — advice that has no basis in objective reality.
Worst of all, this unrealistic griping often subtly attacks others who at least try to base their gripes in objective reality, stigmatizing them as trouble-makers and “know-it-alls.”
In all seriousness, what this online happy-thoughts dogma really boils down to is a broadcast form of relational aggression, a type of bullying based on shaming and threats of ostracism. Scan the promotional advice websites, and you’ll quickly bump into the primary tactic of this covert control-freakery, a list of “negative” blogging styles that freshmen bloggers had better avoid if they want to sit at the Cool Kids table.
But, you might object, isn’t it true that being gripey inhibits success online and in writing? Absolutely not, and we’ll get to the abundantly obvious evidence for this later.
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Lemon-lime, delicious soda flavor. Lemming-lyme, debilitating disease in Arctic countries.
by Karl Beckson and Arthur Ganz.
With my son Jack in town last week, I hit the theater to see three action movies in a row. Not my usual pattern of film selection but, hey, you can’t take a tween dude to see art-house niche flicks jammed with casually transgressive sex, dry social commentary, and/or confusing cinematography.
In 
Last week, during my son Jack’s visit, we spent a lot of time in bookstores.
Some time ago, I dug into Patrick Kiger‘s list of literary one-hit wonders to see what they all had in common. What I found was that 
inside a beat-up suitcase in a publisher’s lobby. Not only was it read, it was published, recognized as genius, and later adapted for the big screen.
In 
pinnace, small and fast warship employed in the sixteenth century for scouting and dispatch duties.
by Robert McKenna
In